{"id":2755,"date":"2019-01-02T18:07:35","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T18:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=2755"},"modified":"2019-01-02T18:11:32","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T18:11:32","slug":"__trashed-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2019\/01\/02\/__trashed-2\/","title":{"rendered":"HRW Urges Sudan not to use Lethal Force Against Protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MORE ON SUDAN<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Human Rights Watch<\/a>\u00a0has urged\u00a0Sudan<\/a>‘s government to show restraint and not use lethal force against protesters during the weeks-long demonstrations against President\u00a0Omar al-Bashir\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York-based group, citing estimates from independent groups, said on Monday that Sudanese forces have been using tear gas and live ammunition against protesters, killing more than a dozen people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement came in the face of renewed protests on Monday, with demonstrators in the capital, Khartoum, expected to try to march on Bashir’s palace to demand he step down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bashir, who has been in power since 1989, vowed in a meeting with police commanders on Sunday that his government would not tolerate any attempt to undermine the stability and security of Sudan, according to the state news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also sought to justify the killing of protesters, quoting from Islam’s holy book, the Quran, according to a video clip of his comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s deterrence to others so that we can maintain security, which is a valuable commodity and, God willing, we will not risk the security of the citizens or the nation,” said Bashir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The objective is not to kill the protesters, but … to safeguard the security and stability of citizens.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#Sudan<\/a> Omar Bashir literally said “police’s objective is NOT to kill citizens but as I said before, God said ‘there’s for you in legal retribution [saving of] life, O you [people] of understanding, that you may become righteous’. Retribution is killing, execution, punishment.”3<\/a>2:31 AM – Dec 31, 2018<\/a>See SaadAbedine’s other Tweets<\/a>Twitter Ads info and privacy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jehanne Henry, associate director at Human Rights Watch’s Africa division, said Bashir’s speech appeared to “justify excessive use of force instead of condemning this brutality”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“With more protests planned, Sudanese authorities should send an unambiguous message to all security forces to respect the rights of protesters and not to use lethal force,” he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amnesty International has said it has “reliable reports” that 37 protesters were killed in the first five days of protests, which began on December 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government has acknowledged 19 deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protests were sparked by an increase in bread prices, with demonstrators rallying against the government tripling the price of a loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound to three ($0.02 to $0.06).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, demands have widened to include calls for Bashir’s resignation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sudan is facing an acute foreign exchange crisis and soaring inflation despite Washington lifting economic sanctions in October 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation is running at 70 percent and the Sudanese pound has plunged, while shortages of bread and fuel have regularly hit several cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MORE ON SUDAN Human Rights Watch\u00a0has urged\u00a0Sudan‘s government to show restraint and not use lethal force against protesters during the weeks-long demonstrations against President\u00a0Omar al-Bashir\u00a0 The New York-based group, citing estimates from independent groups, said on Monday that Sudanese forces have been using tear gas and live ammunition against protesters, killing more than a dozen people.  The statement came in the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2755"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2758,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions\/2758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}