20101102
africanews

Sudan detained nine Darfur activists among a prominent human rights lawyer, just weeks ahead of a southern referendum timetable. "The total number arrested is nine activists -- all of them from Darfur. One of them is a very active lawyer in the Darfur lawyer's association," a civil society leader Elbaqir Mokhtar said.

The leader said the soldiers are targeting the Human Rights and Advocacy Network for Democracy (HAND), for which most of those arrested, worked for.

He said there is no information about charges against them or even where they were being detained. Mokhtar said the arrests began on Saturday but continued until last night.

A source in Sudan's National Security and Intelligence Services said they had no information about the arrests, according to Reuters.

Mokhtar said the arrests cast doubt on whether Khartoum would allow civil society to work freely ahead of the referendum. "It's now really raised alarm bells that probably what is coming is going to be worse".

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s authority who is wanted for war crimes in western Sudan region of Darfur forced many human rights activists to flee Sudan in 2009.

ICC accuses Bashir of running a campaign of rape, murder and other crimes against humanity in Darfur. Bashir denies the charges. Bashir denies the charges.

The South will vote on January 9 in a referendum to determine whether South Sudan will be an independent state or remain with Sudan. The voter registration will start on 14 November and end on 4 December.

The referendum was part of a 2005 peace deal to end two decades of conflict between the north and oil-rich south in which some 1.5 million people died.

Law and order in the Western Region of Darfur has collapsed since 2003 when black African rebels began to take arms against the Sudan government.

The ongoing conflicts in Darfur has killed some 300,000 people and displaced more than 2.5 million others, according to a UN report. Sudan however said only 10,000 people are dead.