SUDAN
CONFIDENTIAL
Report by HM Embassy, Khartoum
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Right No.
(i) The Sudanese Government normally abide
by the law which is specific and precise as to the length of time a prisoner may be held without remand. It is signifi- cant of their desire to observe legality that at a time of crisis (the attempted coup d'etat of September 1975) they modified the law to enable them to hold suspects for a longer period than usual.
(ii)
(iii)
The use of torture would be uncharacter- istic of the hot-blooded Sudanese and we have never heard of an instance.
Slavery is not officially sanctioned but may possibly survive in remoter areas, particularly among nomads, as the result of smuggling children across frontiers. Those individuals who had been born slaves and for economic reasons had no desire to change their status are probably all dead by now.
2
(iv)
Restrictions on freedom of speech are very marked. The media are all strictly Government-controlled.
9
(v)
The independence of the Judiciary is recognised by the Sudanese Government but is not always in practice observed: members of the Judiciary have on occasion been retired for criticising the Government's interpretation of the law, or indeed for amending it.
5
(vi)
There is no longer much_Trade Union freedom in the Sudan. Trade Unions exist as a facade but are liable to be dis- solved, or to have awkward customers replaced regardless of the rule-book, if they step out of line.
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(vii)
1
There is no general restriction on emi- gration: like other governments the Sudanese apply individual restrictions from time to time.
CONFIDENTIAL
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