The Lonely Authoritarians of Sudan

By Ahmed Elzobier

November 29, 2011 — In 1989, while most of the world was celebrating the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European totalitarian states, history had a different destiny in store for the Sudanese people, and Sudan headed in the opposite direction. The Islamic movement in Sudan exploited the degree of freedom and tolerance that existed in Sudan compared to the rest of the Middle East. In the 1980s Sudan was setting records in Africa and the Middle East as the only country which managed peacefully to change regimes and hold free and fair elections, and ended up establishing one of the most democratic countries in the region –although fragile.

The new authoritarians in power in Sudan were eagerly accepted into the club of tyrants, the Arab League, where the likes of Saddam, Mubarak and Gaddafi were seen to act as gatekeepers of the club. Gaddafi in particular was quite generous, he visited Khartoum in 1990 and was welcomed as a hero by the regime. He supported them financially and in return they emulated his bizarre political setup in Libya, through popular committees, the name still used today. Saddam helped them with arms and technical assistance to fight in the southern Sudan. Egypt provided diplomatic cover and operated as a sponsor of the new regime. Iran helped with sinister security training. The veteran members of the club set up a crash course for these newcomers in people oppression. They taught them how to repress, manipulate, lie to and control their herd. For them it does not matter what gibberish, or “ism” you preach to your subjects – Arab Nationalism, socialism, Islamism – that’s all beside the point, the main concern is to remain in power for a long time, and they are experts at that. Their list of things to do is simple: fear, propaganda and indoctrination. The new tyrants of Sudan, to their credit, were quick learners.

Now that all the veteran members of the club are gone and no longer in power, the bewildered regime in Khartoum finds it difficult to cope with the new reality and the unfolding events in the Middle East. They hope that Islamists will rule these countries but unlike them they would be elected Islamists. Rashid al-Ghannushi, the leader of the Islamic Nahda Party in Tunisia who supported the regime in the early 1990s, recently told the press that: “The project in Sudan turned into an authoritarian rule of repression and a wide range of his men became tyrants. They were competing to enrich themselves, their families, businesses, companies, positions and interests, and are doing their best to monopolize positions and interests for themselves and members of their tribes.” The critical issue they failed to understand in Sudan is not who rules but how these nations will be ruled, and that has changed forever.

In Africa Gaddafi was instrumental in protecting the regime, he coerced African leaders to protect President Omar al-Bashir from the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant. He led the African Union to lobby for the arrest warrant to be deferred, but now that is not possible any more. Sudan, in addition to the fact that it is currently ruled by war crimes suspects and is regarded by many countries around the world as a pariah state, remains despised and mistrusted by many Africans countries, including our neighbor Ethiopia. In 2009, according to Wikileaks, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told the US that removing Bashir’s regime would be the ideal scenario. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni recently told reporters in Juba that, “Sudan’s secession was a result of the failure by Khartoum to promote unity.”

In a new development, this week the High Court in Kenya issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, as the case brought by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) was successful. Judge Nicholas Ombija said in his ruling, “I grant the orders sought and direct the minister of internal security to arrest President Bashir should he set foot in Kenya in the future.” Sudan unwisely responded by expelling the Kenyan ambassador in Khartoum from the country.

To add further diplomatic embarrassment to Khartoum, on 28 November, Tanzania and Uganda objected to Sudan’s application to join the East African Community (EAC). The application will most likely to be rejected formally at the EAC heads-of-state summit this week. Uganda’s Minister for East African Affairs cited the reasons for rejecting the application as, “their democracy, the way they treat women, their religious politics and we feel they don’t qualify at all.”

Although the world has changed around them our lonely authoritarians in Khartoum seem to live in a parallel universe, where delusion and self-deception are their daily drugs to help them face the unwanted reality. Meanwhile, they continue oppressing and terrorizing Sudanese people, arresting dissidents, suppressing freedom of expression and committing more war crimes in South Kordfan, Blue Nile and Darfur. How this will end, no one knows, but further tragedy is likely as any semblance of wisdom seems to be rapidly vanishing from among the ranks of the ruling elites in Sudan.

The author is a Sudan Tribune journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]