EXCERPTS: Al-Fadil emerges as a formidable debater, offers glimpse into Bashir’s mindset

March 28, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — Last week, the leader of the Umma Reform and Renewal Party (URRP) Mubarak Al-Fadil has overwhelmingly impressed forces opposed to the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) with his performance during a show on private Blue Nile TV also co-sponsored by the Sudan official News Agency (SUNA) which is devoted to presidential candidates in a semi-debate setting.

The idea of the show named “SUNA’s Microscope” is to bring the nominees running for president to be challenged by the moderator Babiker Haneen who has been accused to be a member of the Islamist movement and thus carrying the views of the NCP in the questions he asked and thus making his guests appear weak compared to NCP leader Omer Hassan Al-Bashir who is running for re-election in April’s elections.

Sudan is set to stage its first multi-party elections in 24 years from April 11 to 13 as part of a 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended a decades-old civil war between north and south.

So far all the North and South Sudan presidential candidates have appeared on the show with the exception of president Bashir, First Vice President Salva Kiirand SPLM deputy SG Yasir Arman who is the nominee of Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) for South Sudan presidency. It is not clear if they have been invited to take the podium and face questions like the others.

Al-Fadil came to the show with plenty of ammunition including statistics and his own experiences with Bashir and other members of the government during his tenure as presidential adviser for economic affairs from 2002-2004. He also managed to maintain his composure in face of difficult questions with a smile and sense of humor that made the audience laugh several times during the show.

The 60-year old politician was a member of the Sudanese parliament representing the Umma party in the in the last democratically elected government in the years 1986-1989. He was appointed a minister of Industry, trade and Interior during these years.

Following the coup staged by the National Islamic Front led by Omar al-Bashir in 1989 al-Fadil made a dramatic escape in his own car through the desert to Libya in the early morning hours.

Al-Fadil has been instrumental in creating the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which is an umbrella of northern opposition parties and Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) working to topple the Sudanese regime at the time. He was appointed as the NDA’s secretary general.

Following the split between the Umma party and NDA Al-Fadil returned to Khartoum in 1999. In 2002 al-Fadil defected from the Umma Party led by his cousin and the former Sudanese Prime Minister Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi. Al-Fadil was of the view that the Umma party should take part in the Sudanese government while al-Mahdi rejected any participation in a non-democratically elected government.

Al-Fadil and al-Mahdi exchanged bitter accusations with each other during the years 2002-2003. Al-Fadil created his own party calling it Umma Reform and Renewal. He was appointed as a presidential adviser for economic affairs in 2002. Several members of his newly created part were also appointed in various positions in the government.

He was arrested in July 2007 with a number of retired army generals and accused of attempting to stage a coup but was released five months later and it was later revealed that the evidence against him was fabricated.

He was sacked in a presidential decree in October 2004 after a dispute with Bashir. The URRP leader became one of the fiercest critics of the NCP and was pivotal in the creation of the Juba alliance that incorporated the SPLM and Northern opposition as a body parallel to the ruling party.

BASHIR’S PERCEPTION OF DARFUR CRISIS

The opposition leader stressed that Darfur crisis will not be solved under the current government but in a multi-party system. He noted the African Union Panel on Darfur (AUPD) headed by former South African president findings which stated that Darfur’s problem is part of the bigger Sudan crisis.

Al-Fadil said that part of the solution is to immediately enact a number of decrees that contain universal demands made by the Darfuris such as the making the region one state and returning lands to its original owners. These he said are non-negotiable items on which political parties are in agreement over.

However, he stressed that a political solution to the seven years conflict has to be part of a global one that covers the government crisis issue in the country “that resulted from a totalitarian regime in place that is based on deadly exclusion [of other powers] that ignited all Sudan’s problems”.

The United Nations estimates that as many as 300,000 people have died in Darfur’s humanitarian crisis, sparked by a brutal counter-insurgency campaign in 2003 to quell rebels demanding more of a share in wealth and power.

More than 2 million were driven from their homes and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague last year issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur

In response to a question by the moderator on why he didn’t attempt to contribute to finding a resolution to the Darfur crisis while a member of the cabinet, he disclosed details of a discussion he had with president Bashir on the matter.

“On Darfur I told president Bashir, I told him what you are doing in Darfur is wrong, [this happened] in May 2004 and I said to him that the national sovereignty is eroding. Now we are in an era of globalization. Now every decision you [Bashir] make will need to consider Washington, London and New York. It is not up to you; there are now international standards to justice, human rights and good governance” Al-Fadil said.

“I told him [Bashir], [if] you don’t trust us, establish a committee under your chairmanship let us work together to solve this problem” he added.

To the surprise of Al-Fadil, president Bashir’s response to the proposal in 2004 was “this thing [Darfur crisis] is over, there are only 13 vehicles and 100 individuals left [from the rebels to destroy]”. The URRP chief said he is prepared to take the oath that this what he attributed to Bashir is true.

“These were the reports [given to Bashir] by Salah Gosh [former intelligence director] that they want to get rid of 13 vehicles and 100 individuals and now we are seven years into this situation from one framework agreement to another…..now he is wanted in The Hague because he listened to Salah Gosh and listened to Ali Osman [Sudan 2nd Vice President] and listened to Nafie [Nafie Ali Nafie presidential assistant] so he ended up killing his people, displaced two million and now Sudan is the talk of the whole world” Al-Fadil said.

AL-FADIL DISPUTE WITH BASHIR

Mubarak Al-Fadil said that his disagreement with Bashir and the NCP was in part due to a power struggle within the ruling party and concern over his initiative to resolve the standoff with the United States.

“My visit to the US was supposed to take place in October 2004. I was urged by president Omer Al-Bashir, [who told me] please do not leave until I meet with you. I rescheduled my trip so I can meet with him,” Al-Fadil said.

“[Later] Dr. Mustafa [Mustafa Osman Ismail former foreign minister] told me the president wants you to abandon this trip. I said why should I? I am a party leader with an invitation to an important country, you guys go to over there….so why is it ok for you to go while I can’t?” he added.

Al-Fadil said the immediate result was sacking him from his post as presidential assistant which he said was expected.

The opposition leader said the “real reason” was that a number of “influential figures” within the NCP thought that mending of ties between Bashir and the US will mean that they will be early victims of the US-Sudan thaw which will cost them their positions.

INFORMANT BEHIND 1998 US STRIKE ON FACTORY

Al-Fadil was asked on what many consider his main weak point in his political career which is his support to the US missile strike on Al-Shifaa pharmaceutical which many have branded as “unpatriotic” and his call for further airstrikes on other sites.

“First of all I [simply] commented on the strike. [Egyptian] president Hosni Mubarak said no there is another factory over there. Why are you tough on me [Mubarak Al-Fadil]. President Hosni Mubarak came out in a press conference saying this is not the only factory” he said.

The US administration at the time under Bill Clinton said that the factory was producing deadly chemical weapons and that ties existed between the owners and Al-Qaeda group headed by Osama Bin Laden though it later emerged that evidence in possession by Washington may not be as solid or reliable.

However, the “bomb” as Al-Fadil described it was that it was one of the Islamist figures and a senior manager at the Shifaa plant was the one who provided the intelligence to the US. He further said that Khartoum is aware of this but is keeping tight lips on the matter.

“One of the most senior managers at the factory from the Islamist [figures] is the one who informed [the Americans] and fled to the US immediately after the strike and I verified this info. Anyone who asked me whether Bashir or other I told him [about the informant] turned his face the other direction because they know [what I said] is true” Al-Fadil said.

Challenged again by the moderator about his opinion on the unidentified informant and what he did, Al-Fadil said that the government record justified the action.

“If you have chemical weapons what do you want to do with it? Strike Israel? You want to direct it at the innocent people in the South or Nuba mountains so you can have a new Halabja [Iraqi city bombed with gas in 1988 killing 5,000 people] just like Saddam Hussein did” he said.

“The [informant] man’s conscience awakened that this thing is planned for the South and the Nuba mountains [to kill] Sudanese citizens” he stressed.

Al-Fadil again went on the offensive asking the moderator if he read a German newspaper that Sudan is hosting secret CIA prisons or statements made by former US assistant Secretary of state for African affairs in which she said that ex-Sudanese intelligence chief Salah Gosh “is our man in Sudan”.

Haneen said he brought up the factory issue “is to prove that he [Al-Fadil] did not serve the Sudanese people” but said he will leave it at that and no indulge further as Al-Fadil has requested.

CORRUPTION IN SOUTH SUDAN

The moderator raised the point on why Al-Fadil has been defending South Sudan’s record on corruption saying he sounded like a SPLM official when making such remarks.

“This is the truth. I go to the South very often and am aware of the situation not like other politicians who only go there for elections like Omer Al-Bashir who for five years did not tour the South only during the elections” the URRP leader said.

“The South has no economic life. There is no source of income. There is no agriculture, no manufacturing, no trade and therefore the Southerners there in their efforts to reconstruct the state and institutions, their spending will be very high. $100 million is the [monthly] payroll expense….This adds up to $1.2 billion in a year and almost $6 billion in five years [since CPA]” Al-Fadil said.

He referred to the Sudanese general inspector report which stated that in ten months the auditing of several state agencies in North Sudan revealed that corruption amounted to $2 billion in which 90% of it is embezzlement.

“So we are speaking about 15% of the state budget [being] embezzled” Al-Fadil said.

He also blasted the wealth sharing arrangement which splits up the oil revenue produced in the South with the North offering no incentive for Southerners to vote for unity in the 2011 referendum.

“How can there be attractive unity if I have 1 pound in my pocket and you take 50 cents out of it and tell me to stay with you so you can keep taking the 50 cents? I will tell you I will go away with my 1 pound” he posed.

“You just want to cover the corruption in the North by saying the Southerners spent $6 billion…..There is corruption yes but they also have a commission for [combating] corruption. They have had ministers removed, two finance ministers, they have deputy ministers thrown in jail but show me here in the North the government and security companies which took from the banks $100 million and $200 million and disappeared who was held accountable? ” Al-Fadil asked.

“Tell me the national Bank of Omdurman which went bankrupt with liabilities of $600 million paid for by Sudan central bank from the reserves…to the bank chaired by Omer Al-Bashir” he added.

SECULAR vs. RELIGIOUS STATE

The question was raised on Al-Fadil’s view of the kind of state he is calling for whether a religious or a secular one.

“Listen we are calling for a civil state, do not try to mix up things on talk about secular and religious state. We are against a religious state and there is nothing in Islam called religious state and what is happening now in the name of religion is manipulation that has nothing to do with religion neither in manners or practice,” he said forcefully in a clear reference to the NCP.

“Now the beating of the doctors [on strike] does this has any relation with religion? That you go hit doctors in their maze because they went on strike and they get paid $250 as salary? You call this religion? The largest corruption in Sudan’s [history] happened under the so called ‘civilized initiative’ and the religious state of the NCP ” Al-Fadil said.

“We are for a civil state that recognizes the religious, racial and ethnic diversity in Sudan and we will not allow anyone in the name of Islam to divide Sudan or break up Sudan in the name of Islam with bogus slogans. [NCP] people have no relation with religion or its morals…therefore no one will give us lectures on this,” he added.

GOVERNMENT SPENDING & DECISION MAKING

Al-Fadil stressed that a major tenant of his campaign promise is to focus on human development and making education and healthcare free for all citizens,

“In Sudan and until Inqaz [1989 coup] the education and healthcare were for free. We without the revenue from oil were able to provide healthcare and education. The tab for medicine we had bids every two years for $80 million. We didn’t import expired items from India or others….we don’t treat the poor and import cheap stuff,” he said.

“During the Friday sermons prayer a young man came up to me with broken hand and his bone sticking out saying they [hospital] needs 1 million Sudanese pounds so I can fix my hand. So this is disruption to the economy apart from the humanitarian aspect. This is a youth in his twenties unable to pay money to heal his hand,” Al-Fadil added.

“There are many examples worldwide for countries that are worse off than Sudan with free healthcare” he stressed adding that social security and medical insurance will not work in Sudan with a large percentage of its population living outside the urban areas spread over the continent’s largest country.

“It is a shame…our income is $15 billion we cannot provide healthcare to our people or education?” he said noting that spending on presidential staff costs $1.2 billion yearly constituting salaries, transportation and “thrifty spending in a country that is the third most poorest in the world. Priorities are wrong”.

Al-Fadil said that Ethiopia which has less money than Sudan spends $2 billion a year on combating poverty compared to Sudan which spends only 14% of its income eradicating poverty.

Asked why he didn’t speak publicly on these initiatives during his time as adviser to Bashir he said that he came “as part of a political agreement in an interim period of a totalitarian state moving to democratic system”.

“When we came on board we found the situation completely different. There is a dominant group. The council of ministers is just a club that does not discuss Sudan’s issues. Sudan’s issues are discussed in closed houses. This is a reality we lived” he said.

“There is no such thing called NCP. There are only five people running this operation and bring the others to brief them and then go. Anyone else has water in his mouth and cannot say anything. He has a salary, a car and a phone and cannot do anything so he remains silent in the end and stay occupied with his living” Al-Fadil said.

Al-Fadil commented on smaller parties which joined the government saying they did so because political posts “became a way of living” and describing them as “extensions of the NCP”.

“The NCP is prepared to give you any position just don’t talk politics…so many under the pressing economic environment resorted to this” he said.

(ST)

To watch Mubarak Al-Fadil (Arabic only) click here