Sudan criticizes Washington's record in human rights field

Sudan has replied strongly yesterday to the US, when it attacked its human rights record because of its abuse of the Iraqi prisoners. This, however, came after Washington condemned it earlier because of what it had described the Sudanese government commitment of crimes against the Sudanese people.

The Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Othman Ismael has expressed his conviction that the US is one of the largest human rights violating sides in Iraq or in other parts of the world.

Ismael said upon his arrival in Nairobi yesterday "we do not say that there are no human rights violations in Sudan, but we do exert our utmost efforts to stop them." He accused Washington of keeping a blind eye over its soldiers abuse and torture of the Iraqis. He added " what the American soldiers are doing there. They are torturing people by electrical shocks. All these were seen on the TV."

The Sudanese minister who is taking part in a regional meeting on the peace process on Somalia, criticized Washington because it did not form an independent investigation commission on what is taking place in the American detention centers in Iraq. He said " Instead of forming an independent investigation commission to disclose the matter and punish the American soldiers over these dirty works, they say they will make a special investigation." Last Monday the US withdrew from the UN committee for human rights in protest of re-electing Sudan in its membership and accused Khartoum of committing ethnic cleansing crimes in Darfour district in the western part of the country.

The official spokesman for the Sudanese government and minister of information and communications, al-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik, said in a press statement that Sudan's winning of the UN committee membership despite Washington's rejection is but a victory for the Sudanese diplomacy and a slap for Washington, on which he said, had a new diplomatic defeat in the international arena.