Eastern Sudan rebels groups rap government over violence
By Abdalalim Hassan
ASMARA, Feb 3, 2005 (Al-Sharq al-Awsat) — Text of interview with Abdallah Muhammad Ahmad Kinnah, the political department official in the Beja Congress, and Mabruk Salim Mubarak, leader of the Free Lions faction in Sudan; date not given published by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat on 3 February; subheadings inserted editorially.
The situations in eastern Sudan worsened recently following the death of 23 persons in clashes between the police and protesters demanding their share of their rich province’s resources in several eastern cities, foremost of them Port Sudan, the country’s main port on the Red Sea.
“Al-Sharq al-Awsat” conducted two interviews with the leaders of two armed factions that the government is accusing of being behind the events in the region. They are Abdallah Muhammad Ahmad Kinnah, the political department official in the Beja Congress, and Mabruk Salim Mubarak, leader of the “Free Lions” faction. Kinnah said the uprising is sweeping all the cities in the “east” while the “Free Lions” faction leader pointed out that military action is their first choice.
Following is the text of the interview with Kinnah:
– What are the latest developments in the east of the country?
Kinnah: Following exhausting negotiations with the Sudanese security organs, the Beja masses were able to take away the bodies of our martyrs and bury them in Port Sudan’s main cemetery. The uprising is at the same time sweeping all the cities in the east and the authorities are imposing a state of emergency and moving the special forces from Khartoum to Kassala and Port Sudan. Arrests are continuing among Beja Congress students, leaders, and activists in Kassala, Port Sudan, and Al-Qadarif.
In the field, the Sudanese government has started to mass its troops on the contact lines and launched an offensive against our forces in Al-Qash area on 29 January. The attack was repulsed and the government forces abandoned their camps and fled. The Beja Congress is at present receiving condolences for its martyrs at the Beja Historic Club in Port Sudan. There is a government rejection and a people’s determination and this will only create more friction.
Disagreements in opposition alliance over Cairo agreement
– In view of the present disagreements inside the opposition alliance [National Democratic Alliance, NDA] over the stand toward the Cairo agreement, what are the choices available to you?
Kinnah: We did not take part in drafting the Cairo agreement or attended its meetings. We do not believe that it touched on the east of Sudan problem. We issued a statement at the time in which we stated our stand. We will join the NDA’s present meetings in Asmara to explain our position. Many NDA members support this position. We will then determine our stand toward the NDA and whether we continue our membership in it or not and even the continuity of the alliance itself.
– Was the dispute between the Beja and the Unionist Party contained?
Kinnah: We withdrew from the Cairo negotiations at the end of October and on 1 November demanded a meeting for the leadership to contain the situation but we have not received a reply to this day.
We read on the internet that there is a committee consisting of the grouping under Secretary-General Pagan Amum to meet with us and with the “Free Lions”. It has not met with us so far. The NDA continued its negotiations with the Sudanese government in Cairo and also in Khartoum and signed its agreement in Cairo but it did not provide us even with the agreement in which we did not take part.
– How do you view the future of the opposition alliance in light of these situations?
Kinnah: The NDA is going to split into three parts. One will go with the Cairo agreement, a second will be included in the Naivasha agreement, and the third will search for alternatives other than the NDA’s declared ones. As far as we the Beja Congress and the Free Lions are concerned, the Cairo agreement will not resolve the east of Sudan problem, where the blood of its sons is still being shed to this day in order to achieve their just demands.
We stopped military action on the eastern front in the past so as to give peace the biggest possible chance. However, the Port Sudan massacre is casting its shadows on the eastern front and therefore war has started as a result of the government’s provocation.
– However, your allies in the NDA factions will comply with the cease-fire that the movement signed in Naivasha and the NDA in Cairo. What is your position?
Kinnah: We will respect the stands of the NDA factions that signed the cease-fire agreement with the government but we will continue our action to defend our citizens. Moreover, we have not signed so far any cease-fire with the government.
– What are exactly your demands?
Beja Congress’s demands
Kinnah: First, the Sudanese government’s recognition that the Beja Congress and the Free Lions are the legitimate representatives of eastern Sudan. Our demands are the ones that the first generation of the Beja Congress submitted in 1958 and which the Beja sons are continuing to struggle to achieve. These are: Sharing power and wealth and having the sons of the east rule themselves and enjoy their country’s wealth and health and educational services like the other parts of Sudan because what has happened in eastern Sudan is a human disaster since it is regarded as the most backward and marginalized part of the country.
– Are there endeavours to hold negotiations between you and the Sudanese government?
Kinnah: The regime is saying that it is willing to negotiate with the Beja Congress and the Free Lions but is at the same time carrying out ugly operations, like the Port Sudan massacre, which is poisoning the political atmosphere.
As to the first step, the government must carry out a transparent investigation, hold fair public trials for the massacre perpetrators, release all the detainees immediately, withdraw the special forces from Sudan’s eastern cities, lift the state of emergency and the curfew, and fulfil the demands in the memorandum because of which the peaceful march was staged in Port Sudan and which was met with military repression.
And following is the text of the interview with Mabruk Salim Mubarak, leader of the Free Lions faction:
– What is your stand on the two peace agreements that were signed in Naivasha and Cairo?
Mubarak: We did not see anything that met our wishes and our peoples’ desires, neither in Naivasha nor in Cairo. Therefore we in the eastern front will continue to struggle with all possible means until we achieve our objectives.
– How do you assess the NDA’s future in light of the current disagreements?
Mubarak: We thought and said repeatedly that the NDA is the ideal umbrella for the Sudanese opposition. We the Beja Congress and Free Lions organizations are founder members of it. However, I believe that the NDA reached a cross road when we withdrew from the Cairo negotiations and the NDA signed the agreement in principle with the government and this caused the disagreement. We respect and appreciate the NDA’s struggles and consider them a history of struggle, but the views differed and this is quite normal.
However, the NDA factions that signed the Cairo agreement in our absence cannot make concessions and we cannot accept the agreement because it does not meet our people’s demands. We therefore, believe in maintaining the cordiality between us and the organizations that signed the Cairo agreement because of the mutual respect, esteem, and the long history of struggle of which we are proud.
We the two organizations (the Free Lions and the Beja Congress) merged the two armies on the eastern front and pledged to achieve the aims of the people in eastern Sudan. The demonstrations in Port Sudan and the martyrs’ noble blood that watered the land of the east are evidence of the people’s cohesion with their revolution. We pledge to our people that this blood will not be in vain.
Free Lions to continue military action in eastern Sudan
– Will you continue the military action?
Mubarak: Yes. Military action remains our first choice. We are forced to this by the Khartoum regime because it refuses to negotiate in a separate platform for east of Sudan. We stress that the military action will escalate.
– What are the latest developments in the east?
Mubarak: We were able to repulse a government attack on our forces in Al-Qash, between Mitatib and Tandalti. A count of the losses we inflicted on the Sudanese regime’s forces continues.
– How are the situations in the eastern cities following the recent troubles?
Mubarak: There is tension and many people are being arrested because of the fears from the demonstration, like in Port Sudan. That city is still under curfew, closed, and blockaded completely. Some media correspondents entered the city’s morgues without the knowledge of the regime that continues to refuse to bury the Port Sudan uprising’s martyrs.
– Have any organizations agreed with you to reject the Cairo agreement?
Mubarak: The western fronts (Darfur), the Sudan Liberation Movement, the Federal Movement, and the Justice and Equality Movement, which is outside the NDA, reject the agreement and others may join us.
– What is your stand on the Sudanese government’s recent request for your arrest through Interpol on the charge of involvement in the recent coup attempt?
Mubarak: First, the arrest law through Interpol does not apply to us for legal and subjective reasons. We are not thieves but revolutionaries struggling for rights that were stolen by the authority “the Khartoum regime” and the theft of the citizens’ possessions and lives. This is the crime.
As to the coup attempt, this regime’s legitimacy is based on a coup against the democratic legitimacy and now boasts of reaching peace, which it was possible to reach a better one in 1989, which they called capitulation and not peace. They should be brought to account for the destruction that their long war has caused and for the deterioration in the Sudanese citizen’s living conditions because of this war.
Material provided by the BBC Monitoring Service.