Vol. 404 No. 7
120 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if his Department have expressed any opinions or made any representations in relation to the 20 imprisoned lawyers who were working in Sudan who have been arrested by a military Government which seized power in June 1989.
The human rights situation in Sudan is a source of serious preoccupation to the Government and our partners in the Twelve, and our concerns in this respect have been made known to the Sudanese authorities on a number of occasions. In addition, and as a measure of the concerns of the Community and its member states at the continuing violations of human rights in that country, work on drawing up the programme of assistance for Sudan under the Fourth Lomé Convention has been postponed.
The detention without charge or trial of large numbers of people in Sudan, including lawyers, politicians, doctors, academics and journalists, has been specifically highlighted by the Twelve and only serves to underscore the need for the Sudanese Government to take concrete action to improve its overall record on human rights.
