Sudan’s Al-Turabi scoffs at rumours of his death
December 2, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s opposition leader Hassan Al-Turabi has derided the rumours of his death which spread across the country on Friday, accusing the authorities of being behind them.
His appearance has dispelled rumors of his death, which permeated the capital Khartoum earlier in the day and created a state of panic among his supporters.
Addressing his supporters, Al-Turabi shrugged off rumours of his death, saying that such an end will befall everyone eventually and not just him.
He further said that the authorities previously spread rumours that he had died of illness after they failed to muffle his voice by throwing him in jail.
The eighty year-old opposition figure has been in and out of jail since he was ousted from power in 1999 after a bitter power struggle with president Al-Bashir, who Al-Turabi had helped bring to power in an Islamist-backed military coup in 1989.
Ever since he was ousted, Al-Turabi has been a vociferous critic of Al-Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) from which he broke away to establish the PCP.
In his address, Al-Turabi said that the entire country is enmeshed in a network of malaise and hunger, adding that he expects the eruption of an all-out revolution that would start in the country’s “inflamed peripheries” to eradicate the corrupt regime that has killed innocent people and stolen the state’s resources.
Al-Turabi said it was the duty of every Sudanese citizen regardless of their party or faction to rise against the government, saying that the regime fears the revolution of hungry people and holders of arms.
Al-Turabi further called on leaders of the opposition forces to prepare for the revolution which he said would run for a long time and shed a lot of blood.
(ST)