{"id":27535,"date":"2018-12-31T13:23:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27535"},"modified":"2018-12-31T13:23:37","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:23:37","slug":"hrw-urges-sudan-not-to-use-lethal-force-against-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27535","title":{"rendered":"HRW urges Sudan not to use lethal force against protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

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

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

\n

#Sudan<\/a> \ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\udde9 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.” pic.twitter.com\/Ccy87K5Pue<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 SaadAbedine (@SaadAbedine) December 31, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\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

“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.\u00a0<\/p>\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. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

Since then, demands have widened to include calls for Bashir’s resignation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human Rights Watch has urged Sudan’s government to show restraint and not use lethal force against protesters during the weeks-long demonstrations against President Omar al-Bashir. 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}