July 16,2000
URGENT ACTION ARREST, DISAPPEARANCE AND POSSIBLE DEPORTATION OF REFUGEE BY THE SUDAN
Diress Teshager, an active opponent of the EPRDF government who had been living in exile in the Sudan, was arrested by the Sudanese police in the town of Basunda and then taken to Doka from where he has disappeared. Relatives fear that the Sudanese authorities may have handed him over to the EPRDF since he was arrested following their request in the first place. Diress Teshager had years ago conducted a local armed resistance against the EPRDF government in some areas of Gondar. He has been a refugee in the Sudan for some years now but the local UNHCR has long ago stopped giving protection to refugees and thus Diress and others like him have been exposed to the maneuvers and arbitrary actions of the concerned governments. There are justifiable fears that if Diress has been actually handed over to the EPRDF he could very well be killed. Back in 1991, Sudan handed over Azanaw Demile to the EPRDF and he has disappeared since. Please write the President of the Sudan or to the Sudanese embassy or consulate near you to call on the Sudan not to hand over Diress to the EPRDF and to give full account of his whereabouts. Write also the UNHCR calling upon it to take up the case of Diress Teshager and to protect the refugees in the Sudan.
SOCEPP
