Meeting at Sudanese Mission to UN

Naoma, Sabina and Gilbert before the meeting

Ms. Naoma Nagahwatte, of the Washington D.C. based Campaigns Unit, and Gilbert Martin, of the East Africa Coordination Group of Amnesty International USA, met with Mr. Yasir Abdelsalam, Minister Plenipotentiary and Charge d’Affaires and Mr. Idrees M. Saeed, Third Secretary of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Sudan to the United Nations. They presented Amnesty's concerns regarding many issues including: impunity and the lack of criminal prosecutions for crimes of war and crimes against humanity, safeguarding humanitarian assistance and those that provide it, protection and security for refugees and Internally Displaced People, genocide (Amnesty has to date not chosen to characterize ongoing events in Darfur as constituting a genocide under the terms of the 1948 U.N. Convention), the expulsion of the international aid organization the Norwegian Refugee Council and the closing of the offices of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), the need for Amnesty International and other human rights organizations to be granted visas to carry out in country investigations without harassment nor undue delay, and the ongoing peace talks between belligerents being held in Abuja, Nigeria and scheduled to be completed by the end of April 2006.