Letter to end Impunity for Serious Human Rights Abuses in Sudan.

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC   20500

RE:  End Impunity for Serious Human Rights Abuses in Sudan

Dear President Biden,

We, the undersigned 108 human rights organizations, scholars and leading activists, urge you to impose targeted sanctions on Sudanese Generals Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, for their connection to serious human rights abuses associated with and as a result of the coup they staged in Sudan on October 25, 2021.  The serious human rights abuses connected to Burhan and Hemedti are in violation of the International Bill of Human Rights and the Rights and Freedoms Charter included in Sudan’s 2019 Constitutional Declaration.

Burhan and Hemedti are connected to a long list of serious human rights abuses:

• The coup and subsequent state of emergency violate the right and will of the Sudanese people to form a civilian government with no military partnership, negotiations and legitimacy.
• The people’s right to peaceful assembly has been repeatedly violated by forces controlled by Burhan and Hemedti that have targeted and killed over 90 and injured more than 3,000 peaceful protestors.
• Since the coup, Burhan and Hemedti have ordered the violent and arbitrary arrest, and in some cases, rape and torture of political opponents and peaceful protestors in order to intimidate and eliminate opposition to their illegal seizure of the state.
• Islamic extremists, welcomed back after the coup, have begun to harass, attack and detain religious minorities.
• The Sudanese people’s right to basic services has evaporated because of the coup. World Bank funding and projects to benefit the entire country rightly came to an abrupt halt when Burhan and Hemedti staged the coup.  Because of the coup, the country is faced with certain economic collapse and the World Food Programme predicts that half of Sudan, 20 million people, will face hunger due to food shortages, a number that has doubled since last year. This, by no means, is an exhaustive list of serious human rights abuses connected to Burhan and Hemedti.  Their involvement in the Darfur genocide and ongoing violence in the region, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile and other areas are well documented.  Each abuse on its own merits targeted sanctions.  Viewing these abuses collectively, the obvious and overwhelming threat to the Sudanese people’s right to life, liberty and security warrants immediate targeted sanctions.

Your Administration is well aware of the serious human rights abuses connected to Burhan and Hemedti.  The abuses are outlined in detail in the State Department’s Sudan 2021 Human Rights Report, which notably contrasts the better human rights record of Sudan’s Civilian-Led Transitional Government with the serious human rights abuses committed by and after the coup by Burhan and Hemedti, the organizations they lead, and those they associate with and empower.

It is vitally important that your Administration does not accept the coup as the new status quo in Sudan.  The people of Sudan have courageously established a new paradigm of freedom, peace and justice that must be respected and supported.  Abrogation of Sudan’s new paradigm by Burhan and Hemedti warrants the Administration’s outrage, not complacency.  The coup and all serious human rights abuses connected to Generals Burhan and Hemedti demand targeted sanctions at a minimum and as an important and necessary component of an overall strategy to support the restoration of democratic transition in Sudan.

Respectfully,

Ambassador and Former U.S. Congressman Tony Hall

Frank Wolf, Member of Congress 1981-2015, retired

Baroness Cox, Independent Member of the House of Lords, UK Parliament; Founder President, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, UK

David (Lord) Alton, U.K. House of Lords, London, UK

Aicha Elbasri, Former Spokesperson, United Nations, Sudan

Prof. Mukesh Kapila, Former Head of the UN in Sudan, Professor Emeritus, Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs, University of Manchester, UK

Resistance Committee, Khartoum North – Bahri, Sudan

Ibrahim Taha Ayoub, Retired Ambassador, FFC Sudan, Sudan

AAHEP (Africa America Higher Education Partnership), Pius K. Kamau MD, President, USA

African Freedom Coalition, Al Sutton M.D., President, New York

Ahmed el-Gaili, Harvard University, Cambridge

Alliance for the Lost Boys of Sudan, Joan Hecht, Founder and President, Author of the Journey of the Lost Boys, Jacksonville

Association of Sudanese American Professors in America, Nada Fadul, USA

Atrocities Watch, Dismas Nkunda, Uganda

Awad Ibrahim, University of Ottawa, Canada

Bill Casey, Advocate, Our Lady Queen of Peace Church, Arlington

Bonnie Wong, San Francisco

Blue Nile Association USA, Omer Abdelsawi Omer, Washington, DC

Bonnie Abaunza, Abaunza Group, USA

Brooklyn Coalition for Darfur & Marginalized Sudan, Laura Limuli, Coordinator, Brooklyn

Claire Vera, Nuba Now, UK

Coalition Against Global Genocide (CoAGG), Roz Duman, Denver

Coalition of Advocates for South Sudan, Darfur Advocacy Group of South Carolina, Bill Andress,  Secretary, Lexington, South Carolina

Collectif Urgence Darfour, Dr. Jacky Mamou, Paris, France

Concerned Citizens for Change, Gene Binder, Member Steering Committee, Bronx

Concerned Citizens of New York, Regina M. King, Member, New York

Crane Center for Mass Atrocity Prevention, Amber Maze, Executive Director, Westfield, IN

DAAM (UK), Ali AM Hussein, UK

Darfur Bar Association

Darfur Network for Monitoring and Documentation DNMD, Kampala.

Darfurian Congress Council of Canada and The United Sudanese International Council, Abd Alla Bakhit, President, Canada

David Cox, President, Pariah Investing, USA

Donna Creasman, San Francisco

Dr. Beckry Abdel-Magid, Winona State University, Winona, USA

Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, Founding President, Genocide Watch, McLean, VA

Dr. Jamal Haleem, USA

Eiman Zein-Elabdin, Professor, Franklin & Marshall College, USA

Ellen J. Kennedy, Ph.D., Executive Director, World Without Genocide, St. Paul, MN

Ellen Wicker Cummings, Board Member, Abukloi Foundation, Rumbek, South Sudan

Eric Reeves, Fellow, Rift Valley Institute, Kenya/UK/US

Frontier Fellowship, Cody U. Watson, Senior Associate Emeritus, Birmingham, AL

Geert Jan Colijn, Dean Emeritus, Stockton University, Pomona, NJ

Georgia Coalition to Prevent Genocide, Melanie Nelkin, Atlanta

Gerard Prunier PhD, Fellow, Atlantic Council, Washington, DC

Global Institute Against Slavery and Genocide Inc., Sunday Taabu, Chair of the Board, USA

Golda Abbe, Ghidam, London, UK

Group Against Torture in Sudan-GATS, Dr. Mohamed Ibrahaim, Philadelphia

Hassan, Sudanese Community, France

Hagir Elsheikh, CEO, Tomorrow’s Smile INC, USA

Human Rights and Advocacy Network for Democracy

Human Rights and Development Organization (HUDO Centre), Bushra Gamar Hussein, Uganda

Idris Fadul, African Cummunity Centre, Slovenia

Independent Movement Organization, Adil Salih, President, Fairfax, VA

Irwin Spiegelman, Local Chapter, Amnesty International-Group 128, Amherst, MA

James R. Hiskey, Livingstone CC, Annapolis, MD

Jewish World Watch, Serena Oberstein, Los Angeles

Joining Our Voices, Slater Armstrong, Founder & Director, Baton Rouge, LA

Joyce Rothermel, Association of Pittsburgh Priests

KACE, Albaqir Mukhtar, Director, Sudan

Karen Henderson, Waverly, USA

Khalafalla Bushara, Professor of Neurology, University of Minnesota

Mark Brecke, Documentary Filmmaker & Photographer

Martha Spiegelman, Coordinator, Amnesty Local Chapter – Group 128, Amherst, MA

Matthew Kohn, Filmmaker, New York

Mary Loebig Giles, Common Table, San Francisco

MASIO, Ismail, UK

Mohamed Yassin Khalifa, Educator and Human Rights Activist, AAFAT, Cambridge, MA

Mr. Elsayed Mudawi, Human Rights Organizations, Sudan

Mr. Muawia Suleiman, Sudanese Community in the U.K., London

Never Again Coalition, Lauren Fortgang, Director, Portland, OR

New York Coalition for Sudan, Eileen Weiss, Co-Founder, New York

Noelle L’Etoile, Professor, University of California, San Francisco

Nuba Association, Gabrldar Suliman, UK

Nuba Mountain Association USA, Seifeldin Barsham

Nuba Mountains Solidarity Abroad in the UK and North Ireland, Dr. Sallam Tutu, UK

Nubia Project, Nuraddin Abdulmannan, President, Washington, DC

Operation Broken Silence, Mark C. Hackett, Executive Director, Memphis, TN

Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition, David Rosenberg, Coordinator, Pittsburgh, PA

Quscondy, USA

Professor Elihu D. Richter MD, Hebrew University – Hadassah School and The Jerusalem Center for Genocide Prevention, Jerusalem, Israel

Professor Stephen Zunes, University of San Francisco

Rebecca Tinsley, Founder, Waging Peace, London, UK

Regional Centre for Training and Development of Civil Society RCDCS

RehabNOVA International, Dr. Mustafa Sharif, President and CEO, College Station, TX

Rights for Peace, Cara Priestley, Advocacy Officer, UK

Robert K. Hitchcock, University of New Mexico Albuquerque

Sabir, Nuba Mountains, UK

Saifeldin Gibreel, Sudanese Political Activist, San Francisco

Samuel Totten, Professor Emeritus, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Stop Genocide Now, Felicia Lee, Global Programs Manager, California

Sudan For All, Emad Bukhari, Founder, Tempe, AZ

Sudan NextGen, Sally Elatta, USA

Sudan Taskforce, Mohy Omer, Founder, Washington, DC

Sudan Unlimited, Esther Sprague, Founder and Director, San Francisco

Sudan’s Doctors for Human Rights, Dr Husam El-mugamar, UK

Sudanese American Public Affairs Association, Inc. (SAPAA), Fareed Zein, Board Chair, Houston, TX

Sudanese Association, Mr. Omer Saeed, USA

Sudanese Community in Glasgow, Almahdi Abdurahman, UK

The Elsa-Gopa Trust, Nell Okie, Madison, CT

The Framework Mechanism, Achol Bark, Khartoum, Sudan

The Rev. David B. Carver, First United Presbyterian Church of Crafton Heights, Pittsburgh, PA

The Reverend Ronald D. Culmer, St. Clare’s Episcopal Church, Pleasanton, CA

Unflinching Hope Worldwide, Rev. Heidi McGinness, Omaha, NE

Unite for the Country, Bahar Arabie, Gaithersburg, MD

Use Your Voice to Stop Genocide RI, Sandra Hammel, Founder, Portsmouth, RI

Victoria Sanford, PhD, Lehman Professor of Excellence, 2021-2024, Professor of Anthropology, Lehman College, Doctoral Faculty, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Waging Peace, Maddy Crowther, Co-Executive Director, London UK.

Organized by Sudan Unlimited