Sudan reluctantly admits a shoe thrown at Bashir during speech

January 25, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir joined the ranks of former US president George Bush to become a victim of a shoe thrown at him as he was delivering a speech in Khartoum on Monday.

According to eyewitnesses, shortly after 10 am (Sudan local time) a man by the name of Adel Mohamed Fath Al-Rahman Mahjoub moved from the his seat positioned in the second row to the podium and threw his shoes at Bashir who was flanked by the minister for presidential affairs in the cabinet Kosta Manibi and the secretary general of the national council for strategic planning Taj Al-Sir Al-Amin.

The shoe missed Bashir and hit the podium but the assailant was immediately wrestled to the ground by Sudanese security and bodyguards and taken outside the Friendship Hall in Khartoum.

The embarrassing incident took place at the inauguration of the first session of the 2010 National Council for Strategic Planning causing a brief chaos and bewilderment among the attendees before the Sudanese head of state resumed his speech.

Shoe hurling at an individual is a grave insult and a sign of contempt in Arab culture and for Bashir who is running for reelection in April, this unpleasant scene runs contrary to an image portrayed made by Sudanese officials and state media of a president that enjoys overwhelming support among the people.

Bashir is a target of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued almost a year ago accusing him of masterminding mass killings in Sudan’s Western region of Darfur. Observers say that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) sees the upcoming elections as a means to legitimize the rule of Bashir who came to power through a coup in 1989.

Ironically in December 2008, Bashir in a defying speech said he “will not surrender even a single cat from Sudan because we can make a shoe out of its skin”. The remark was taken to be a subtle reference to the incident of shoes tossed by Iraqi television journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi at President Bush which had occurred a few days earlier.

The security agents at the hall moved swiftly to confiscate all recording equipments and cameras from journalists and TV crews and thoroughly searched them in a bid to prevent the pictures from making it to the public. The London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted journalists who were present as saying that Sudanese officials asked them not to mention what happened.

The pan-Arab Al-Jazeera TV based in Qatar which afforded extensive coverage to Bush shoe story in Iraq at the time, was hours late in reporting what happened to Bashir despite having its reporter present at the hall.

It is also unlikely that the Sudanese man will get the same attention as Al-Zaidi who was hailed as a hero in the Arab world.

Reuters, which was the first to report the story quoted the presidential spokesman Emad Sid Ahmed denied the shoe incident, saying: “The man just wanted to give the president a note… but was intercepted by the security”.

However, later Sudan official news agency contradicted Ahmed’s assertions saying that a shoe was indeed thrown at Bashir.

“The abovementioned citizen prepared a handwritten memorandum of grievance and tried to hand it over to the President of the Republic..….but the presidential guards barred him as they deemed he has failed to chose the right place and the right time, a matter that drove him out of his temper and he started to hurl his shoe at those present” SUNA reported.

The state run media identified the man as someone who has a history of psychological disturbance and treatment for mental illness.

“Information obtained by the Sudan News Agency shows that the abovementioned citizen suffers from psychosis which causes psychological disturbances and that he has been receiving medical treatment with Dr Abdul Sami Mohamed Hassan, and that the last time he visited the clinic was on January the 18th and according to the psychiatrist, the patient has recently failed to take his medication regularly a matter that resulted in the instability of his psychological condition”

“The Sudan News Agency has learned that the said citizen is suffering from a complex of social injustice by people, though he has no political or social affiliation and a number of his relatives are actually occupying government positions”.

The agency mentioned that Mahjoub was born in El-Obeyed town in 1965, and his original home area is Merowe. He has received all his schooling up to the secondary level in El-Obeyed town. He is single and works in trade.

It was not clear given his status how the man made it to the front rows at the conference. Witnesses said that he acted calmly upon his arrest.

In Paris the Libyan-French lawyer Hadi Shalluf who was one of the lone and fiercest critics of Al-Zaidi and even appeared on Arab TV defending his stance told Sudan Tribune that his position remains the same regardless of the target.

“As a matter of principle I am against hurling shoes from a legal perspective and also as an uncivilized act whether it is Bush or Bashir. The international law recognizes that heads of state should be treated with respect in accordance with the position they hold” Shalluf said.

“This is a contemptible act and against the law. Hand swirling cannot be a substitute to civil expression of opinions under any circumstances” he added.

However, Shalluf lashed out at the Arab world saying they are unlikely to react in the same manner to this incident as they did with the case of Al-Zaidi.
“Surely the Arab people applauded Al-Zaidi for throwing his shoes at Bush. Will they do the same in the case of Bashir or remain silent and submissive? I suspect the latter” he said.

The editor in chief of the pro-government Al-Wifaq newspaper Ishak Fadl Allah said in his editorial on Tuesday edition suggested that Mahjoub was sane and not acting on his own behalf.

“Granted that popular outrage, which will evolve in response to the insult, would make the man – and the parties behind him- eat their shoes in shame”

(ST)