Al-Turabi was inciting Muslims to fight each other: Al-Beshir

KHARTOUM, April 4, 2004 (Sudan Tribune) — The Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Beshir seriously criticized the secretary-general of Popular National Congress, Hassan al-Turabi, and his party. He said al-Turabi was inciting Muslims to fight one another.

Al-Turabi and members of his political party were rounded up after the government said it had uncovered a plot to topple Bashir. Turabi’s party has rejected the government’s accusations

While addressing a massive public gathering at “Abu-Sabirah” village in White Nile State [eastern-central Sudan] on the occasion of inaugurating White Nile Sugar Project, al-Beshir said the enemies of Sudan and Sudanese people do not want to end the war, but rather wanted to incite Muslims to fight one another.

He wondered what judgement should be passed on such people.

Al-Beshir further said “Al-Turabi has spent all his life speaking as a man of Shari’ah (Islamic law) and today he is rejecting it.”

He noted what he termed as “Al-Turabi’s provocative statements at international media stations and his statement in which he encouraged the people of Darfur in western Sudan to fighting one another”.

He said there was no party known as Popular National Congress, Al-Turabi’s party, but there existed a person known as Al-Turabi, who leads his supporters wherever he wants.

He stressed that his government was committed to fighting injustice, and establishing justice by initiating development projects.

Bashir and Turabi fell out in 1999 after the president accused Turabi, then speaker of parliament, of trying to grab power and stripped him of his position.