• Text size  | | |
• Email this document
• Printable version

Sudan: Medical doctors and military service, exemption and restrictions on exit from the country

According to Amnesty International, "conscription into the armed forces is compulsory for both men and women and the law stipulates that military training is a precondition for entry into further and higher education or into certain jobs" (2001, 227; Sudan News & Views Sept-Oct. 1997; Country Reports 2000 2001 Section 2).

According to Human Rights Watch,

national service is compulsory for Sudanese men of all religions from the ages of eighteen to thirty-three years. The length of conscripts' service is a function of their educational status: the more educated serve twelve months, high school graduates eighteen months, and those with less than a high school diploma must serve twenty-four months (1996, 270).

Furthermore,

doctors [men and women] are required to complete their national service obligations after finishing their residencies, and before they can be certified by the Ministry of Health to practice medicine (1996, 268).

In addition to national service, there is a parallel service, the Popular Defence Force (PDF) training (ibid. 269). The PDF is a militia under army jurisdiction since 1989, whose role is "to support the military effort in the civil war" (ibid.). According to Human Rights Watch, "women may join; and certain categories of women and men (university students, civil servants and others) are required to join" (ibid., 273).

In 1995, the government reportedly required male and female doctors who had graduated from medical school in 1992, 1993, and 1994 to undergo PDF training (ibid., 288).

in June 1995 the Ministry of Health posted the names of those in these classes who were required to sign up with the PDF section in the Minister of Defence headquarters. Those subjected to this requirement believed that medical graduates who supported the government were not required to join the PDF but were given hardship posts in western Sudan that did not expose them to any military risk. Those who were believed to be anti-government reportedly were threatened with posting to the front line in the war in the south (ibid., 288-289).

For detailed information on military service in Sudan, please consult the Human Rights Watch report, Behind the Red Line pages 268-290, available at Regional Documentation Centres.

No reports on circumstances under which doctors may be exempted from military service obligations, and on reasons why they are restricted from leaving the Sudan could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Amnesty International. 2001. Amnesty International Report 2001. 2001. New York: Amnesty International USA.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2000. 2001. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: <http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/af/index.cfm?docid=822> [Accessed: 4 Jan. 2002]

Human Rights Watch/Africa. 1996. Behind the Red Line: Political Repression in Sudan. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Sudan News & Views. September-October 1997. Issue No. 29. "Forcible Recruitment of Youth." <http://www.liaafrica.org/sudan_articlesésudan%20youth%20recruitment.htm> [Accessed: 3 Jan. 2002]

Additional Sources Consulted

Africa Confidential.

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series.

Keesings' Record of World Events.

LEXIS/NEXIS.

Oral sources.

Resource Centre. Country File. Sudan.

Sudan Democratic Gazette.

Internet sites, including:

All Africa.

Reliefweb.

Search engines, including:

Google

Mamma

Topics: Military service,