Sudanese Islamist leader describes a racist Bashir Article Comments (17) Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 14, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – A former ally of Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir disclosed what he claimed to be a racist aspect of the country’s leader who came to power in a bloodless coup more than twenty years ago. Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) speaks during a news conference after his visit to Egypt, at the party’s headquarters in Khartoum July 30, 2011 (Reuters) "Bashir is a dictator and he was all the time in favor separating the South [from the North] to focus on suppressing the people of Northern Sudan [who are] demanding freedoms," leader of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) Hassan al-Turabi was quoted as saying by the Cairo-based Al-Shurooq newspaper in an interview published today. "He is also a racist [who] called the Southerners slaves. Even his [former] minister for several years Ali al-Hajj who is a doctor from far west Sudan, Bashir used to call him called ’al-feraik’ meaning a small slave as a word of contempt" he added. Turabi was Bashir’s close political and religious ally since the 1989 coup that was planned by the National Islamic Front (NIF) he led at the time. However, both men fell out together in a bitter power struggle that started in 1999. Since then Turabi has been in and out of jail but was released along with all other political prisoners after a north-south peace deal in 2005. The Islamist leader has been an outspoken critic of Bashir and his government. He is been accused by Khartoum of being the figure behind the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) that has been fighting the central government since 2003. "He [Bashir] is also primitive meaning narrow-minded who sees nothing but his clan. He even asked [Al- Qaeda leader Osama] bin Laden when he came to Sudan to finish a paved road to his village north of Khartoum which was completed only after we asked that it reaches the country’s only port in Port Sudan" Turabi said. Turabi further said that one of Bashir’s problems is that he is backed by his army which resented the war in the the South that lasted for over two decades. "So it was easy for them to get rid of the south .. This is the politics that created a deadlock for Bashir in the 90’s so he was forced to recruit young men. I used to tell them [youngsters militias] in lectures at their camps do not be like the soldiers who are killing, raping and looting. This is the [army’s] attitude everywhere in the world. Be different, do not kill peaceful [people] and if you see [someone] hungry feed him from your supplies," the PCP leader said. This is not the first time Turabi points fingers at Bashir accusing him of making derogatory remarks against other ethnicities. Last year Turabi said that Bashir questioned whether rape of Darfuri women s a crime that should be punished during his meeting with the national commission of inquiry established in 2004 to investigate alleged right abuses in Darfur. “One senior [member] from the commission, without naming him, said after we were sworn in [before Bashir] we sat down with the person that we took the oath before him, you know who is," he added. "He [Bashir] told us, [if] this Gharbawia [Darfuri woman], when a Ja’ali [man from the Ja’al tribe] man humps her, is this an honor or rape?” The commission member according to the Turabi told him that "his hair stood on end" when he heard Bashir’s comment and was speechless. "I swear to you in the name of god this story was told to me [by someone] I know very well" Turabi said. The Sudanese president in May 2004 issued a decree establishing the National Commission of Inquiry in Darfur chaired by Dafa Allah Elhadj Yousuf who is a longtime and close friend of Turabi. It was mandated with collecting information on alleged violations of human rights in the restive region. The Sudanese government at the time refused to comment on Turabi’s sensitive allegations which he made publicly. In 2008 seven people were killed and 107 were wounded in clashes between members of the Hausa tribe and Sudanese authorities in different parts of the country after a newspaper attributed a statement to Bashir in which he described them as "foreigners with no presence in the country" in light of their Nigerian origins. Bashir rushed to meet with Hausa leaders and swore to them that what was published in the interview was not true. At the time ruling party officials accused Turabi’s party of standing behind the riots. The Sudanese president faces ten counts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide that he is accused of orchestrating in Darfur against the Fur, Masaalit and Zaghawa African ethnic groups. Sudan does not recognize the court and calls it a Western plot to isolate and fragment the country. Bashir has received strong backing from African nations against the Hague-based court. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
