SPLM-N accuses government of orchestrating violence against Darfur students
May 3, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) accused the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of orchestrating a campaign of violence on Darfurian activists in the Sudanese universities.
The student violence started after the death of a leading member of the NCP student organisation, Mohamed Awad, during clashing between supporters of the ruling party and students from Darfur region at the East Nile University in Khartoum North last Wednesday.
In a statement released on Sunday, SPLM-N secretary-general Yasir Arman said that the NCP student group is funded by the state resources and backed by the security service.
They are no longer a student faction “but they are an extension of repression and security apparatuses owned by the National Congress Party,” Arman said.
He added that the student violence is now entering a new phase “similar to the Rapid Support Forces” militia against the rebel groups in Darfur and the Two Areas to implement the government security plans and to prevent the emergence of “the banners of change within the student movement”.
Sudanese opposition parties and the armed groups reiterated their rejection of the outcome of the electoral process and said determined to mobilise the Sudanese street to overthrow the regime of president Omer al-Bashir.
University student groups played, across Sudan’s political history, an important role in the popular movements that toppled two military regimes in 1964 and 1985.
Arman said the NCP fears that the student movement plays an avant-garde role towards a popular uprising after the elections and called to for the unity of student groups under one platform with the support of all the political forces and civil society groups.
The secretariat of the Higher Education Students in Khartoum North, announced the ban of student activities for a week in all the universities located within the town. It also decided to expel all the Darfurian student activists from the university residences.
In similar statements the Sudanese Communist Party student section and the Unified Democratic Unionist Party condemned the targeting of Darfurian students. Also, the former Islamist combatants, Sa’ihoun, launched an initiative calling to stop violence in the Sudanese universities.
The alliance of Darfur student groups issued a statement denying the involvement of Drfurian students in the death of Awad last week, and called to arrest the perpetrators of attacks on Darfur students.
Through its security organs and student groups, the regime considers the Darfurian student groups as members of the armed movements and deal with them accordingly, the alliance further said.
The statement called to stop violence on innocent Darfurian students in Khartoum state universities adding they would not stand idly if the attacks continue.
The alliance further called on the international community and right organisations to denounce violence on Darfurian students and to work for the release of detained activists.
(ST)