WRITTEN QUESTION E-1698/03

by Marco Cappato (NI) and Benedetto Della Vedova (NI) to the Council

(22 May 2003)

Subject: Closure of the Sudanese daily Khartoum Monitor

According to the press agency MISNA, on 9 May the Sudanese authorities ordered the closure of the Khartoum Monitor, an English-language daily which the government had already found provocative because of a number of its articles on religion and the civil war in the south of the country. According to initial reports, backed up by the forces of law and order which closed the newspaper office, the action

was taken because fines imposed earlier had not been paid. The Khartoum Monitor itself reports that the fines had in fact been partially cancelled following an appeal court sentence, whilst a small fine upheld by the court verdict had been duly paid. Some months ago Nhial Bol, the editor of the newspaper, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment (or the payment of a fine of about USD 2 000) for spreading false information in an article accusing the government of the President Omar el Bashir of involvement in the slave-trade in Sudan.

Does the Council know about the repeated and systematic threats to freedom of expression on the part of the Sudanese authorities inherent in the state of emergency, which has been in force since 1999?

What diplomatic pressure will it exert on the Sudanese authorities to ensure that the Khartoum Monitor reopens immediately?

Does not the Council intend to make compliance with the agreement with the Khartoum government initialled on 10 December last year which envisages the use of an initial fund designed for the technical preparation of cooperation programmes, which are to be resumed as soon as a definitive peace accord is initialled dependent on the immediate lifting of the state of emergency?

Reply

(7 October 2003)

The Council is aware of the closure of the English-language daily Khartoum Monitor in May this year and of the measures taken against the editor of this newspaper.

In the framework of the EU dialogue with the Sudan, Head of Missions in Khartoum meet regularly with government representatives to discuss open issues and to address in particular the EU concerns on incidents such as the closure of the Khartoum Monitor. In these dialogue meetings the EU emphasises that the Government of the Sudan (GoS) loses all credibility vis-à-vis the public and the international community if it is not complying with the basic principles of democratic and human rights. Continued violation of these principles would have negative consequences also in the peace talks. The EU is keeping up its pressure on the GoS to comply with the benchmarks agreed in December 2002 including freedom of expression.

Following the signature of the Machakos agreement in July last year the priority for the EU in its relations with the Sudan has been the promotion of a comprehensive peace settlement which would also be conducive to the enhancement of democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights and good governance. The improvement and respect of these basic principles are a pre-condition for the normalisation of EU Sudanese relations including resumption of cooperation. The lifting of the state of emergency is part of the benchmarks package and compliance with it would be assessed in that context(1).

(1) See reply to Written Questions E-3892/02 and E-0077/03 by Marco Cappato on the same question linked to the issue of death penalty in the Sudan.