Khartoum’s foiled attempt, coup d’état or gigantic hoax?
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
This article comes against the backdrop of the Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services’ (NISS) revelation that they have pre-emptively foiled an alleged subversive plot (attempted coup d’état) spearheaded by opposition forces both civilian and military personnel. The National Congress Party (NCP) Information Minister and government spokesperson Ahmed Bilal Osman revealed on Thursday the 22nd November 2012 in Khartoum that there were 13 individuals were arrested in connection with the alleged plot including former Presidential adviser and Director of (NISS) Salah Abdallah Abu Digin (AKA Salah Gosh), Brigadier General Mohamed Ibrahim Abdel-Jalil, better known as ’Wad Ibrahim’, Major General Adel al-Tayeb from the NISS.
Political observers say it is a storm in a teacup and news to divert the attention from the problems facing the country under the despotic NCP regime; and it is also to let the dust settle in the aftermath of the so-called Islamic Movement (IM) conference that produced to the surface the differences among the elements of the National Islamic Front (NIF), which have been in hibernation for several years. What is more is that there are Shifting Loyalties within the NCP clique as there are internal disagreements into the direction of the group today. Furthermore, this type of news serves other important purpose which is provision of extra time for the racist Islamism-Arabism regime to remain in power. On the other hand, the news is a sort of informational balloon to test the reaction of the Sudanese public in response (test the pulse of the street) to alarming news of military coup attempt at such a pivotal time. Others say that the whole thing is a giant HOAX! Nevertheless, Sudan is no stranger to military Coup d’états in its history since it won independence in 1956 from the British colonial. That is the main reason that the successive totalitarian regimes that ruled Sudan through military coups tended to accuse opponents as plotting a coup attempt to justify for further suppression and restrictions of public freedoms and declaration of open-ended states of emergency. Today, Omer al-Bashir’s regime is facing many intractable problems. Just to give a few examples: Civil wars being waged in Darfur 10 years on, Nuba Mountains (South Kordofan), Blue Nile region, Eastern Sudan, the outstanding unmet issues of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan, the financial crises, high cost of living, spread of epidemics such as Yellow Fever even inside Khartoum and along with the indictment of elements in the NCP regime including their president Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the heinous crimes they committed against the Sudanese people in Darfur. And a wrong foreign policy marked by establishment of alliances with rogue regimes which are classified as pariah states by the international community for its link to terrorist organisations. The policies of harbouring terrorists continue. Last and not the least is the NCP regime’s abject failure over the years of its reign to protect the sovereignty of the Sudanese homeland from annexation by foreign countries. The Sudanese territories in Darfur remain open to mercenaries recruited by the NCP regime from the neighbouring countries to occupy while the indigenous owners of the Hawakeer are expelled out to become permanent residents of the humiliating makeshift camps for refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). And the worst is that the civilian populations in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan of children, women and elderly were forced to take mountains caves as shelter against aerial bombardment of Omer al-Bashir’s Antonov airships, MiG 29 fighter jets and helicopter bombers. In October 2012, the NCP regime accused Israel of bombing an arms factory in Khartoum, using four aircrafts where strong blasts rocked an Iranian military industrial facility (Yarmouk Arms Factory).
Therefore, the NCP regime has to find a person or group to bear the blame to suffer in their place as scapegoat for all the foregoing record of failings. Nevertheless, the group alleged to be behind the Sabotage /Coup attempt shall not be relieved from the heinous crimes they committed in the rights of the Sudanese people in Darfur region, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile region, Eastern Red Sea Beja people, Nubians in the far Nilotic North, people in Gezira irrigation Agricultural Project between the Blue Nile and White Nile of the central Sudan and Sudanese citizens in general. This authoritarian NCP regime which has been in power for a duration spanning nearly a quarter of a century that unfortunately discounted against development, rule of law, good governance, peace, prosperity, human rights and basic freedoms must be overthrown by all available means in the form of popular peaceful protests, sit-ins and demonstrations armed-protected by the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) forces.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]