March 19, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese security arrested this week four students inside the University of Khartoum because of their support to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir on March 4.

The security forces made two incursions at the University of Khartoum this week on Monday and Thursday to disperse public meetings inside the university held by students supporting the ICC decision against Al-Bashir.

On Monday pro-National Congress Party students in the university attacked a meeting organized by Democratic Forces Movement, a leftist party known in Arabic as HAQ, and beat them with the help of security forces who provided steel bars used to strike the students and disperse them.

The security forces wounded several students and arrested two among them: Tag Elsir Gaffar and Ahmed Charif.

The head of the Sudanese security service Salah Abdellah Gosh had warned weeks before the publication of the arrest warrant against president Al-Bashir that he would not tolerate any public support to the ICC.

On Thursday afternoon, NCP students backed by security service attacked a meeting organized by the United Democratic Front (UDF), a student organization supporting the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Abdel Wahid Al-Nur.

Using steel bars, the NCP students and the security elements wounded many people present and detained two others: Mustafa Sidq Yahia and Taha Mohamed Zakaria.

Last week the Sudanese authorities attacked a meeting by UDF students in the south Kordofan town of Deling and wounded several students.

The law bars the security service or any other regular forces from entering inside the university, whose campus is designated a sanctuary. The students said the incursion constitutes a clear breach of the law. However the university administration didn’t condemn the presence of security forces inside the university.

(ST)