Khartoum, Sudan
Professor Omar Haroon Al Khaleefa left
his home on Friday, September 14, 2012. His family continues to search for him
and holds the Sudanese authorities responsible for not investigating his
disappearance or providing plausible information as to his fate.
Professor Omar Haroon Al Khaleefa left
his home in an upscale neighborhood of Khartoum North and was never seen again.
His family holds the Sudanese authorities responsible for his disappearance,
saying they have failed to investigate new information that has come to light.
On Sept. 14 2012, Omar
Khaleefa, a distinguished
Sudanese psychology professor, told his family he was going for a walk and
would be back for lunch. He left his home in El Safia at 4:30 p.m. for his
regular exercise routine on Shambat Bridge – a popular jogger’s destination.
Khaleefa’s young son asked to accompany him on the walk but when he came down a
few minutes later, he found his father had already left.
Ali Haroon Khaleefa, his younger
brother, sits in his educational toy store which his brother helped curate as
an expert in children’s education and intelligence. He tells his brother’s
story in a quiet yet determined voice. Khaleefa had been missing for over 16
months when Ali decided to end his silence.
He describes his brother’s state of
mind in the weeks leading to his disappearance as agitated. Khaleefa
continuously voiced concern over the deteriorating state of Sudan, with
specialists leaving the country in droves and those that stayed remained
marginalized and underappreciated. Khaleefa was also a vocal advocate for the
rights of the South Sudanese people and colleagues report that he was visibly
shaken after the death of Dr. John Garang.
“He called me on Wednesday, Sept. 12,
2012 and said he had to meet me regarding something urgent”. The regret in his
voice is unmistakable as he recounts how he was unable to meet him that day but
promised to catch up soon. He never saw him again.
Omar Khaleefa’s exercise routine involved
a walk or jog interjected with a cup of tea prepared by a lady stationed near
the bridge. After his disappearance, the tea lady confirmed that he had passed
by her for his tea and headed towards the bridge. She is the last person to
have seen him to date.
Ali Khaleefa continues his story of
finding a missed call on his cell phone when he woke up on the morning of Sept.
15, 2012. A relative had called to inform him that his brother never returned
home after his walk. Ali immediately headed to El Safia Police Station to file
a missing persons report. He was told that since the professor had not been
missing 24 hours, it was too early to file a report.
A few phone calls were made and the
police agreed to proceed with a report and investigation, due to the high
profile of the missing person in question. The police summoned Khaleefa’s wife
and daughter for statements. From the house, they fetched his cell phone and
laptop which had been in Omar’s car, left parked at home that fateful Friday
and his official will.
A website
and Facebook
page call for his
release, a prevalent theme among his supporters. These pages reflect the
conviction of his sympathizers but have a limited following in a country where
social media activism is in its nascent stages.
In Sudan, political detentions and
censorship continue even as the government speaks of reform and
dialogue, while the reality on the ground is increased press censorship and continuing
detentions – most recently political activist Izzeldin Hireika detained
February 8 2014.
According to an article published 10 days after Khaleefa’s
disappearance, the police pursued eight avenues in their investigation, two of
which were not disclosed. The remaining six theories included:
1.
Suicide
2.
Meditation (Religious retreat)
3.
Abduction at the hands of a foreign
nation
4.
Political or Criminal Detention
5.
Voluntary disappearance
6.
Murdered and body disposed of in
unknown location
The article states that authorities
categorically deny detaining Khaleefa although his family maintains that they
have not received any official denial, to this day, from the Sudanese
authorities regarding his detention.
The article considers the voluntary
disappearance the most likely theory, a sentiment echoed by a colleague of
Khaleefa that considers the disappearance another attention-seeking stunt from
a controversial man who enjoys being the center of attention and courted the
limelight.
Directly after his disappearance,
concerned family members assembled outside his home were upset when a police
officer reported a sighting of Khaleefa walking near the airport in a
disheveled state, munching on a grilled ear of corn. The police told the
assembly that psychologists were prone to mental episodes, suggesting that
Khaleefa had suffered a form of nervous breakdown.
The family was outraged. Khaleefa
is considered a tribal leader among his clan and the suggestion was borderline
blasphemous to them. Ali Khaleefa believes that this rumor was circulated as a
distraction, to disperse the assembled family members.
He urged everyone to stay calm and
rejected their idea for demonstrations. He advised everyone to assist in the
investigation, in his hope that it would bear fruit. He has lost that hope now
and has decided to take matters into his own hands.
He stated that the family had
previously avoided escalating matters in light of the tense situation in Sudan
but in his opinion, they had shown enough patience and are moving forward now.
Ali Khaleefa began making statements to
the press in December 2013, holding the Sudanese authorities responsible for
the disappearance of his older brother after the family’s continued patience
and cooperation.
Ali’s frustration shows when he
recounts taking a lead he considered viable to the authorities in November
2013. He gave them all the information he had obtained and asked to be kept
abreast of the situation and accepted the authorities’ request to keep the
information confidential, as they followed the lead and processed it. The
information which he has now chosen to go public with.
Ali also tells how the officers in
charge of the case and designated family liaisons eventually stopped taking his
calls and responding to his messages.
After his queries went unacknowledged,
Ali Khaleefa informed the authorities that he is going public with his
information and appeals, as he has lost confidence in the official
investigation and will pursue all available options to find out the truth about
what happened to his brother.
In December 2013, over 15 months after
the disappearance, Ali Khaleefa began meeting with tribal leaders, human rights
lawyers and leaders of the main opposition parties, including Farouq Abu Eissa,
Elsadiq Elmahdi and Hassan El Turabi. He has vowed to go public with all the
information he has and plans to submit a memorandum to the United Nations.
In addition to these meetings, Ali
Khaleefa has made statements to the local press to raise awareness to his
family’s plight. He believes that his brother has been abducted or is under
compulsory detention and holds the authorities responsible for not ascertaining
the fate of Prof. Khaleefa and giving his family closure.
Ali Khaleefa says they have no idea if
Omar Khaleefa is dead or alive. He severed ties with the authorities after
their continued lack of response and, in his words, inefficient handling of the
investigation.
“They say the “Prof.” is a national
asset but we have not seen this reflected in the investigation. They tell us
they used police dogs and military planes in their search but we have no
evidence to support that claim.”
In the first week of February and in
light of the recent activity on the part of the family, Sudan National
Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) summoned Ali Khaleefa and provided him
with a progress report regarding the investigation and the tip he had provided.
He was assigned new liaisons with the authorities in a blatant overture of
appeasement.
On Wednesday, Feb. 5 2014, a meeting
was held, attended by approximately 30 family members, friends, colleagues,
human rights activists and political leaders to outline the next steps to be
undertaken. The first resolution was to unify the efforts of the various
committees, to proceed as a single entity. This committee is set to organize a
demonstration at the Human Rights Commission in Khartoum and meeting government
officials.
Ali Khaleefa also took this opportunity
to go public with the information he had previously given the authorities.
At 12:16am on November 2, 2013 he
received the first of several text messages from a person stating that Prof.
Khaleefa was in good health, incarcerated in a nearby state on the authority of
a government official. The sender stated that he had participated in the
abduction and requested a total of 500,000 Sudanese Pounds ($85,000 as per
official exchange rate) to secure the captor’s safe passage to another country
after releasing Khaleefa, as he did not believe Khaleefa was an “infiltrator”,
as he had been told.
This latest accusation likely stemmed
from Khaleefa’s interaction with foreigners at professional events abroad,
commonly perceived by his colleagues as inappropriate..
The text contained a warning against
approaching the authorities, press or telecommunications companies and gave
instructions for further communication, concluding with a prayer that the
family be reunited soon. In the afternoon of the same day, he received another
message to “forget about it” since he had not responded. A final text message
was received on November 20, 2013 that the sender was headed to Darfur,
signaling the end of their communication.
The disappearance of Prof. Omar Haroon
has not actually caused a stir among the general Sudanese public. This could be
due to his Islamist background or his flair for the dramatic. At the end of the
day, a college professor left his wife and three children in the middle of a
Friday afternoon and was never seen again. His family deserves the truth and is
now demanding it in a voice that is steadily rising.
This article was first published in Pambazuka News. 2014-05-22, Issue 679
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