SUDANESE doctors warned today that “new trends of violence” are emerging in the crackdown on protests by the tyrannical Omar al-Bashir regime — including “horrific torture of detainees which has culminated in death.”

The Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate said medical reports indicated at least 57 people have been killed in the government’s attempt to suppress mass demonstrations calling for an end to Mr Bashir’s 30-year reign.

It said at least three detainees had died from torture, including 36-year-old teacher Ahmed al-khair, arrested at a protest in Khashm el-girba.

A day later police told his family he had died from “food poisoning,” but the postmortem report “indicated signs of criminal violence.” 

In South Darfur, Faiz Abdallah Omar and Hassan Talga were arrested and their families were told within a few days that they had died; no postmortems were conducted and their families were not allowed to see their bodies.

Separately at least two students had been “beaten to death with fists, pipes and ends of shotguns” while others had been killed by live fire.

Tear gas canisters aimed at the head or chest and other missile injuries had resulted in “loss of an eye (three cases), rib fractures (four cases), skull fractures (three cases) and various abdominal injuries leading to internal bleeding.” 

The doctors’ union recorded tear gas “bombs” causing deep burns that had led to the loss of fingers by one student and forced the amputation of another’s entire hand.

Tear gas was being fired “indiscriminately” in residential areas and even hospitals — including on one occasion within an asthma ward — and some evidence suggested tear gas had been mixed with nerve gas in some incidents.

One doctor, Dr Baker Abdel Hamid, had been shot dead while providing emergency care to protesters.

The last main killing method listed by the union in its report New Trends of Violence and Brutality Against Civil Protesters in Sudan was the deliberate running over of demonstrators by troops in pick-up trucks known locally as “Thatchers.”

It condemned the Bashir government’s “unspeakable crimes against their own unarmed people, while most of the world silently watches.”

The Communist Party of Sudan has called a rally in protest against the slaughter of peaceful protesters in the country tomorrow from 2-5pm in Trafalgar Square, London.