Sudan president says Arab revolts caused by “schism” between people, rulers
May 16, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir has attributed the wave of revolts currently seen in some Arab countries to what he termed as the “schism between people and their rulers.”
Al-Bashir further opined that current revolts in some Arab countries were engendered by “the existing schism between people and their rulers.”
Until recently, Sudan stood as the last Arab country to witness popular uprisings, first when the October Revolution of 1964 brought about the end of General Abboud’s military regime, and again in 1958 when former president Jaafar Nimeiri was deposed by the military after another popular uprising.
But Sudan has largely survived the contagion of uprisings which, since the start of this year, toppled deeply entrenched regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and continues to shake the rule of other Arab authoritarian regimes.
Small anti-government protests broke out in January, but they failed to take on a mass appeal, making it very easy for the authorities to squash them.
Al-Bashir, who gained infamy as the first sitting head of state to be charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, has been ruling Sudan since seizing power in an Islamist-backed military coup in 1989.
Sudan recently saw a spike in anti-government dissent, mainly due to worsening economic condition as the country’s economy grapples with a shortage of foreign currency and the fallout from the secession of the oil-producing region of South Sudan. The government recently devalued national currency to prevent it from sliding further in the black market, and floated austerity measures which removed subsidies on basic commodities.
But the Sudanese president has repeatedly asserted his popularity, saying he is not afraid of dethroning and blamed Arab rulers for their current woes.
Separately, Al-Bashir said in the same interview that Sudan is keen to have good relations with the upcoming state of South Sudan. He said that north Sudan would support the south in all fields and resolve issues of contention between the two sides.
South Sudan is being groomed to become the world’s newest nation in July after the region’s citizens voted almost unanimously for secession from the north in a referendum held in January.
The plebiscite was promised in the 2005’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended nearly half a century of intermittent civil wars between the north and the south.
(ST)
Cibaipiath Junub Sudan
Sudan president says Arab revolts caused by “schism” between people, rulers
evidences of your great lies. Your third last pragraph shows that you are lying. There is no good relations between the North and South after independent. Look at how you are dragging Southerners on their rights. Border Demarcation, Abyei, and blocking the transport of good to the South and the continues threats from you and your saf are the most contentious issues you should have resolve before saying that word “Good Relations”. Will you really attend the Declaration of Independent of the South on the 9th July 2011? I doubt.
Jur Tier
Sudan president says Arab revolts caused by “schism” between people, rulers
It appears that people talk about luck Mr Al-Beshir but you must be the world luckiest one. However, I will not rule out how long that luckiness will last in your lifetime.
Firstly, I blame the West for turning a blind eye on the crisis in Darfur of which you are accountable for. You keep smiling because all the innocent leaders such as former Egyptian president Mubarak, Ghadaffi of Libya plus many others have suffered what they don’t deserved. But as the saying goes among the Waswahili people of the East African state of Kenya that “Siku za Mwizi ni harubaini” or a thief has only 40 days to live, you need to know that your days are numbered.
Secondly, those chaos in the Arab world of which you seem to be far away from are not yet over. The world is aware that thousands of innocent citizens are being tortured in those secretes intelligence location within Khartoum as they attempted to silence their voices. It is the turn of Libya, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia and remember that the next turn will be yours.
Finally, Shame to those African countries that are signatories of the Rome for their failure to arrest Beshir whenever he visits their territories. You know what they say[the west] about the African affairs. “They are the African, if they don’t co-operation then it is up to them”.
My message to the Southerners is that I always think and worried of what would become the world brand new nation on July 9 2011. I understand that there are some weaknesses in the current GoSS administration in Juba but we need to be patience enough in order to for the change to take effect. The world is aware that Southern authorities have no any bright future for the South. Take the South Sudan vice president, for example, he is already awaiting charges on the ethnic cleansing because of his involvement in killing 986,465 civilians in the ethnic Bor area in the 1990s.
These are just a few issues I just brought into your attention but I believe in change and that one day one time, those neglected youths, fallen heroes, and the ambassadors of democracy would one day celebrate.