Demanding civilian government, thousands defy military curfew in Sudan

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Written by northsouth

Category: Africa

Published: 12 April 2019

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By Khalid Abdelaziz

KHARTOUM - Thousands of Sudanese demonstrators camped outside the defense ministry in Khartoum to push for a civilian government, defying a curfew and calling for mass prayers after the military overthrew Omar al-Bashir after 30 years of autocratic rule.

Demonstrators who have been holding almost daily anti-Bashir protests rejected the decision to set up a transitional military council to run the country for two years and vowed to continue protests until a civilian government is established.

Activists called for mass Friday prayers outside the defense ministry compound, a focal point for protests.

At the compound, large tents were put up and people brought in food and handed out water as the crowd swelled, a Reuters witness said. Ahmed al-Sadek, a 39-year-old trader, said he had not slept at his home since the sit-in began on Saturday.

Activists wearing yellow vests controlled traffic around the compound on Friday morning and managed foot traffic to and from the sit-in, a Reuters witness said. They also blocked a major bridge in central Khartoum.

Bashir, 75, had faced 16 weeks of demonstrations against him. Announcing the president’s overthrow, Defence Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf said elections would be held at the end of the two-year interim period.

World powers, including the United States and Britain, said they supported a peaceful and democratic transition sooner than two years.

Auf is included on Washington’s list of Specially Designated Nationals for his role during the Darfur conflict, meaning all his assets in the U.S. were frozen and Americans were banned from doing business with him, the U.S. embassy said.

Speaking on state television on Thursday, Ibn Auf said Bashir was being detained in a “safe place” and a military council - which it was later announced he is heading - would now run the country.

Sudanese sources told Reuters that Bashir was at the presidential residence under “heavy guard”.


MILITARY COUNCIL


The military council set up a political committee that will meet political parties and foreign diplomats during the course of Friday, state media reported. The military council was also due to give a news conference on Friday.

Ibn Auf also announced a state of emergency, a nationwide ceasefire and the suspension of the constitution. He also said there would be a curfew from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

The main organizer of protests against Bashir, the Sudanese Professionals Association, rejected Ibn Auf’s plans. It called on protesters to maintain their sit-in outside the defense ministry.

In a challenge to the military council, several thousand protesters remained in front of the defense ministry compound, and in other parts of the capital, as the curfew went into effect.

They chanted “They removed a thief and brought a thief!” and “Revolution! Revolution!”

Some shops in Omdurman, across the River Nile from central Khartoum, remained open past 10 p.m., a Reuters witness said.

Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague and is facing an arrest warrant over allegations of genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region during an insurgency that began in 2003 and led to the death of an estimated 300,000 people. He denies the allegations.

Bashir’s downfall was the second time this month that a leader in the region has been forced out after mass demonstrations. Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power since 1999, stepped down on April 2 after six weeks of protests.

Sudan's President al-Bashir steps down

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Written by northsouth

Category: Africa

Published: 11 April 2019

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KHARTOUM - Sudan’s armed forces were to deliver an “important statement” and asked the nation to “wait for it” on Thursday, state TV reported, as two senior officials said the military had forced longtime President Omar al-Bashir to step down.

The circumstances of al-Bashir’s apparent ouster and his current whereabouts remained unclear, however.

State TV said an army statement was imminent amid swirling reports of a coup to replace the president of 30 years following mass street protests against his rule. The announcement raised expectations it was a sign al-Bashir was relinquishing power or was being removed by the military.

The two officials, who hold high positions in the government and the military, said the army was now in talks about forming a transitional government. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Pan-Arab TV networks also carried unconfirmed reports that al-Bashir had stepped down and that top ruling party officials were being arrested. They aired footage of masses heading toward the presidential palace in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, waving the national flag, chanting, and clapping.

Al-Bashir, who is a pariah in many countries, is also wanted by the international war crimes tribunal for atrocities in Darfur.

Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said the military had deployed at key sites in the city to secure several installations since the morning hours.

Armored vehicles and tanks are parked in the streets and near bridges over the Nile River, they said, as well as in the vicinity of the military headquarters, where thousands were anxiously awaiting the army statement. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals.

Organizers of the protests urged crowds to converge and join an ongoing sit-in underway in Khartoum since the weekend. They issued a statement vowing to remain in the streets until the “regime steps down completely and power is handed to a civilian transitional government.”

Thousands of protesters, including women carrying their children, were making their way toward the military headquarters, clapping and ululating, many flashing “V” for victory. There were also unconfirmed reports that the airport in the Sudanese capital had been closed.

Ahead of the expected army statement, Sudanese radio played military marches and patriotic music. State TV ceased regular broadcasts, with only the brief announcement saying that there will be an “important statement from the armed forces after a while, wait for it.”

The development followed deadly clashes between Sudanese security forces and protesters holding a large anti-government sit-in outside the military’s headquarters in Khartoum, which also include a presidential residence. There were several attempts to break up the sit-in, leaving 22 dead since Saturday.

On Tuesday, Sudanese security forces tried again to disperse the sit-in, which began over the weekend, killing at least 14 people, activists behind the demonstration said. The government said 11 died. The fatalities so far have included five soldiers who protest organizers said were defending the sit-in.

The months of protests have plunged Sudan into its worst crisis in years. The demonstrations initially erupted last December with rallies against a spiraling economy, but quickly escalated into calls for an end to embattled al-Bashir’s rule.

Security forces have responded to the protest movement with a fierce crackdown, killing dozens. Al-Bashir banned unauthorized public gatherings and granted sweeping powers to the police since imposing a state of emergency last month. Security forces have used tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition and batons against demonstrators

The protests gained momentum last week after Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power for 20 years, resigned in response to weeks of similar protests.

Rwanda remembers, quarter of a century after genocide

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Written by northsouth

Category: Africa

Published: 06 April 2019

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KIGALI - Rwanda on Sunday commemorates the 25th anniversary of the genocide in which at least 800,000 mainly Tutsi people were beaten, hacked and shot to death in a hundred days of slaughter.

A quarter of a century on, the country has recovered economically but the trauma casts a long and dark shadow over the country.

On Sunday, as has become the tradition every April 7, the day the genocide began, President Paul Kagame will light a remembrance flame in the capital at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than 250,000 victims are said to be buried.

It marks the beginning of a week of commemoration activities, and the start of a hundred days of national mourning.

In the afternoon on Sunday, Kagame, who led the rebels that chased the genocidal killers out of Rwanda and has been in power ever since, leads memorial commemorations at a ceremony at Kigali's main football stadium.

The Amahoro National Stadium —"peace" in Rwanda's Kinyarwanda language—was used during the genocide by the UN to protect thousands of Tutsis from the massacres on the streets outside.

The Hutu forces, members of the old army and militia forces called the "Interahamwe", had been cheered on by blood-curdling anti-Tutsi propaganda that began on April 7 1994, the day after the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu.

Kagame, then 36, was a rebel general when he led the mainly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) into Kigali on July 4, and drove Hutu extremists out of the country.

Rwanda has changed nearly beyond all recognition since then.

But Kagame's rule has been at the helm of his nation ever since, steering the small, landlocked nation through economic recovery.

Growth in 2018 was a heady 7.2 percent, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

This boom has been largely boosted by the help received from an international community pained by its failures to stop the genocide.

"In 25 years, the things that we've been able to accomplish are really extraordinary," said Bruce Muringira, a 24-year old working for an advertising agency, and who like nearly two-thirds of Rwanda's 12 million people, was born after the genocide.

"I think we've evolved very much in such a short time."

Huge challenges remain, but the people are hopeful.

"We still see today that it is not perfect," Muringira said.

"But we're putting in the effort to find a way to live harmoniously."

For a people left divided by the bloodiest of legacies, reconciliation has been key.

Rwanda has banned any reference to ethnicity in public life.

It has prioritised justice for the genocidal killers, especially through the mass actions of the community courts, known as "gacaca", in a bid to rebuild relations between communities.

But the wounds of the tragedy have not all not healed. The reconciliation is far from perfect.

For families of victims, forgiveness remains difficult, when the bodies of their loved ones have not been found, and when many killers still evade justice.

Kagame is credited with overseeing rapid economic development in Rwanda after the genocide.

His successes earned him the status of model leader.

However in time, his iron-fisted rule—seen as needed to impose order from chaos—gained many critics.

Kagame's leadership was seen by those in the West as flouting freedom of expression and muzzling opposition.

Opposition to Kagame was silenced, or driven into exile.

He was re-elected for a new seven-year term in August 2017 with nearly 99 per cent of the vote.

Constitutional reforms adopted by referendum in 2015 would potentially allow him to stay in power until 2034.

But times might be changing, a bit.

Kagame, now 61, has been seen to be loosening control somewhat, perhaps aware of the questions about what will happen when he, someday, leaves power.

Some jailed opposition leaders have been released.

"Kagame sees it as prudent to shed off his old narrative of being autocratic and overly intolerant to opposition," said one Rwandan political commentator who asked not to be named.

"Don't forget that as time goes by, he is becoming more cognizant of which legacy he wants to leave behind."

Frank Habineza's Green Democratic Party, became the first opposition party to enter parliament last year, winning two seats in elections.

"I think the ruling party is no longer overly intolerant to opposing views. Over a period of time they have started listening to our views. Our manifestos have been now considered in government projects, not as before when they were ignored."

Several African leaders are expected at the ceremony, while former colonial ruler Belgium is sending Prime Minister Charles Michel.

But French President Emmanuel Macron is not attending, citing scheduling problems.

France, which Rwanda accuses of being complicit in the genocide, is sending Herve Berville, a 29-year old Rwandan-born member of parliament in Paris.

Perhaps most conspicuous by his absence will be former ally Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Kigali now accuses Uganda of sheltering Rwandan rebels on its soil.