Since the National Islamic Front in Sudan took power following a military coup in 1989, it has created restrictions on daily life and political activity in an effort to maintain control. The Sudanese refer to these rules as the red line, and anyone who breaks the rules and crosses the line while expressing their political or civil independence is severely punished. The red line is enforced under the National Security Act, which allows security agents to arbitrarily detain anyone for up to six months without judicial oversight in secret detention centers referred to as ghost houses, where torture and ill-treatment are commonplace. Numerous subjects are off limits for discussion, but self-determination and slavery are especially forbidden. While Sudan has been involved in a civil war for much of the period since independence in 1956, claiming some 1.3 million civilians since 1983 as a result of targeted killings, indiscriminate fire, or starvation and disease, the conflict itself is deemed an inappropriate subject.
Slavery continues today as tribal militias capture women and children as war booty in the civil war.
These and other violations have created a repressive state behind the red line. IN THE NAME OF GOD Repression Continues in Northern Sudan Gross human rights violations continued in Sudan 5 years after a military coup overthrew the elected civilian government in 1989 and brought to power a military regime dominated by the National Islamic Front. As the current regime completes its fifth year in power, all forms of political opposition remain banned legally and through systematic terror. The regime has institutionalized changes in the character of the state through extensive purges of the civil service and by dismantling any element of civil society that disagrees with its narrow vision of an Islamic state. Political power over the whole country has been entrenched in the hands of a tiny ideological elite.