Rebel attack destabilizes Khartoum authority – Sudan’s Turabi

June 26, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – Hassan Abdellah al-Turabi, the leader of the Islamist opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) said Darfur rebels destabilized the authority of the Sudanese government when they perpetrated on the capital last month.

Al Turabi told the Agence France Presse yesterday that the Justice and Equality Movement attack on May 10 “shows they (ruling party) were in shock, they were shaken, their authority collapsed,” Turabi said.

“It shows that anyone can carry a gun and go wherever he likes, take a place, take the capital,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s very dangerous for the country.”

Al-Turabi, who is accused by the government of links with the rebel JEM, was briefly arrested with other PCP members after the rebel foiled coup. But his partisans are still in prison.

Turabi said the rebels did not want to take the capital and that it was more a show of force.

“For six hours the bridges were open but they did not come inside. They just wanted to say ‘we can come to the capital’,” he said.

Turabi, once a mentor to Beshir but now one of his chief rivals, has been jailed several times, accused of plotting to overthrow the regime or having links with JEM. However the rebel group denies any connection with the PCP and admits that its leader was a former PCP member.

He said the international community may not like Bashir, but “they thought it was a stable regime… Now they don’t know if it’s stable or not.”

(ST)