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Darfur:
From Inside the Ghost House
By Charles Cieri
Al-Ghali Yahya Shegifat is about to break a promise. Somewhere in Sudan there is an office drawer with a document in it. The document orders Shegifat to never tell the story he is about to begin. The man who handed him the pen was implicit in genocide, one of hundreds Shegifat faced down on a long brutal journey that brought him to this place.
He tells his story from a brick building, very unassuming, on a dark street. He does not appear to feel safe as his eyes dart around or stare off when they finally settle. His movements are fidgety as he arduously recounts his ordeal – looking at the door, looking down at his hands, nervously shuffling a pen, looking back at the door; who did he imagine could be on the other side of that door?
The story was broken into small segments. Shegifat’s monotone voice carried a steady residual terror – not like a person fleeing danger, like a person resigned to it – as he recounted in Arabic. He had an almost embarrassed affect to his body language, eye contact and tone. His interpreter, by contrast, would convert his confessions of torture and incommunicado-imprisonments into booming spouts of English. Shegifat’s eyes never left the door for more than few minutes.
This was not a secret house in Khartoum or El Fasher, where the police and security services vigorously stalked these first hand accounts. We were relatively safe and sound in the South Philadelphia office of Darfur Alert Coalition (DAC), 7000 miles away from the document with Shegifat’s signature.
The story began on May 14th, 2008 with a phone call. The person on the other side of the line said: “We know where you are and we are coming to arrest you.”
Shegifat, a freelance writer and head of the Association of Darfur Journalist says he was targeted for his reports publicizing the atrocities of the Sudanese government against the people of the Darfur region. According to the Amnesty International report he was one of 155 people arrested – many non-military professionals, by the Sudanese police and National Intelligence and Security Services accused but not charged with aiding a May 10th attack on Khartoum by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
Shagifat was picked up and blind folded before being taken to a warehouse, unofficial and manned by non-government security forces. He called this place a ‘Ghost House’, where it was plainly demonstrated that no law would prevent the guards from killing anyone for any reason.
He would spend part of his 65 days of captivity here, accompanied by professionals and transitional government politicians as well as the psychologically unstable. Shegifat said the only provisions were tiny rations and two bathroom trips a day. With no showers, they slept on the floors, crowded and dirty. Constant bright light, mounted on the ceiling, disoriented them.
As Shegifat’s story progressed through settings, his group was divided and narrowed down. Shegifat consistently named his fellow prisoners through these stages, often with their profession, home town and age. Specifically naming nearly 30, he commented that he knew of many more.
For physical and mental effects, they were whipped with cords and beaten down to the ground, ordered to rise and beaten again if they could not. Shegifat reported internal injuries, some resulting in death. Detainees were photographed and documented numerous times while denied medical treatment, hygienic means and, outside communication.
Shegifat was eventually separated out. Blindfolded and transferred to Kober, an official prison in Khartoum. He felt a sense of relief leaving the non-existence of the “Ghost House.” He was right to feel the prison represented accountability; unfortunately the staff was accountable to a brutal regime.
Shegifat’s captures attempted to extract a confession with psychological torture but he refused, reaffirming his innocence. He was released following his signature on a document in which he promised not to engage in any activities against the state, not to transfer any Darfur news or work to affect public sentiment. While he disregarded this contract, his guarded demeanor demonstrates he has not disregarded the implied consequences.
After a few more photographs, he was released without explanation. He had no clue of the furious international cooperation that preceded his release.
Suad Mansour, Shegifat’s sister, had emigrated to Philadelphia in 2000, after having her life threatened due to her support of displaced women in Darfur. Now as a board member of the DAC in Philadelphia, she had her worst fear confirmed: her brother had been swept away to a “Ghost House” in the wake of the JEM attack.
Lou Ann Merkle, Co-Founder of DAC wrote the initial report that led to an Urgent Action Alert by London-based Amnesty International. Then Merkle turned the alert back to local politicians, Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz and Senator Bob Casey. Rep. Schwartz’s effort immediately resulted in Shegifat’s transfer out of the “Ghost House” to Kober Prison by The Sudanese Ministry of Justice.
After another two weeks of silence, Suad Mansour and Merkle appealed to Senator Bob Casey, who appealed to Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, urging her to investigate the detention of a Pennsylvanian constituent’s brother.
Shegifat is not working with the DAC to continue his advocacy. He shares this duty with others who have fled Sudan. Together they offer a compelling illustration of the picture on the ground – present and past. Like Shegifat, Amira Tibin had her life shifted by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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