Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Civil unrest reborn

By Gamal Nkrumah

Who said Sudanese opposition agitators have lost the fire in their bellies? The demonstrations that rocked Sudan last week continue to paralyse the country, a testament to the long-standing tradition of popular agitation in the political arena. However, the violent protests also augur ill for ongoing attempts at national reconciliation.

The protests began with old-fashioned demonstrations by disgruntled members of mostly-banned womens organisations. The groups were outraged at the introduction by Khartoum Governor Magzoub Khalifa of new laws barring and restricting job openings for women in hotels, restaurants and gas stations. Others -- most notably student and youth leaders -- promptly joined in nationwide protests.

Starting in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, the violent clashes have now spread to provincial capitals. The cities of Port Sudan, the country's second largest city on the Red Sea; Al-Obeid, state capital of northern Kordofan; Al-Fashir, capital of northern Dar Fur; Nyala, capital of southern Dar Fur; and Kosti, 300 kilometres south of Khartoum, were all the scenes of pitched battles between police and protesters. The government has blamed Hassan Al-Turabi, former ally of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and leader of the Islamist People's National Congress (PNC), for the disturbances.

The clashes coincided with the uneventful meeting of the Sudanese opposition umbrella group, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), in the Eritrean port city of Massawa. The clashes inevitably featured prominently on the agenda, but observers note that it was the domestic, as opposed to exiled, opposition, which seemed to be spearheading the current wave of popular protests.

President Al-Bashir and his Islamist government have refused to cave in. In a seminar organised by the ruling National Congress Party (NC), Al-Bashir warned that rioters will be severely and swiftly punished. "We will not permit the mindless destruction of people and property," he said. Ironically, it was the government's clamp down that led to the death of a student protester named Mohamed Saad Nurein, who was shot dead by police in Kosti. Scores of other students were injured and many have been hospitalised, their conditions described as serious.

It is the loud protests from within Al-Bashir's own Islamist constituency that have begun to bite back the hardest. The students in Kosti and other provincial capitals appear to be supporters of PNC, which split from the ruling NC last year. Both the NC and the PNC once constituted two rival factions within the now defunct, Al-Turabi-led National Islamic Front (NIF), and both parties still differ little in ideological orientation; both espouse militant political Islam. Key former NIF party stalwarts, such as Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Osman Taha and Culture and Information Minister Ghazi Salah Al-Din, have now usurped the role formerly played by Al-Turabi as the NIF's chief ideologue and architect of government policy. They are also urging Al-Bashir to severely punish the instigators of popular unrest. Indeed, the Sudanese newspaper Al-Rai Al-Aam quoted Salah Al-Din as saying that legal action would be taken against "any person found to have been involved in the recent riots and sabotage" -- a veiled threat against Al-Turabi.

Undeterred, Al-Turabi declared that his PNC will continue to resist the ruling party's attempt to monopolise power, and will intensify the political struggle against his former allies in government. Meanwhile, Al-Turabi's second in command, Deputy Secretary-General of the PNC Ali Al-Haj Mohamed, claimed on Saturday that the Sudanese authorities have detained 40 PNC activists in Al-Fashir, 22 in Port Sudan, 11 in Nyala, Dar Fur, and two in Khartoum -- bringing the number of jailed PNC activists in the past week to 75. Mohamed said that his party rejects "subversive activities," but stressed that the PNC stands with the "just demands of teachers, students and ordinary Sudanese citizens."

In an interview with the independent Sudanese newspaper Al-Shafi Al-Dawli, Mohamed claimed that the Sudanese authorities seized PNC property and forcibly evacuated party workers. He protested against the torture that eight of his party members were subjected to in Nyala, saying that it was a flagrant infringement on human rights in Sudan and called on the international community to condemn the Sudanese authorities' clampdown.

Security forces are hunting for former agriculture minister and PNC Deputy Secretary-General Al-Haj Adam Yusuf and have already arrested PNC Youth Secretary Zuheir Hamid Bellah, but observers believe that the PNC's agitation was not solely responsible for the nationwide protests. Rather, it is said that university students' have grown impatient with the deplorable conditions of Sudan's institutions of higher learning that they are forced to contend with. University students were joined by secondary school students who ransacked the education ministry headquarters in Port Sudan, burning ministry cars and calling for the resignation of the provincial government of Red Sea state. Student leaders claim that the real reason for their grievances are miserable educational, health and social services, which have been deteriorating exponentially in recent years, but the immediate reason for the protests appear to be the imposition of exorbitant school fees. Employment prospects are not rosy either, with most students certain of joining Sudan's estimated 60 per cent unemployment rate. Small wonder, then, that students are demonstrating, even as angry unemployed youth line the streets of Sudanese cities.

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