Sudan’s al-Bashir remains clinging to power by all means
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
Omer al-Bashir has little choice as he is unpopular at home and sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his indictment following the arrest warrant issued for the first time on Wednesday the 4th March 2009 for the crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide he has perpetrated against the Sudanese civilian citizens in the Darfur region Western Sudan. Thus, Bashir has little choice, but to continue trying all possible avenues and outlets to avoid arrested and incarcerated in dungeon at The Hague in the Netherlands. Bashir has tried every avenue to keep himself on the helm of Sudan at all cost. He even lately, coinciding with the Sudanese popular uprising, media reports indicated that Russian speaking mercenaries have been helping al-Bashir in cracking down those peacefully protesting and chanting “Tasgot Bass” public who demand the demise of the National Congress Party (NCP) regime once and for all.
The Sudanese government has denied reports that Russian mercenaries are aiding security forces in cracking down on anti-austerity protests that have rocked the country over the past month. Moreover, the Sudanese Interior Minister, Ahmed Bilal Osman, dismissed a report by the Times that published photographs of troops – allegedly from the shadowy Russian military services company Wagner – in the streets of Sudanese capital Khartoum in December. The images show dozens of white men dressed in camouflage, being transported in trucks as they observe anti-government protests in the city. Despite the demonstrations’ peaceful nature, security forces have responded with violence. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190114-sudan-denies-russian-mercenaries-involvement-in-quashing-protests/
As usual, al-Bashir has vowed not to relinquish his 30-year rule, stressing that the current demonstrations are the result of a foreign conspiracy and he ridiculed the Sudanese opposition parties and claimed that Sudan has been exposed to a foreign conspiracy. To blame Somebody Else “BSE” Bashir stressed that Sudan had been subjected to a foreign conspiracy since 1955, in addition to an ongoing war and economic siege for more than 20 years.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190104-al-bashir-attacks-opposition-claims-sudan-exposed-to-a-foreign-conspiracy/
On Wednesday 19th December 2018, the Sudanese government decided to triple the price of bread, while cash withdrawal from Sudanese banks is almost difficult to obtain unless impossible at times the owners of accounts in banks and exchange points prompting a wave of anti-government protests which swiftly escalated into demonstrations calling an end to the three-decade rule of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir. The core idea rests around the fact people have reached to and recognised that those individuals who believe or think that Marshall Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir would leave power in Sudan to step down or resign of his own free will are Illusional and at worst might be at a delusional level. Thousands in all districts of the capital Khartoum and other cities and regions all over Sudan began chanting freedom, justice and peace and demanding the overthrow of the regime with their usual motto of: ”Tasgot Bass”.
In his evening speech on Friday night, Omer al-Bashir wanted to Mislead the people of Sudan, who are rising up all over the country, calling for the demise of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM) government with its multiple falsehood nomenclature, which began with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), the National Charter Front (NCF), the National Islamic Front (NIF) and then the ruling regime of salvation (aka Ingaz), the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Popular Congress Party (PCP) under the respective leaderships of candidates, Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir and the late Dr Hassan Abdullah al-Turabi. The trick and the scenario was where Omer al-Bashir to become President at the former Republican Palace of Gordon while Dr Hassan al-Turabi to go to the neighbourhood of Cooper as Prisoner. Thus, the misguidance of the people of Sudan is the principle of the ruling regime since coming to power through the military coup on the night of Friday, June 30, 1989.
Here the reader finds that lies which is one of the biggest sins in the Islamic religion taken by the leaders of the International Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM) the Khartoum Branch as a principle to deal with the people of Sudan the majority of whom are devout Muslims and who believes every word spoken by the one who pretended to be a good Muslim even if the content of his/her words seem untrue. Here we can point out perhaps the non-real saying attributed to the German Political Philosophe Karl Marx who was said to have said: (Religion is the Opium of the People). Nevertheless, what he meant was that religion represented like opium for the deprived poor people under the exploitation of the rampant capitalism. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/05/karl-marx-200th-birthday-communist-manifesto-revolutionary
There is compelling evidence that this group of Muslim Brotherhood entity in Sudan has the ability to change its colour as a chameleon for the purpose of camouflage, deception and fraud. It is simply resorting to the principle of the End Justifies the Means that of the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli, aka Machiavelli the Prince. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince
This Omer al-Bashir who assumed power in a 1989 military coup, has always poised to cling to power by all means, and this clearly means greater crackdown on the peacefully protesting Sudanese public resulting into more violence and economic paralysis for Sudan and a new stage in a dark history of the National Islamic Front/ National Congress Party (NIF/NCP) regime. firstly to avoid being apprehended by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in the Netherlands for the crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of genocide he has perpetrated against the Sudanese civilian citizens in the Darfur region in the western part of Sudan when they asked for their share of the wealth and the Power of the country. The current decisions taken by al-Bashir during the popular uprising of the disfranchised Sudanese majority is nothing but a renewed military coup d’état par excellence and more arbitrary dictatorship and political polarization. At this time, as if history is repeating itself and taking us to the Dark Age days of Jihad warfare in Southern Sudan as it was called in previous eras. During the current popular uprising, Omer al- Bashir has returned all the retired military commanders to the service and appointed them as Governors of the States; as well he appointed General Awad Ibn Ouf as his First Deputy and appointed a new secretary of state for defence. Furthermore, al-Bashir re-appointed retired Major General Naeem Khader Morsal and retired Major-General Tayeb al-Mesbah Osman and returned them to service and promoted them to the rank of the Lieutenant General and sent them to retirement!. The foregoing steps taken by al-Bashir are reminders of that era which witnessed atrocious scenes of a long civil war between the mostly Christian and animist south Sudan and the Muslim and alleged Arabized north Sudan. At the time, Omer al-Bashir and his then ‘God Father’ Hassan Abdalla al-Turabi hosted the Saudi Arabian citizen, Osama bin Laden in the early years of his Jihadi Movement that led to the creation of al-Qaida, hence landing Sudan a spot on the political radar of the United States of America (USA) under the Presidency of the former President Bill Clinton who put Sudan on the list of countries backing and sponsoring terrorism in November 1997. The Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright said the US President Bill Clinton acted against Sudan “because of its continued sponsorship of international terror, its effort to destabilize neighboring countries and its abysmal record on human rights, including religious persecution.” President Clinton slapped wide-ranging economic sanctions on the hard-line Islamic government of Sudan at the time and ordered the seizure of Sudanese government assets in the United States. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/11/05/clinton-imposes-sanctions-on-sudan-freezes-assets/05cd5848-8a2d-4615-a320-11a4f4596965/?utm_term=.340beb586625
Omer al-Bashir, like the chameleon, is trying to change his mainly failed diplomatic dialogue with the international Political pole and diplomatic axes and is trying to get closer to the US President Donald Trump, but he quickly changes his position, then visits Russia, meets with President Vladimir Putin, complains of America’s aggression and demands protection from him. It is really pitiful but not only that, Omer al-Bashir tried to converge and then moves away in his diplomatic relations with the international community and the African Union (AU) community and his relations with the Islamic world and his fragile relations with the League of Arab States as well as his participation in the war in Yemen , Code-named Operation Decisive Storm (Arabic: ????? ????? ?????? in the role of mercenary. https://www.google.com/search?ei=hfV2XKfHGr6S1fAP_tuM4As&q=The+Name+of+the+war+in+Yemen+is+operation&oq=The+Name+of+the+war+in+Yemen+is+operation&gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i160.35906.46239..49492…0.0..0.117.932.11j2……0….1..gws-wiz…….0i71j33i22i29i30.96JtNgin4rw
Thus, misery to the people of Sudan erupted several times into protests during the reign of al-Bashir. The recent uprisings include the 2013 uprising that resulted into the massacre of around 200 young people in Khartoum the Capital of Sudan, along the current ongoing intifada of all the people of Sudan where more than 66 people were killed by live ammunition by masked security elements. In each time the primary culprit is down to al-Bashir. He has tried to do the same in the latest unrest, sparked on Dec. 19 2018. It was, initially over steep price rises and shortages of liquidity in the Bank. Dozens have been reported killed, and al-Bashir has arrested opposition leaders, imposed emergency rule and curfews in multiple cities and suspended classes in schools and universities. Nevertheless, the World knows for fact that the State of Emergency has been as a fait accompli for more than a decade in the Darfur region as well as in the Nuba Mountains, in the Ingassana of South Blue Nile territory and in parts of the Beja ethnic Cushitic peoples inhabiting the enclave in Eastern Sudan.
Bashir’s lean 29 years in power will likely be remembered after his regime gets demised as the most bloodthirsty, oppressive, racist and sadistic in Sudan’s modern history. During the dark rule of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM), Omer al-Bashir began by trying to militarily crush the southern rebellion. Predictably, it did not work. Sadly and regrettably, the people of the former Southern Sudan opted for secession after groundbreaking results of a popular referendum and formed the Republic of South Sudan and making the former Sudan’s map looking so small, ugly and deformed. The true Sudanese citizen hates to view it as a result of the extreme ugliness of image of the amputated looking Map of the current Sudan ruled by Omer al-Bashir and his few small-minded Islamism bigots.
From Khartoum, his rule was based on his Islamist-military alliance, presenting himself as a leader of the 1990s wave of “political Islam” while building ties with violent jihadis. Using Islamist ideology as a rallying cry, al-Bashir created loyalist militias to protect his rule and built a political machine of businessmen and politicians that held a lock on power and amassed massive wealth through corruption in the impoverished bankrupt remaining Sudanese nation after the secession of the southern part of it taking with it three quarters of the oil reserve and one third of the population and a fertile potentially prosperous land. Not only that, al-Bashir and his regime continued their ingrained racism and nepotism which contributed to the impoverishment of the public through unemployment and the closure of the road to the access to the remaining resources of the country’s wealth.
His renewed imposition of Islamic law alienated many and tore apart the social fabric of a country which rich with religious and ethnic composition. His use of Islamic militias in Darfur made him an international pariah. Thus, al-Bashir has kept all Sudan a hostage for his safety from the gripping hand of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which has been chasing him under the arrest warrant since 2009, and remaining fugitive from the International Justice. Omer al-Bashir is not afraid of anything in his life day and night and during his rest as well as during his shuttle travels more than the gripping hands of the International Criminal Court (ICC). And in exchange for avoiding this Omer al-Bashir will do everything against the people of Sudan, especially Sudanese citizens of Darfur, who are believed to have been behind his conviction on the crimes committed in the region.
The Troika Said that the future of the relationship with Sudan depends on the government’s military dealings with the protesters.
The Troika countries “Britain, America and Norway” have renewed their concern about the developments in the situation in Sudan and said that the new military government’s handling of the protesters will determine the future of dealing with Khartoum.
(الترويكا): مستقبل العلاقة مع السودان رهين بتعامل الحكومة العسكرية مع المحتجين
Tharwat Gasim, in his article asks as to why Bashir chose his new first deputy from the List of the 51 of Ocampo.
لماذا اختار البشير نائبه الاول الجديد من قائمة اوكامبو ال 51 ؟
It is noteworthy that Ocampo, to which the said article has referred to, as the world knows, is Luis Gabriel Moreno Ocampo who is an Argentine lawyer and the First Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). He is renowned for chasing and hunting the world’s worst war criminals and the Génocidaires who have been indicted with arrest warrants such as the Sudanese regime President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir and his ilk and brought some of them to trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in the Netherlands. However, Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir remains fugitive from the International Justice to date and since the date of Wednesday 4th March 2009. Moreover, there are 51 individuals from the inner circle of al-Bashir accused as being implicated in the crimes perpetrated in the Darfur region and ordered by those accused to be carried out by the proxy the then Janjaweed militias. The evidence for Bashir’s choosing his entourage from the indictees of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is that he has appointed Ahmed Haroun as an acting chairman of Sudan’s ruling party, the National Congress Party (NCP). Ahmed Mohmed Haroun, the former Governor (aka Wali) for the North Kordofan State, has been indicted by the (ICC) for his role in the heinous crimes the regime perpetrated in the Darfur region, and obviously remaining fugitive just as his master of grace, Omer al-Bashir.
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article67148
On the other hand, as many would not know, there are so many security agencies, militias and party youth battalions belonging to the hypocritical so-called Islamic Movement and the National Congress Party (NCP) regime.
Dr Fagirey Mohamed Ahmed, in Canada, spoke to President Omar al-Bashir on what could work to remove the stalemate that Sudan has entered as a result of the failure of the National Salvation Revolution (aka Ingaz) over the last three decades. The message of Dr Fagirey was worded very strongly, but it was too late as they came after the pens lifted and the ink got dry, so to speak. That said, those wise swords have already been isolated and the uprising Sudanese public have already reached to the station where their final say landed they do not think there is a solution to the current impasse but “TASGO BASS” and Bashir to leave without the presence of anyone shedding tears for the reason that the National Congress Party (NCP) rule in Sudan has come to an end. The Sudanese people echoed saying:” This is the only reform we want”!
The Rule of Law and Good Governance have completely vanished from the radar and disappeared in Sudan against the oppressive laws accompanying the imposition of the state of emergency law for one year and the composition of the Council of Ministers of the retired army officers along with First Presidential Deputy a military General and worse of all Bashir remaining the President for ever.
In spite of the brutal crackdown and the policy of “shoot to kill”, Protesters have come out almost daily since the wave of protests began on December 19, 2018 due to the high price of bread and other basic commodities as well as the lack of access to the funds deposited in banks, which became the biggest challenge facing Bashir. on Thursday (February 28th, 2019), More than 1,000 anti-government protesters demonstrated in and around the capital Khartoum witnesses said. Those are thought the first popular marches since Bashir imposed his year-long arbitrary Emergency laws and setting up punitive courts across the country on Tuesday to tackle ongoing unrest for more than two months. Witnesses said security forces fired tear gas at about 400 protestors in the city’s major Omdurman markets, facing Khartoum on the other side of the River Nile. Protesters continued calling for the end to Bashir’s 30-year oppressive rule and chanted “Down with it –aka Tasgot Bass.”!
The world has seen enough dictators and their atrocious ways, but there are a few who lifted the level of brutality to another height; Omer al-Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP) regime are among the latter.
Edmund Burke the Irish statesman was an author, orator, political theorist and philosopher has been quoted as saying: “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent”
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/edmund_burke
Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, who was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic, whose work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism has been quoted as saying: “There is something wrong with a regime that requires a pyramid of corpses every few years”!
https://www.google.com/search?q=quotes+about+dictator+clinging+to+power&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-_Onev-HgAhVN8OAKHbwlCacQsAR6BAgEEAE&biw=1366&bih=657#imgrc=uaBuBCWZInLRTM:
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/