Is the arrest of opposition figures in Sudan justified?

By Zechariah Manyok Biar

December 7, 2009 — According to Sudan Tribune reports, “The Sudanese authorities arrested the SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum and his deputy Yassir Arman.” The reason for the arrest was, according to Reuters report, that “Sudanese authorities on Sunday announced a last minute ban of a mass rally by opposition groups and south Sudan’s main party, stepping up political tensions ahead of looming elections.” The reason that the committee in Khartoum, which is composed of Khartoum’s state police commissioner, Khartoum’s governor together with military and security officers, gave for the ban of the demonstration was that “the planned protest was illegal as the organisers had not applied for permission to hold it but had merely notified the authorities about their intentions,” as reported by Reuters.

Reuters also reported the SPLM Secretary Pagan Amum as saying on Sunday, “We have not been notified of any ban and we see no reason for anyone to usurp our basic rights guaranteed by the constitution and the law.” If this statement is true, then the system in Khartoum is still deformed as the SPLM late leader, Dr. John Garang de Mabior, once said that the system in Khartoum was too deformed to reform. The last-minute ban of demonstration often shows authorities’ learning on the side of dictatorship because their only weapon is intimidation.

Other opposition groups are now seeing the reason why SPLM/A fought the government in Khartoum for more than twenty years. Washington Post reported that “On Sunday, an official in the opposition Umma party said the ban showed north Sudan’s dominant National Congress Party (NCP) was not serious about letting dissenting voices take part in elections, scheduled for April 2010.” This is what South Sudanese had been seeing since the independence of Sudan in 1956.

Khartoum-based government’s totalitarianism is also seen in their fear of media. The Qatar based Al-Jazeera TV website is reported as saying that its TV crew was prevented from covering the demonstration and their tapes were confiscated. This shows the reason why opposition parties demand a reform that should include media freedom in Sudan.

The arrest of SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum, his deputy Yassir Arman, and Minister Abbas Gumma of SPLM is like the arrest of the officials of a sovereign state, given the fact that South Sudan has independent army. The arrest may lead to the declaration of independent of the South in 2011 if the NCP continues to drag its feet in passing the referendum law. The example that shows that South Sudan is like a sovereign state is the fact that protesters in the Southern towns of Rumbek and Wau set fire to NCP’s offices, following the arrest of opposition leaders in Khartoum.

The arrest of other opposition figures like “Barmina Awrial, Khartoum’s state minister for health, and Siddig al-Turabi, son of Hassan al-Turabi, the veteran opposition National Islamic Front leader, along with more than 70 others,” as reported by Al-Jazeera TV, will embolden opposition groups in their demand for reform in the North because they know that if the South leaves in 2011, no freedom will exist in the North. Reuters reported unnamed Umma party’s official as saying on Sunday: “This is a clear example of what we have been saying, that there is real intention for democratic transformation on the government side.”

That kind of transformation is on the other side of a thorny fence. Elections can never be free and fair in Sudan at this time to give way to democratic transformation because NCP officials are determined to maintain laws that will allow them rig elections in 2010 and then lock opposition leaders up if they dare to question the legitimacy of the election results. Leading opposition figures like Gen. Kiir are now speaking their minds against the NCP.

Sudan Tribune reported the disappointed First Vice President of Sudan and the President of the government of South Sudan as saying in his statement released after the arrest of opposition leading figures that, “the NCP leadership has been resisting constitutional obligations by using their mechanical majority in both organs of government to pursue their own political agenda. This implicitly maintains the status quo and old mentality of doing business contrary to the letter and spirit of the CPA.”

Even though the SPLM Secretary General is released today, December 7, 2009, NCP’s dictatorship is still creating real tension that may resemble war or even lead to resumption of war in Sudan. As The BBC’s James Copnall in Omdurman put it, “the argument over electoral laws and the crackdown on protesters show a deteriorating relationship between the NCP and its detractors.” The people of Sudan as well as the international community will now clearly see who is who in Sudan. They will be the ones to judge whether the arrest of the leading opposition figures in Sudan was justified or not.

Zechariah Manyok Biar is a graduate student at Abilene Christian University, Texas, USA. He is pursuing a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry and a Master of Science in Social Work, specializing in Administration and Planning. For comments, contact him at email: [email protected]