Sudanese Communist MP banned from parliament for one month

By Mayen Deng

May 2, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese federal parliament has decided to suspend Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, a leader of the Sudanese Communist Party and MP from participating in parliamentary sessions for one month. She will also not be paid her allowances during the period.

Atem Garang, the first deputy Speaker of the National Assembly in a press statement said that the parliament resolved to take this measure based on Article 31 of the National Assembly Standing Orders of 2005.

Garang warned against any attempts to violate the procedures inside parliament and noted that any member who violated the procedures would be punished. He expressed deep regret at what happened in parliament yesterday.

At the beginning of the national Assembly’s session held yesterday, MP Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, physically assaulted Abulgassim Mohamed Ibrahim, Ex-Vice- President during the Numeiri regime and present NCP representative, after her call for a point of order was not heeded.

After assaulting Abulgassim, Fatima accused him of having tortured and murdered her late husband in July 1971, Al-Shafi Ahmed Al-Sheikh, during the reign of the Numeiri regime. She then appeared to have lost self-control as she demanded for dismissal of Abulgassim from the Assembly under the consideration that he was a murderer.

There was commotion in the session as the chairman of the Assembly’s Trade Committee, Abdelhamid Musa Kasha, requested the first deputy speaker, Atem Garang, to promptly drop Fatima’s Assembly membership. However, Garang turned down the demand and maintained that rules and regulations have to be followed before taking that step. The Communist Party on the other hand considered Fatima’s behaviour as an individual conduct indicative of her personal feeling towards her late husband whom she had lost at one of the stages of her struggle for democracy.

The official spokesman of the National democratic Alliance (NDA) bloc and member of the Communist Party, Suleiman Hamid, stated that the Communist Party was in no way connected with the incident and alluded that there were several murderers within the Assembly. If accountancy comes to bear, he argued, we should first bring to account the President of the Republic because he has made an oath to block the deployment of foreign troops which are now deployed.

The NCP meanwhile considered the incident an affront to both the Assembly and the community, considering that the Assembly reflects the culture of the community it represents. He described Fatima’s conduct as unacceptable and unjustified, stressing that MP Abulgassim had not provoked her in any way.

The chairman of the NCP bloc, Ghazi Salah Eddin, on his part revealed that the Assembly was probing means of dealing with the incident as per the stipulations of procedures and regulations organizing by the Assembly functions. He expressed his fear that the incident would be exploited by the international media to demean Sudan.

Following the incident, Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim seemed to be in ailing health as she walked off leaning on two attendants.

The Assembly security personnel had before the incident detained a German free-lancer who was filming a documentary on Fatima’s life, though they released her after viewing the shots she had taken of Fatima while assaulting Abulgassim.

(ST)