9 - ParanoiaButheina Doka, a nurse working for the Chevron Oil company, was arrested in 1989 by security police for using a mobile telephone issued to her by Chevron. Possession of such a telephone marked her, in the eyes of the NIF security forces, as a "spy" or "fifth columnist". She was accused of passing information to foreign powers and to the Sudan People's Liberation Army.
The torture to which she was subjected over a period of several months included lashes, burns to the body, sexual assault with objects, and rape, according to the US-based Fund for Peace and the Sudan Human Rights Organisation (SHRO-London). As a result, Butheina Doka suffered a mental breakdown from which she has never recovered.
(Amnesty International Urgent Action AFR/54/16/89; Fund for Peace - Women's Project report 1992 - available from 823 United Nations Plaza, Suite 712, New York NY 10017, USA; SHRO-London)