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MARCO WERMAN: I'm Marco Werman. This is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. Heba Aly is an Egyptian-Canadian reporter. She's been working in Sudan for about six months. During that time, she filed a few stories for us, but last weekend, Aly got word that her work in Sudan was coming to an abrupt end. Authorities there told her she had two days to get out of the country. Heba Aly is now in Cairo. Heba, what did the Sudanese government say to you and what was the tone in which they said it?

HEBA ALY: They called me up and they said, “We're unhappy with some of the things you're asking about, and we'd like to meet with you.” And when I met them, it was basically, “We want you out of the country. We don't care where you go, just get out and you've got two days to do it.”

WERMAN: And did they tell you in that meeting what they were unhappy with in your reporting?

ALY: They said that it was some questions I'd been asking about the arms industry. I'd come across a public website, called Military industry corporation, which is a Sudanese corporation that produces arms for domestic defense use. It's in English. It's very organized. It's got pictures and details about all the weapons they produce, and I thought it was an interesting story. So I had called them up on the numbers I found on the website and met with the people from the military industry corporation – and that's apparently what I shouldn't have done.

WERMAN: And is there any connection between this military industrial corporation and the Sudanese government?

ALY: You know, I hadn't even gotten that far in terms of checking into its history. I was just at the very beginning stages. I assume that it is a government-run corporation, but, you know, it was very much preliminary research that I was making. I hadn't even pitched the story to anyone yet.

WERMAN: Did you have any warning this was coming? Have you had trouble in Sudan before?

ALY: Yeah. I did have a feeling that something was off. I'd been stopped twice by National Security before. Once on my way out of Darfur, they pulled me aside at the airport, body-searched me, went through all my things, my laptop, my camera, my recorders, my phones, and you know, they wiped my camera – they wiped all the pictures off of it. And then they did the same thing again, two months later as I was heading out of Sudan for a vacation in Canada. It seemed a little unusual for a random search to be happening twice in a row like that. And I was also having trouble getting my work permit. I had been applying and applying, and was getting nowhere, so I was starting to get a sense that something wasn't right.

WERMAN: How often do you hear stories of foreign reporters getting kicked out of Sudan?

ALY: From what I know, it's only happened once. There was a BBC reporter about two years ago. I mean, they're very smart about it. They don't openly kick you out. What they do is they refuse to renew your visas or refuse to process your paperwork, or take so long to do it that you end up working illegally and then they use that as a reason to kick you out.

WERMAN: So it sounds like your case, one in which you're given two days to get out of the country, is pretty exceptional.

ALY: Yeah. Two days is not usual. It has happened to NGOs and to humanitarian workers where, you know, somebody all of a sudden becomes a persona non grata and they have to get out within a certain period of time. I mean, it's a very tense environment to work in.

WERMAN: Have you ever felt threatened while you've been in Sudan this past year or so?

ALY: I've never felt in physical danger, but I've certainly felt uncomfortable. By the end, it was clear that they had been following me, that they knew where I lived. You know, they knew where I had gone during the day. You always fear that your phone is being tapped. You don't know who you can trust and who you can't and who's spying and who's not, and so, you know, you're always sort of on edge. But I wouldn't say that I ever felt in danger for my life.

WERMAN: How big is the foreign press pool in Khartoum?

ALY: It's tiny. And that's why every single international journalist matters, because it's so small. There's a Reuters reporter, there's a BBC reporter, and there's an AFP reporter. So it's about three people -- sorry, and a French radio reporter – four people, with a fifth that comes in and out, and I was number six. So it's really quite a small community, and quite a small community that is really the only source of news for the international news outlets.

WERMAN: There's some chatter right now that Khartoum is getting increasingly nervous about the possibility next week that the International Criminal Court, the Hague, may indict President Omar Al-Bashir on charges of genocide in Darfur. Is there something about the timing of this?

ALY: Yeah. I mean, Khartoum as I said is never an easy place to be, and there's always – I mean, national security is always doing its job, but certainly since July, when the prosecutor first requested the warrant for the President, the atmosphere has been more tense, and they have been cracking down on human rights activists. For example, they detained without charge an opposition politician that had, you know, suggested that the President face the charges in The Hague. They've been arresting foreigners for, you know, sort of unsubstantial reasons lately. Definitely the atmosphere right now is tense and there's this feeling that the government is, you know, a little bit paranoid and trying to do everything it can to keep a lid on things.

WERMAN: Heba Aly is a freelance reporter who until last weekend was based in Khartoum, Sudan. She's now in Cairo. Thank you very much for speaking with us, Heba.

ALY: Thank you.

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