October 16, 2006

Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy has learned of the arrest and detention of Mohammed Haroun, the 63-year old Imam at the Hai al-Madaris Mosque in Al Geneina. While leading the mosque's noon prayer service on September 29, 2006 Haroun spoke in support of foreign intervention to help stop the killings in Darfur. Later that same day, he was arrested at his home along with his son Saleh Mohamed Haroun, age 47.

According to Haroun's neighbors, four plainclothes security guards, accompanied by a driver, arrived at Haroun's home in the Hai al-Madaris district at around eight o'clock in the evening. The guards came in a Land Cruiser pickup and were armed with machine guns. His neighbors report that Haroun and his son were taken to the security department in the Ardamata military area, located about three miles east of Al Geneina town. Neither Haroun nor his son has been seen or heard from since.

Haroun is one of several Imams in Darfur who have spoken out recently urging foreign intervention. The arrests signal a heightening of the Sudanese government's efforts to crush support for a UN peacekeeping mission. According to Damanga Coalition's sources in Darfur, others who have spoken out against the Sudanese government or in support of the UN have been similarly silenced.