10:00:27
Opening Montage
10:01:06
Military in Khartoum Soldiers led by Omar Hassan Ahmad al Bashir seized power in Sudan in June 1989.
Montage shots Sweeping away a democratically elected government. The new Islamic regime promised a revolution of ‘national salvation’. They have delivered a human rights’ disaster; and an Islamic state of fear.
01.32
War footage Caught up in a long running guerrilla war the Sudan has turned to Islam. On the battle front with their African Christian South they’ve seen success after success in recent years. This is their attack on the SPA rebel headquarters at Tort. It fell to the Muslim troops from Khartoum.
02.01
Demonstration in street On the streets of the Sudanese capital, there was more than a government arranged celebration. They were rejoicing at what they see as a victory over not only the SPA rebels but also a victory over the West.
02.17
Men on Truck ‘Down down USA. Down down USA’
02.24
Allah Akbar Man The war in the South is commonly seen as the front-line of a Western onslaught on Islam.
02:32
Family on Road Meanwhile on the roads in Southern Sudan, hungry families move out from an area of devastation. Primitive and vicious tribal infighting has been the final blow for the mostly Christian guerrilla army the SPLA. Thousands of civilians have been killed. Vast fertile areas have been left barren as tribal hordes have gone on the rampage. It’s left the South more vulnerable than ever to Khartoum’s wish to impose Islamic law throughout the country. The international community feeds around 2 million Southern Sudanese, but has been powerless to protect them from each other or the advancing Muslim forces.
03:53
Hospital At a hospital near Kongor in the South, tribal and government attacks have killed the doctors, most of the 150 patients have died. No aid reaches here, with the government forces controlling more and more of the traditional aid routes.
04:14
Health worker Her breast has been chopped and the child is still alive. He is now in need of food or of treatment and we have nothing in hand as I have shown you in our clinic. Here is another man whose fingers are missing. Part of his body is cut.
04:38
Bones
Health worker This is the body of a child who died 7 days ago of hunger. These sad people came to us and they died in our hands. They thought that we were strong enough to have medicines and to have food but we have nothing.
04:55
Skull Never in the history of Sudan has it’s Christian and tribal peoples faced such a bleak future. But in Khartoum the government is celebrating.
Sudan is run with an iron hand by a small clique of Islamic leaders who rarely show themselves. Though the army and General Omar Bashir appeared to step into rule, real power actually remained with a small circle of radical Islamic thinkers. During the gulf war they backed Sadaam Hussein. Journalists must cope with a plague of informers who do their best to stop every picture.
05:40
Dr Abdel Kadif Tijani
Lecturer in Political Science Don’t forget that these people were colonised by these Western powers. They were deprived, in fact they were depressed, and all these tough and very ugly experiences which they got through. It is not an easy thing to remove these experiences and make them love the Western people because they donate to them and help them. They know that they lost a lot.
- Khartoum University
06:06
Rally Crowd and
Dr Hassan al Turabi The hidden hand behind the Sudan is usually acknowledged to be this man Dr Hassan al-Turabi. He’s the leader of Sudan’s Muslim Brotherhood. He’s responsible for a regime which has in the last four years isolated itself internationally.
06:25
Soldier marching With an emphasis on things military, radical Islamic propaganda and open borders to all Muslims, Turabi has quietly turned the Sudan into the latest hotbed of Islamic radicalism.
06:41
Dr Hassan al Turabi Here in the Sudan there is a whole movement for Islam here. Thousands and thousands of I mean young they don’t mind fighting I mean they go and die, I mean they are graduates - doctors of law, of engineering. They don’t mind doing anything for Islam
Islamic leader
06:55
Soldiers Salute Sudan’s ever growing Popular Defence Forces swear their loyalty to the Sudanese state in the Koran.
07:10
Kamal al-Din
Journalist The Sudan is not a platform it’s rather a refuge, a territory of refuge for these Muslims after all these years of oppression.
07:26
Dr Hassan Turabi I have no doubt that the Islamic movement now is a strong movement of revival right across this world everywhere and I am sure that those who are in power who would like to stop this movement have no future whatever.
07:42
Whirling
Dervishes Whirling dervishes of the Islamic Sufi order dance on religious days. Turabi’s ambition is to unite the Islamic world. That means overcoming the traditional Arab regimes the dictatorships, and the kingdoms. Sudan’s links with Islamic movements like the Algerian FIS, and Palestinian Hamas, are taken for granted and other Arab regimes are becoming fearful of the Sudanese experiment.
08:14
Airport It’s why few Middle East planes land at Khartoum airport..
08:21
Dr Hassan Turabi The Islamic movement here has progressed much faster than in many other countries and now it is the best example perhaps for an Islamic movement and all Islamic movements look to Sudan as an example and are changing their traditional style perhaps and are adopting this comprehensive attitude to Islam and to social, political and economic change.
08:45
In Prison Despite Turabi’s ambitions for an international Islamic democracy, his regime is accused of gross human rights abuses. In prisons and secret detention centers political opponents are routinely beaten, and tortured. Many arrive here in Kober Prison after torture by the security department. With few government controls many will be forgotten until a presidential amnesty is announced. As on this occasion when 28 political prisoners are being released.
09:19
Prisoner We tried to change the position in the Sudan
Interview
09:25
2nd Prisoner
Interview They accused me of using my office for communications with the opposition and they took me to a Military Court where they say they have the right to do that.
09:42
Prisoner
Interview Q. Politically do you still oppose the system.
A. no,no.
09:52
Samira Ali Karrar
Khartoum human
rights activist Human rights in the Sudan are really abused. There is detention. The security follow you, watching. There is no freedom.
10:08
Eliaba James Surur They came at 5.30 in the morning and found me in the house. They took me to the military headquarters. They said, you went to the American Ambassador.....why did you go to the American Ambassador? I said we went to the American Ambassador because we were invited to tea. He began beating me, saying you tell me the truth. He first was beating me on one side, blowing me, hitting me, many many times until my face was swollen and my eye was becoming red. Then he said you will tell me - I’ll give you 10 minutes and went out. He came back again with a stick. Then he began beating me all over my body and behind my body. I said I have nothing to tell you.
Eliaba James Surur Simply because I believed in a secular Sudan, in justice for everybody, and equality of the people. And from that time the government was not happy with me.
11:13
Photo of group of 28 Government opponents have been convicted at
Army officers executed summary military trials with no appeal. As with these 28
in April 1990, 24 hours officers.
after being convicted
at an unfair military
trial of attempting to
overthrow the government.
11:22
Samira Ali Karrar This child is my brother’s daughter. He didn’t see her because they executed him early in the morning and she was born after a few hours. In 24 hours 28 officers have been shot down. Which means there was no court for justice.
11.51
Mosque In Sudan the Islamic call has become the key to life ahead. Since the present government came to power all secular institutions have been abolished. Today whippings, amputation, and even stoning are on the law books, and on the increase.
Street scene With the military and the mosques in alliance ordinary Sudanese have less of a chance than ever to escape the influence of Islam.
12:21
Ghost House
city bank Hundreds of political opponents are arrested each year. Most are held uncharged and untried in secret detention centres like this one.
Other ghost house
shots (in same street
as UN) Detainees released from these so called ‘ghost houses’ have described systematic torture.
12:39
President
General Omar
al-Bashir Since the beginning of the Revolution there has been a lot of talk about torture, talk about people having their nails extracted, and electric shocks. Those people detained are now free in the streets inside and outside Sudan. If fingernails were extracted or bodies burned the evidence would all be there. Check that for yourself. Its all lies - there are no such things as ‘ghost houses’ or ‘torture’
13:10
Survivor They put us in a room. Its area about four square metres. They put us there, they started to hit us, to rest. They poured cold water on us for more than 20 days.
13:38
Interview set-up
13:48
Minister of Justice
Abdul Aziz Shiddu This idea of ‘ghost houses’... OK ...as of 1991, it is true that there are special houses where detainees are kept but they became ghost houses because of lack of knowledge by the relatives where the detainees have gone. Now that we tell them what is going on they are no longer ghost houses - they are houses existing but as I told you they are meant to give more comfort.
14:24
Survivor They started to hang us from the roof until we fainted. They pour cold water. They start these silly games of torture, they threaten us. ‘We are going to kill you unless you co-operate with us.
14:58
Women The Islamic Regime is also clamping down on women and driving them off the streets.
Women have been flogged for appearing in public wearing garments which don’t cover the hair and hide the shape of the body.
Women in Khartoum The government’s shariah based penal code is based on the Islamic law exactly as it was written in the Koran.
15:25
Shariah court scenes Effectively it calls for a harsh system of justice more relevant to the 7th century when the Koran was written.
Special ‘Public Order Courts’ have been set up to hear cases. The proceedings are often summary, with defendants found guilty being flogged immediately.
15:38
Shiddu In Islamic law there is a provision that whoever is giving out a flogging should have something under his armpit, like they must have a book to ensure that his hand should not go higher than it should go and that the whipping or the flogging would not inflict more pain than is necessary. I’m afraid that the way it is applied here is not according to Islamic rules. this is due to lack of supervision.
16:20 Prisoners singing
(rendition of ‘old
MacDonald) in Kober prison
16:35
Prison guards Amputation for theft involves cutting off the right hand at the wrist or both the right hand and left foot at the ankle. In May 1994 journalists visiting Kober prison, the main prison in the capital, asked whether amputations had been carried out.
16:58
Prison guard We did it once during the year.
Q. What was the reason?
This man had stolen a car. His hand was very precious, but when he has stolen this sum of money, it has become very cheap. So it is better to be cut.
General views of prison
and hanging chamber Prisoners convicted of capital offences in the civilian courts in Khartoum are hanged in Kober. A condemned man has few chances of appeal unless the victim’s relatives announce forgiveness. Its an Islamic system with few safeguards should an error occur.
17:46
Prison guard We make the length of the rope which is needed to make the hanging absolutely correct. No beheading, no neck cut, we will bring him out after the doctor decided this as if he is sleeping. We have the hanging room in Wad Medine, one in Port Sudan, one in Al Fasha, one here in Kober, one in Malakal, one in Juba and one in Wau.
18:15
US Ambassador
Don Pedersen We have been concerned about the human rights’ violations by the Sudan Government since its inception 5 years ago and we remain deeply concerned about the human rights situation here today. The human rights’ record of the regime is one of the principal causes of the poor relations between Sudan and the United States.
18:38
Abdul Aziz Chidu We look very seriously into these allegations and this is because Islam as a religion does not permit this type of human handling.
18:53
Koranic School
Music runs 38 seconds What Sudan’s government says its position is on human rights and what actually occurs is quite different. The agenda is total power through the Koran, and there appears little real concern for human rights at any level.
19:27
Boys reading Om Duaan Ban Koranic School . Boys come here to memorise the Koran. It’s a book about the size of the old testament and for about 7 years they learn nothing else.
Discipline is harsh and it’s all too easy to break the rules.
19:40
Master What are you looking at (whips them) Go away and don’t look here again.
Early morning The boys lead a grueling day which lasts for nearly 20 hours. Until 100 years ago it’s the way most Muslims began their lives.
20:12
Boy tells about
his day I wake up at 2.30 in the morning. I brush my teeth, wash for prayers, and pray a couple of times. Then we go and read. Then we have a break to wash, and make the dawn prayer.
20:27
Boy washing` I wash my hands 3 times. I wash my mouth 3 tines, my face 3 times, then my arms up to my elbows 3 times.
The older boys teach the younger ones. Each day they memorise one section of the Koran.
20:42
Young Koranic Teacher We are studying the Koran which was brought by the Prophet Mohammed - peace be on him, so that we can tell the difference between truth and myth. We study it as part of our faith. Our aim is to learn the holy Koran and all people should do that.
21:30
Dai Ifalla
Boy with Koranic Board Discipline is strict. Do they treat you well?
The sheikhs treat us quite well. they’re especially good to those who work hard, but for boys who want to go to the market, and laze around, the Sheikhs won’t be good to them.
21:53
Dai Iffala Mahoud With only 2 meals a day the boys are always hungry. Dai Ifalla is the star of the school. He’s just finished learning the Koran - for him it took just 4 years. Today he gets to eat first.
22:15
Food Dai says he’s pleased he won’t have to eat the food any more.
22:28
Cooking The boys eat a diet of Sorghum, a staple of the Sudan. It doesn’t provide a balanced diet but for Sudan it’s more than most get.
22:57
Eisa in chains For those who rebel against the system the punish-ments are harsh. For trying to escape Eisa has been sentenced to 30 days in chains. He doesn’t want to learn the Koran and would prefer to learn something else.
23:18
Eisa Interview Why did you escape?
I don’t want to learn the Koran
Why?
I want to go to a normal school
Why?
Because then I will be able to have holidays and see my family.
23:46
Walking master
Interview Why was the boy we interviewed in chains?
Because he escaped. He didn’t want to stay and learn the Koran. We have so many who remained chained until they’d learned all the Koran.
24:02
Ali in chains Ali also doesn’t want to be here. In fact many of the boys didn’t seem to be very happy. None would speak about how they came to the school except to say that their parents brought them here.
24:21
Ail writing Ali is struggling with his studies. He has not mastered his Arabic alphabet yet, and faces the prospect of many more years unless he accepts his task.
24:32
Ali Interview I was chained because they said I’m not learning the Holy Koran, and because I don’t want to stay here.
Why do you want to escape?
When I was told that I have to come here to learn the Koran, I told them that I was working.
What work?
Mechanic
25:11
Lady fighters Many young Sudanese have no option when they leave school, but to join Sudan’s huge and ever-growing army where the catchword is Jihad or Holy war against any who oppose their regime’s strict brand of fundamentalism.
25:39
US Ambassador
Don Peterson It is the misapplication of shariah, it is how shariah is applied or implemented by people who have power over others which is of concern and we also object to any effort to impose the system of shariah on people who don’t want shariah.
26:00
Displaced Suburb The people who especially don’t want shariah are the 1.8 million mostly Christian displaced who live around Khartoum. They fled the war in the South and have lived here for sometimes 20 years.
26:15
Demolition and X But, for the last 2 years the Sudanese Ministry of Housing has been quietly demolishing their homes. They say the land belongs to others.
26:20
UN Water Pumps A UN water system, it’s part of a $2 million water project installed in a suburb which was then bulldozed. Despite international protests the Sudanese Government has plans for a million more demolition’s. They’re destroying a complex infrastructure built up over decades.
26:47
Demolition This is Hadyusef and bulldozers were here just hours before. The people were given little notice and many possessions were buried. 250 000 houses have been demolished in this manor since 1992.
27:02
Zoom to Gov. Camp After their homes are destroyed this is where the Government has put hundreds of thousands of the Southern displaced. Foreign aid organisations are rarely allowed to work in these camps and people are more vulnerable than ever.
In districts like Hadyusef the government was unable to control and contain the Christian population. By relocating them into refugee camps far outside the city. They are seen as less of a threat.
27:38
Aerial Hadyusef from the air. The strip across the middle of the picture clearly shows the scale of destruction. When they are finished the Government will have demolished the entire suburb.
27:56
Sam in car Before they come they tell the public, the commissioner, the committee of the public, to inform the people by the microphone in the area that tomorrow they are going to come and destroy the houses.
28:11
Child in ruins The Ministry of housing claims the land was squatted by illegal tenants. The fact of the matter is that hundreds of thousands are going through a nightmare while everyone looks away.
28:23
Sam Our house has been damaged, and how can I feel for what can I say exactly. If I say to you if this example happened to you what can you do in the same case?
28:37
Sam approaches
House You see how the house, see the house. It is definitely gone.
28:43
Sam enters house No one collected Sam and his family, or told them where to go. Instead his family simply built a substitute house of sacking nearby.
29:00
Sam sitting down Q. So you had to build this house after they destroyed the other house?
A. We built it in one day completely. From morning up to evening we have been working on it. I and my sister and my mother.
29:18
Janette Johnson
UN Khartoum The United Nations at the time decided to put a protest in to the government of Sudan. They asked them that we would like to have an observer status on any other relocations and the government agreed to any future monitoring of these relocations. However, the massive scale of the demolitions was too large for us to monitor every movement.
29:48
Mobbed by security Sam, the man interviewed earlier at the demolitions of Hadyusef has been approached by Sudanese security. They want to know what he said to the journalists? forced to flee for the interview Sam gave, he now disappears into the Southern underground, in Khartoum.
30:06
Sam at hideout Sam now made clear the risk he’d taken in speaking to journalists about the situation.
30:11
Sam I am afraid of being caught and taken to prison or to be taken to somewhere else maybe to be hung or maybe to be... Many, I can’t tell you there are many things happen like that, many people are taken but nobody knows their place and I am afraid to be taken to a place where nobody knows. Yes, this is the thing that led me to hide myself.
30:42
X on house An X marks a house for demolition. It means that sometime soon men will come with a bulldozer, police will come, and your home will be knocked down. And there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
30:54
Dr Ibrahim Banaga
Setups Except for this man, the minister of housing, Dr Banaga. British educated, the demolitions, are his brain child.
30:59
Upsound Banaga shows
his awards` ....then Masters from Loughborough University of Technology, this is in Leicestershire in England. Then Dr of Philosophy from Loughborough University of Technology.
31:19
Dr Ibrahim Banaga
Minister of Housing We started as we say with a struggle with these squatters and even we have some casualties. Now we don’t have any resistance. Even now the squatter people they pay the Ministry so they can make the treatment, as we say. It is now everybody settles, there is justice, so now we don’t have, we don’t expect any criticism.
31:58
Anonymous Christian
displaced When you say that what the Government is doing is good, if it is bad then the best person. But when a thing is bad, when you say this thing is bad, they’re against it. You would be taken with the security and then your place is not known. Some people are lost like this. Until today we don’t know where they are.
32:18
Camps In the new government camps the situation is critical. Only Sudanese aid organisations are permitted in. Increasingly the displaced are going hungry.
32:27
Woman at hut We have nothing, nothing. We have nothing to eat.
32:40
Janette Johnson The situation in the past has been that people haven’t received enough food due to some of the policies related to the Government and to UN and to the NGOs. There’s been a problem with who receives the food, who distributes it, how its distributed. The situation in terms of sustainability for the people, they can’t normally find jobs because the areas where they are placed are far from the city center..
UN Khartoum
33:08 There are allegations that the government is using
School in camp Sudanese aid organizations to encourage the displaced to convert to Islam. Islamic schools are encouraged at the expense of Christian, and the accusation is that food has also become a tool in the campaign for converts to Islam.
33:30
Children Sudan is great, Sudan is great
33:35
Islamic Aid Agency With only Sudanese charities allowed in the camps the government is now more free than ever to implement controversial Islamisation policies. There are accusations that the government is operating a programme of forced conversions.
33:51
Don Pedersen There are so many reports from credible witnesses that it is very hard to believe that food is not being used as a way to induce or to force people to convert to Islam which is totally contrary to the tenets of Islam but this is what happens.
34:12
Anonymous Christian Islamic organisations try to press the schools. If we
displaced build some other school they will come and stop it. They say that only for our children to start Islamic schools. Some of them have refused..
34:30
Youngster whipped The United Nations recent human rights report on the Sudan accused the authorities of forcing Christian street children into such institutions. The authorities ensured none could speak freely but it was clear it takes a lot of force to keep many of the children in this school.
34:59
Master Int They must give up playing because playing is harmful. It does not allow them time to study. Any-one who misbehaves is whipped so that they don’t play any more. When his colleagues see him being whipped they will stop playing and become afraid.
Master V/O
Over boards The Koran is difficult. If they do not work hard they will not be able to memorise it all. The Koran is not like other school subjects.
35:35
Ali Walking Towards the end of the day Ali is supposed to have memorised everything he wrote on his board in the morning.
35:46
Washing boards Now the boys wash their boards before reciting what they’ve memorised to the school masters. Later they will drink the washing water. It’s supposed to help them learn the Koran. Because Ali is in chains everyone takes advantage of him.
36:11
Master Isn’t it hard for the students to work from dawn until 10 at night?
There’s no other way possible for the boys to learn the Koran. It must be full time. Memorising the Koran is very difficult, that’s why they need all their time spent learning.
The school says more children are coming to Islam than ever before.
36:57
Sheik Eltahir What we see now in this Islamic revival is only
head of Om Duan meeting the natural wishes of the Sudanese, and
Ban Koranic School enhancing their link to Allah. Sudan will carry the torch of Islam to all countries, including your own.
37:27
Evening prayers
Boy speaks in V/O They let us go at 5.30 for dusk prayers, and then we go back to memorise and recite to the Sheik. At 8pm they let us go for the night prayer. Then we recite to the Sheik everything we have learned during the day. At 10pm we go to sleep.
38:27
Funeral For the hungry Christians who’ve had their houses knocked down an Islamic constitution is what their relatives in the South are fighting against. And with disease and death spreading in the new desert camps and the Khartoum government obstructing food supplies to them, there seems little chance the authorities have any intention of equitably treating their Christian community.
With the SPLA rebels in retreat Southerners may soon be completely isolated from the world’s view. The international community needs to complement its humanitarian work, with initiatives to make human rights’ abuses more visible. Effective monitoring has never been more important. It is no longer justifiable to ignore the plight of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese.
10:39:56 END
Opening Montage
10:01:06
Military in Khartoum Soldiers led by Omar Hassan Ahmad al Bashir seized power in Sudan in June 1989.
Montage shots Sweeping away a democratically elected government. The new Islamic regime promised a revolution of ‘national salvation’. They have delivered a human rights’ disaster; and an Islamic state of fear.
01.32
War footage Caught up in a long running guerrilla war the Sudan has turned to Islam. On the battle front with their African Christian South they’ve seen success after success in recent years. This is their attack on the SPA rebel headquarters at Tort. It fell to the Muslim troops from Khartoum.
02.01
Demonstration in street On the streets of the Sudanese capital, there was more than a government arranged celebration. They were rejoicing at what they see as a victory over not only the SPA rebels but also a victory over the West.
02.17
Men on Truck ‘Down down USA. Down down USA’
02.24
Allah Akbar Man The war in the South is commonly seen as the front-line of a Western onslaught on Islam.
02:32
Family on Road Meanwhile on the roads in Southern Sudan, hungry families move out from an area of devastation. Primitive and vicious tribal infighting has been the final blow for the mostly Christian guerrilla army the SPLA. Thousands of civilians have been killed. Vast fertile areas have been left barren as tribal hordes have gone on the rampage. It’s left the South more vulnerable than ever to Khartoum’s wish to impose Islamic law throughout the country. The international community feeds around 2 million Southern Sudanese, but has been powerless to protect them from each other or the advancing Muslim forces.
03:53
Hospital At a hospital near Kongor in the South, tribal and government attacks have killed the doctors, most of the 150 patients have died. No aid reaches here, with the government forces controlling more and more of the traditional aid routes.
04:14
Health worker Her breast has been chopped and the child is still alive. He is now in need of food or of treatment and we have nothing in hand as I have shown you in our clinic. Here is another man whose fingers are missing. Part of his body is cut.
04:38
Bones
Health worker This is the body of a child who died 7 days ago of hunger. These sad people came to us and they died in our hands. They thought that we were strong enough to have medicines and to have food but we have nothing.
04:55
Skull Never in the history of Sudan has it’s Christian and tribal peoples faced such a bleak future. But in Khartoum the government is celebrating.
Sudan is run with an iron hand by a small clique of Islamic leaders who rarely show themselves. Though the army and General Omar Bashir appeared to step into rule, real power actually remained with a small circle of radical Islamic thinkers. During the gulf war they backed Sadaam Hussein. Journalists must cope with a plague of informers who do their best to stop every picture.
05:40
Dr Abdel Kadif Tijani
Lecturer in Political Science Don’t forget that these people were colonised by these Western powers. They were deprived, in fact they were depressed, and all these tough and very ugly experiences which they got through. It is not an easy thing to remove these experiences and make them love the Western people because they donate to them and help them. They know that they lost a lot.
- Khartoum University
06:06
Rally Crowd and
Dr Hassan al Turabi The hidden hand behind the Sudan is usually acknowledged to be this man Dr Hassan al-Turabi. He’s the leader of Sudan’s Muslim Brotherhood. He’s responsible for a regime which has in the last four years isolated itself internationally.
06:25
Soldier marching With an emphasis on things military, radical Islamic propaganda and open borders to all Muslims, Turabi has quietly turned the Sudan into the latest hotbed of Islamic radicalism.
06:41
Dr Hassan al Turabi Here in the Sudan there is a whole movement for Islam here. Thousands and thousands of I mean young they don’t mind fighting I mean they go and die, I mean they are graduates - doctors of law, of engineering. They don’t mind doing anything for Islam
Islamic leader
06:55
Soldiers Salute Sudan’s ever growing Popular Defence Forces swear their loyalty to the Sudanese state in the Koran.
07:10
Kamal al-Din
Journalist The Sudan is not a platform it’s rather a refuge, a territory of refuge for these Muslims after all these years of oppression.
07:26
Dr Hassan Turabi I have no doubt that the Islamic movement now is a strong movement of revival right across this world everywhere and I am sure that those who are in power who would like to stop this movement have no future whatever.
07:42
Whirling
Dervishes Whirling dervishes of the Islamic Sufi order dance on religious days. Turabi’s ambition is to unite the Islamic world. That means overcoming the traditional Arab regimes the dictatorships, and the kingdoms. Sudan’s links with Islamic movements like the Algerian FIS, and Palestinian Hamas, are taken for granted and other Arab regimes are becoming fearful of the Sudanese experiment.
08:14
Airport It’s why few Middle East planes land at Khartoum airport..
08:21
Dr Hassan Turabi The Islamic movement here has progressed much faster than in many other countries and now it is the best example perhaps for an Islamic movement and all Islamic movements look to Sudan as an example and are changing their traditional style perhaps and are adopting this comprehensive attitude to Islam and to social, political and economic change.
08:45
In Prison Despite Turabi’s ambitions for an international Islamic democracy, his regime is accused of gross human rights abuses. In prisons and secret detention centers political opponents are routinely beaten, and tortured. Many arrive here in Kober Prison after torture by the security department. With few government controls many will be forgotten until a presidential amnesty is announced. As on this occasion when 28 political prisoners are being released.
09:19
Prisoner We tried to change the position in the Sudan
Interview
09:25
2nd Prisoner
Interview They accused me of using my office for communications with the opposition and they took me to a Military Court where they say they have the right to do that.
09:42
Prisoner
Interview Q. Politically do you still oppose the system.
A. no,no.
09:52
Samira Ali Karrar
Khartoum human
rights activist Human rights in the Sudan are really abused. There is detention. The security follow you, watching. There is no freedom.
10:08
Eliaba James Surur They came at 5.30 in the morning and found me in the house. They took me to the military headquarters. They said, you went to the American Ambassador.....why did you go to the American Ambassador? I said we went to the American Ambassador because we were invited to tea. He began beating me, saying you tell me the truth. He first was beating me on one side, blowing me, hitting me, many many times until my face was swollen and my eye was becoming red. Then he said you will tell me - I’ll give you 10 minutes and went out. He came back again with a stick. Then he began beating me all over my body and behind my body. I said I have nothing to tell you.
Eliaba James Surur Simply because I believed in a secular Sudan, in justice for everybody, and equality of the people. And from that time the government was not happy with me.
11:13
Photo of group of 28 Government opponents have been convicted at
Army officers executed summary military trials with no appeal. As with these 28
in April 1990, 24 hours officers.
after being convicted
at an unfair military
trial of attempting to
overthrow the government.
11:22
Samira Ali Karrar This child is my brother’s daughter. He didn’t see her because they executed him early in the morning and she was born after a few hours. In 24 hours 28 officers have been shot down. Which means there was no court for justice.
11.51
Mosque In Sudan the Islamic call has become the key to life ahead. Since the present government came to power all secular institutions have been abolished. Today whippings, amputation, and even stoning are on the law books, and on the increase.
Street scene With the military and the mosques in alliance ordinary Sudanese have less of a chance than ever to escape the influence of Islam.
12:21
Ghost House
city bank Hundreds of political opponents are arrested each year. Most are held uncharged and untried in secret detention centres like this one.
Other ghost house
shots (in same street
as UN) Detainees released from these so called ‘ghost houses’ have described systematic torture.
12:39
President
General Omar
al-Bashir Since the beginning of the Revolution there has been a lot of talk about torture, talk about people having their nails extracted, and electric shocks. Those people detained are now free in the streets inside and outside Sudan. If fingernails were extracted or bodies burned the evidence would all be there. Check that for yourself. Its all lies - there are no such things as ‘ghost houses’ or ‘torture’
13:10
Survivor They put us in a room. Its area about four square metres. They put us there, they started to hit us, to rest. They poured cold water on us for more than 20 days.
13:38
Interview set-up
13:48
Minister of Justice
Abdul Aziz Shiddu This idea of ‘ghost houses’... OK ...as of 1991, it is true that there are special houses where detainees are kept but they became ghost houses because of lack of knowledge by the relatives where the detainees have gone. Now that we tell them what is going on they are no longer ghost houses - they are houses existing but as I told you they are meant to give more comfort.
14:24
Survivor They started to hang us from the roof until we fainted. They pour cold water. They start these silly games of torture, they threaten us. ‘We are going to kill you unless you co-operate with us.
14:58
Women The Islamic Regime is also clamping down on women and driving them off the streets.
Women have been flogged for appearing in public wearing garments which don’t cover the hair and hide the shape of the body.
Women in Khartoum The government’s shariah based penal code is based on the Islamic law exactly as it was written in the Koran.
15:25
Shariah court scenes Effectively it calls for a harsh system of justice more relevant to the 7th century when the Koran was written.
Special ‘Public Order Courts’ have been set up to hear cases. The proceedings are often summary, with defendants found guilty being flogged immediately.
15:38
Shiddu In Islamic law there is a provision that whoever is giving out a flogging should have something under his armpit, like they must have a book to ensure that his hand should not go higher than it should go and that the whipping or the flogging would not inflict more pain than is necessary. I’m afraid that the way it is applied here is not according to Islamic rules. this is due to lack of supervision.
16:20 Prisoners singing
(rendition of ‘old
MacDonald) in Kober prison
16:35
Prison guards Amputation for theft involves cutting off the right hand at the wrist or both the right hand and left foot at the ankle. In May 1994 journalists visiting Kober prison, the main prison in the capital, asked whether amputations had been carried out.
16:58
Prison guard We did it once during the year.
Q. What was the reason?
This man had stolen a car. His hand was very precious, but when he has stolen this sum of money, it has become very cheap. So it is better to be cut.
General views of prison
and hanging chamber Prisoners convicted of capital offences in the civilian courts in Khartoum are hanged in Kober. A condemned man has few chances of appeal unless the victim’s relatives announce forgiveness. Its an Islamic system with few safeguards should an error occur.
17:46
Prison guard We make the length of the rope which is needed to make the hanging absolutely correct. No beheading, no neck cut, we will bring him out after the doctor decided this as if he is sleeping. We have the hanging room in Wad Medine, one in Port Sudan, one in Al Fasha, one here in Kober, one in Malakal, one in Juba and one in Wau.
18:15
US Ambassador
Don Pedersen We have been concerned about the human rights’ violations by the Sudan Government since its inception 5 years ago and we remain deeply concerned about the human rights situation here today. The human rights’ record of the regime is one of the principal causes of the poor relations between Sudan and the United States.
18:38
Abdul Aziz Chidu We look very seriously into these allegations and this is because Islam as a religion does not permit this type of human handling.
18:53
Koranic School
Music runs 38 seconds What Sudan’s government says its position is on human rights and what actually occurs is quite different. The agenda is total power through the Koran, and there appears little real concern for human rights at any level.
19:27
Boys reading Om Duaan Ban Koranic School . Boys come here to memorise the Koran. It’s a book about the size of the old testament and for about 7 years they learn nothing else.
Discipline is harsh and it’s all too easy to break the rules.
19:40
Master What are you looking at (whips them) Go away and don’t look here again.
Early morning The boys lead a grueling day which lasts for nearly 20 hours. Until 100 years ago it’s the way most Muslims began their lives.
20:12
Boy tells about
his day I wake up at 2.30 in the morning. I brush my teeth, wash for prayers, and pray a couple of times. Then we go and read. Then we have a break to wash, and make the dawn prayer.
20:27
Boy washing` I wash my hands 3 times. I wash my mouth 3 tines, my face 3 times, then my arms up to my elbows 3 times.
The older boys teach the younger ones. Each day they memorise one section of the Koran.
20:42
Young Koranic Teacher We are studying the Koran which was brought by the Prophet Mohammed - peace be on him, so that we can tell the difference between truth and myth. We study it as part of our faith. Our aim is to learn the holy Koran and all people should do that.
21:30
Dai Ifalla
Boy with Koranic Board Discipline is strict. Do they treat you well?
The sheikhs treat us quite well. they’re especially good to those who work hard, but for boys who want to go to the market, and laze around, the Sheikhs won’t be good to them.
21:53
Dai Iffala Mahoud With only 2 meals a day the boys are always hungry. Dai Ifalla is the star of the school. He’s just finished learning the Koran - for him it took just 4 years. Today he gets to eat first.
22:15
Food Dai says he’s pleased he won’t have to eat the food any more.
22:28
Cooking The boys eat a diet of Sorghum, a staple of the Sudan. It doesn’t provide a balanced diet but for Sudan it’s more than most get.
22:57
Eisa in chains For those who rebel against the system the punish-ments are harsh. For trying to escape Eisa has been sentenced to 30 days in chains. He doesn’t want to learn the Koran and would prefer to learn something else.
23:18
Eisa Interview Why did you escape?
I don’t want to learn the Koran
Why?
I want to go to a normal school
Why?
Because then I will be able to have holidays and see my family.
23:46
Walking master
Interview Why was the boy we interviewed in chains?
Because he escaped. He didn’t want to stay and learn the Koran. We have so many who remained chained until they’d learned all the Koran.
24:02
Ali in chains Ali also doesn’t want to be here. In fact many of the boys didn’t seem to be very happy. None would speak about how they came to the school except to say that their parents brought them here.
24:21
Ail writing Ali is struggling with his studies. He has not mastered his Arabic alphabet yet, and faces the prospect of many more years unless he accepts his task.
24:32
Ali Interview I was chained because they said I’m not learning the Holy Koran, and because I don’t want to stay here.
Why do you want to escape?
When I was told that I have to come here to learn the Koran, I told them that I was working.
What work?
Mechanic
25:11
Lady fighters Many young Sudanese have no option when they leave school, but to join Sudan’s huge and ever-growing army where the catchword is Jihad or Holy war against any who oppose their regime’s strict brand of fundamentalism.
25:39
US Ambassador
Don Peterson It is the misapplication of shariah, it is how shariah is applied or implemented by people who have power over others which is of concern and we also object to any effort to impose the system of shariah on people who don’t want shariah.
26:00
Displaced Suburb The people who especially don’t want shariah are the 1.8 million mostly Christian displaced who live around Khartoum. They fled the war in the South and have lived here for sometimes 20 years.
26:15
Demolition and X But, for the last 2 years the Sudanese Ministry of Housing has been quietly demolishing their homes. They say the land belongs to others.
26:20
UN Water Pumps A UN water system, it’s part of a $2 million water project installed in a suburb which was then bulldozed. Despite international protests the Sudanese Government has plans for a million more demolition’s. They’re destroying a complex infrastructure built up over decades.
26:47
Demolition This is Hadyusef and bulldozers were here just hours before. The people were given little notice and many possessions were buried. 250 000 houses have been demolished in this manor since 1992.
27:02
Zoom to Gov. Camp After their homes are destroyed this is where the Government has put hundreds of thousands of the Southern displaced. Foreign aid organisations are rarely allowed to work in these camps and people are more vulnerable than ever.
In districts like Hadyusef the government was unable to control and contain the Christian population. By relocating them into refugee camps far outside the city. They are seen as less of a threat.
27:38
Aerial Hadyusef from the air. The strip across the middle of the picture clearly shows the scale of destruction. When they are finished the Government will have demolished the entire suburb.
27:56
Sam in car Before they come they tell the public, the commissioner, the committee of the public, to inform the people by the microphone in the area that tomorrow they are going to come and destroy the houses.
28:11
Child in ruins The Ministry of housing claims the land was squatted by illegal tenants. The fact of the matter is that hundreds of thousands are going through a nightmare while everyone looks away.
28:23
Sam Our house has been damaged, and how can I feel for what can I say exactly. If I say to you if this example happened to you what can you do in the same case?
28:37
Sam approaches
House You see how the house, see the house. It is definitely gone.
28:43
Sam enters house No one collected Sam and his family, or told them where to go. Instead his family simply built a substitute house of sacking nearby.
29:00
Sam sitting down Q. So you had to build this house after they destroyed the other house?
A. We built it in one day completely. From morning up to evening we have been working on it. I and my sister and my mother.
29:18
Janette Johnson
UN Khartoum The United Nations at the time decided to put a protest in to the government of Sudan. They asked them that we would like to have an observer status on any other relocations and the government agreed to any future monitoring of these relocations. However, the massive scale of the demolitions was too large for us to monitor every movement.
29:48
Mobbed by security Sam, the man interviewed earlier at the demolitions of Hadyusef has been approached by Sudanese security. They want to know what he said to the journalists? forced to flee for the interview Sam gave, he now disappears into the Southern underground, in Khartoum.
30:06
Sam at hideout Sam now made clear the risk he’d taken in speaking to journalists about the situation.
30:11
Sam I am afraid of being caught and taken to prison or to be taken to somewhere else maybe to be hung or maybe to be... Many, I can’t tell you there are many things happen like that, many people are taken but nobody knows their place and I am afraid to be taken to a place where nobody knows. Yes, this is the thing that led me to hide myself.
30:42
X on house An X marks a house for demolition. It means that sometime soon men will come with a bulldozer, police will come, and your home will be knocked down. And there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
30:54
Dr Ibrahim Banaga
Setups Except for this man, the minister of housing, Dr Banaga. British educated, the demolitions, are his brain child.
30:59
Upsound Banaga shows
his awards` ....then Masters from Loughborough University of Technology, this is in Leicestershire in England. Then Dr of Philosophy from Loughborough University of Technology.
31:19
Dr Ibrahim Banaga
Minister of Housing We started as we say with a struggle with these squatters and even we have some casualties. Now we don’t have any resistance. Even now the squatter people they pay the Ministry so they can make the treatment, as we say. It is now everybody settles, there is justice, so now we don’t have, we don’t expect any criticism.
31:58
Anonymous Christian
displaced When you say that what the Government is doing is good, if it is bad then the best person. But when a thing is bad, when you say this thing is bad, they’re against it. You would be taken with the security and then your place is not known. Some people are lost like this. Until today we don’t know where they are.
32:18
Camps In the new government camps the situation is critical. Only Sudanese aid organisations are permitted in. Increasingly the displaced are going hungry.
32:27
Woman at hut We have nothing, nothing. We have nothing to eat.
32:40
Janette Johnson The situation in the past has been that people haven’t received enough food due to some of the policies related to the Government and to UN and to the NGOs. There’s been a problem with who receives the food, who distributes it, how its distributed. The situation in terms of sustainability for the people, they can’t normally find jobs because the areas where they are placed are far from the city center..
UN Khartoum
33:08 There are allegations that the government is using
School in camp Sudanese aid organizations to encourage the displaced to convert to Islam. Islamic schools are encouraged at the expense of Christian, and the accusation is that food has also become a tool in the campaign for converts to Islam.
33:30
Children Sudan is great, Sudan is great
33:35
Islamic Aid Agency With only Sudanese charities allowed in the camps the government is now more free than ever to implement controversial Islamisation policies. There are accusations that the government is operating a programme of forced conversions.
33:51
Don Pedersen There are so many reports from credible witnesses that it is very hard to believe that food is not being used as a way to induce or to force people to convert to Islam which is totally contrary to the tenets of Islam but this is what happens.
34:12
Anonymous Christian Islamic organisations try to press the schools. If we
displaced build some other school they will come and stop it. They say that only for our children to start Islamic schools. Some of them have refused..
34:30
Youngster whipped The United Nations recent human rights report on the Sudan accused the authorities of forcing Christian street children into such institutions. The authorities ensured none could speak freely but it was clear it takes a lot of force to keep many of the children in this school.
34:59
Master Int They must give up playing because playing is harmful. It does not allow them time to study. Any-one who misbehaves is whipped so that they don’t play any more. When his colleagues see him being whipped they will stop playing and become afraid.
Master V/O
Over boards The Koran is difficult. If they do not work hard they will not be able to memorise it all. The Koran is not like other school subjects.
35:35
Ali Walking Towards the end of the day Ali is supposed to have memorised everything he wrote on his board in the morning.
35:46
Washing boards Now the boys wash their boards before reciting what they’ve memorised to the school masters. Later they will drink the washing water. It’s supposed to help them learn the Koran. Because Ali is in chains everyone takes advantage of him.
36:11
Master Isn’t it hard for the students to work from dawn until 10 at night?
There’s no other way possible for the boys to learn the Koran. It must be full time. Memorising the Koran is very difficult, that’s why they need all their time spent learning.
The school says more children are coming to Islam than ever before.
36:57
Sheik Eltahir What we see now in this Islamic revival is only
head of Om Duan meeting the natural wishes of the Sudanese, and
Ban Koranic School enhancing their link to Allah. Sudan will carry the torch of Islam to all countries, including your own.
37:27
Evening prayers
Boy speaks in V/O They let us go at 5.30 for dusk prayers, and then we go back to memorise and recite to the Sheik. At 8pm they let us go for the night prayer. Then we recite to the Sheik everything we have learned during the day. At 10pm we go to sleep.
38:27
Funeral For the hungry Christians who’ve had their houses knocked down an Islamic constitution is what their relatives in the South are fighting against. And with disease and death spreading in the new desert camps and the Khartoum government obstructing food supplies to them, there seems little chance the authorities have any intention of equitably treating their Christian community.
With the SPLA rebels in retreat Southerners may soon be completely isolated from the world’s view. The international community needs to complement its humanitarian work, with initiatives to make human rights’ abuses more visible. Effective monitoring has never been more important. It is no longer justifiable to ignore the plight of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese.
10:39:56 END