It seems hard to believe, but in downtown Khartoum, there is a small office offering a comprehensive range of free services for people with torture-related problems.

The Amel Center employs a medical officer to tend to pain relief and surgery, a psychologist for counseling, a physiotherapist for rehabilitation therapy, a psychiatrist for prescribing anti-depressants, a social worker to help victims and their families reintegrate, and a lawyer to advise on legal remedies.

Business is booming.

With the situation in Darfur spinning out of control, the center decided to expand by opening an office in nearby Nyala in 2004.  "We provide free legal aid to victims of torture and people facing cruel, inhumane, and degrading punishments like amputation, flogging, and stoning," says Mossaad Mohamed Ali, coordinator at the new office. In addition to this list of medieval afflictions, the center also devotes an increasing amount of time to the enormous problem of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The United Nations estimates the number of IDPs in Darfur at 2.2 million.

A graduate of the Faculty of Law at Cairo University, Mr. Mossaad has worked on human rights issues in Sudan for almost 15 years. After working as a legal trainee, he helped a group of junior lawyers set up a nongovernmental organization (NGO) to provide legal assistance to detainees facing capital punishment as well as to women and children burdened with legal problems. It was around this time that his work began almost exclusively to focus on dealing with the fallout of the conflict between the northern and southern political factions of Sudan.

When he and a number of lawyers, doctors, and journalists established the original Amel Center in 2000, it operated underground for a year because the government refused to register it as a human rights organization. Authorities have detained Mr. Mossaad several times for his humanitarian activities, but he sees such risks as part of the job.

"The risk of being detained is always there, particularly when we take into account that the main perpetrators of torture and other forms of violence are working for the government," he says. "We depend on the campaigns of international NGOs, at the least, to avoid getting tortured ourselves."

The fact that there is a growing need for organizations like the Amel Center is a damning indictment of the human rights situation in the North African nation. "The situation is gruesome," says Ken Bacon, a Sudan expert at Refugees International. "Opponents of the government are routinely taken aside and treated roughly – it is disturbingly common to encounter people who have been tortured."

The Amel Center's goal is not just to tend to the human collateral of the conflict. Mr. Mossaad and his colleagues also have ambitions to improve the quality of governance that the Sudanese people suffer.

Click Here for Larger Image >> A woman prepares the family meal in the Damrat, or nomadic encampment, of Surmi in Darfur, Sudan on  April 22, 2007. Decades of drought helped trigger Darfur's violence as rival groups fought over scarce water and arable land. Furthermore, refugees are rapidly destroying forests around the camps by cutting trees for firewood. (AP Photo/Alfred de Montesquiou)

One specific aim is to bring the perpetrators of torture and other human rights violations to justice. "We aim to challenge the culture of impunity that exists in Sudan and work toward replacing it with a culture of rule of law," he says. The center does this by holding training sessions, seminars, and conferences to raise awareness about human rights among the broader community.

"We target community leaders, lawyers, judges, law enforcement officers, women leaders, and IDPs in the camps" to make them aware that they have rights and responsibilities that must be upheld, he says. These education programs are having some effect as people realize they have rights and gain an understanding of how to protect them, but "more efforts are needed … particularly on the part of government officials."

Mr. Mossaad says support from foreign organizations and governments is crucial to achieving this goal. The best way that other nations can help is by placing "pressure on the government of Sudan to create the healthy environment for human rights defenders and those who raise their concerns about the human rights situation in Sudan," he says.

To this end, the United States plays a constructive role by promoting good governance and the rule of law, although its message often falls on deaf ears. "In practice, we haven't witnessed any improvement on the ground because the government of Sudan doesn't pay any attention to the American message," he says.

He adds that the Sudanese government runs a sophisticated media campaign to undermine efforts by the United Nations and the international community to bring a peaceful resolution to the conflict.  Critics say that the government has devoted considerable effort to stymieing the planned United Nations-African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Darfur, while the government blames rebels such as the Justice for Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA).


Although the West is willing to push Sudan on human rights issues, some other nations with influence over Khartoum have been less forceful despite their growing economic influence.  "China can't put oil investment aside to convince the government of Sudan to enhance human rights.  It doesn't have the political will to push this way," says Mr. Mossaad.  China buys the majority of the country's daily oil output of 350,000 barrels.

This reality makes it more difficult for people like Mr. Mossaad to convince his government to change its ways or for other foreign nations trying to help civil society groups like the Amel Center. "We don't like China's policy toward Sudan and human rights – there's a huge values gap," says Nicholas Platt, a top official at the U.S. State Department during the Reagan administration and former ambassador to Asia and Africa. "But they have been affected by international pressure - China now says that they are in touch with the government in Sudan and are asking them to change their policy and so on." 

China recently appointed Liu Guijin as a special envoy to Sudan to put pressure on Khartoum to accept United Nations-African Union peacekeeping forces in Darfur, as well as to defend Beijing's record in the country.

Experts say that the main aim of the Sudanese government's torture practice is to drive a wedge between Western groups and local NGOs. "There are two forms of intimidation," says Mr. Bacon. "One is to stop cooperation with groups overseas trying to do something about the situation, and the other is to get the Sudanese themselves to pull their punches on criticism of the government."

Mr. Mossaad says the planned foreign intervention in Darfur is an essential step in breaking the cycle of violence and should improve the human rights environment in Sudan as long as the international forces remain under the auspices of the United Nations. "Government forces and African Union forces have so far failed to provide civilians with the protection they need and failed to disarm the Janjaweed militias," he says. In addition, clashes between the national army and nonsignatories to the 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement have resulted in continuing human rights violations against civilians. "Adequate military protection is one of the most pressing needs for the people of Darfur," he says.

Other rights that were supposed to be guaranteed in various peace agreements also have failed to materialize. Mr. Mossaad says the bulk of provisions set out on paper have yet to be implemented, "particularly the right to organize as a political party or civil society organization, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and (freedom against) arbitrary arrest."

He knows there is a long way to go before the last torture victim seeking help limps through the doors of the Amel Center. It will require a concerted effort from all parties to bring the conflict to a close. "But I think if the government of Sudan collaborates with the international community, and the United Nations fulfils its obligations and provides the needed money, and the other logistic and technical issues are resolved … the crisis in Darfur will ease."

Then, and only then, Mr. Mossaad might be able to look forward to shuttering the doors on his service for torture victims. Until that day, he expects to remain busy.

Updated August 2007