Al-Turabi’s party vows to buck his arrest
January 18, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The Islamic opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) in north Sudan has threatened to resist the detention of its leader Hassan Al-Turabi, reaffirming its plans to work towards toppling the government of President Al-Bashir if it does not enact constitutional reforms and forms a transitional government.
The arrest of Al-Turabi, who was once a close ally of president Al-Bashir, comes at a politically sensitive time as Khartoum grapples with an acute shortage of foreign currency reserves which led the government to lift subsidies on sugar and petro products. The economic crisis is aggravated by the near-certain secession of the oil-rich south Sudan as a result of a referendum vote whose outcome is due to be officially announced in early February.
Northern opposition parties have stepped up their rhetoric against the government, threatening to stage street protests against price increases, which already sparked protests in three towns in northern Sudan this month, unless the government dissolves itself and calls for elections.
The government has alleged that Al-Turabi’s arrest is linked to fresh evidence proving the involvement of his party in supporting armed activities of the rebel group Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in Sudan’s troubled western region of Darfur.
Quoting an anonymous security source, the Sudan Media Center (SMC), a news website run by the NISS, said that confessions elicited from a number of JEM members who were captured recently in west Darfur revealed evidence proving the involvement of Al-Turabi’s party in funding and supporting the rebel group.
“This is a worn-out falsehood,” retorted Sidiq Al-Turabi, son of the detained leader, in statements to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday.
According to Sidiq Al-Turabi, his father’s arrest was rather connected to plans by the opposition to stage street protests against rising cost of living.
“Our information indicates that the arrest is prompted by the regime’s fear of confronting the opposition” he told Sudan Tribune.
On Monday, Al-Turabi gave an interview to Agence France Presse (AFP) and warned that street protests similar to the ones that occurred in Tunisia could happen in Sudan if president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir failed to share power.
“Our party will resist this arrest, gone is the time where detentions and arrests can successes,” Al-Turabi’s son declared.
Similarly in Khartoum, the PCP deputy secretary-general Abdual Hassan Ahmad Ali on Tuesday held a press conference in which he warned that the party will not stand tight-handed in the face of its leader’s arrest.
Ahmad Ali claimed that Al-Turabi was arrested for his calls on the general public to take to the streets in protest over recent prices rises, ruling out any links between the arrest and JEM captives.
JEM captives include Ibrahim Al-Maz, who was once one of the student leaders of the PCP before he joined JEM in May 2008. He rose through the ranks of JEM until he became JEM’s coordinator for south Sudan.
“The PCP is not that naïve to leave its plans with Ibrahim Al-Maz,” the PCP secretary-general said in the press conference.
Even JEM denied the accusation. The group’s official spokesman Ahmad Hussian told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday that the allegations aims at deflecting attention from growing domestic problems and the government’s withdrawal from the peace talks in Doha.
Sudan has been engaged in floundering peace talks with Darfur rebel groups in the Qatari capital of Al-Doha, but the talks reached a deadlock last month when the government suspended participation due to its reservations over proposals put forward by the mediators. The talks are boycotted by the main rebel groups in Darfur.
“They keep making the same claims over and over again about our links with PCP but they end up producing no evidence. This is just another fabrication by Sudanese security,” Ahmad Hussian added.
Khartoum has consistently accused JEM of being the military wing of the PCP but never pressed any formal charges against the party figures.
The PCP deputy secretary-general said he expects the authorities to carry out more arrest among the party’s members in Khartoum and elsewhere.
According to the PCP officials, the opposition is indeed preparing to topple the government but has no fixed date for going to the streets. “but our work is continuing,” he added.
Ahmad Ali vowed that Al-Turabi’s arrest “will not pass as previous times, you will witness that as it happened in the Tunisian revolution.”
Islamist leader Turabi has been in and out of jail since his split from Bashir’s ruling party in 1999. In 2009 he was jailed for calling on Bashir to surrender himself to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
(ST)