Chronicling the Barbarism of the al-Bashir Regime in the Face of Growing Popular Uprising
Eric Reeves | January 9, 2019 | https://wp.me/p45rOG-2mi
Developments in Sudan are occurring with great rapidity; it would be impossible to provide daily analyses of the sort I offered prior to January 1, 2018. Below are the links to some fifty Tweets, perhaps the most used social media platform, I have generated over the past eight days, along with the 280-character comments that preface Sudan and international news dispatch; photographs; reports from the ground; and other Tweets that contain what I consider the most important information I’ve seen. Most of what is in these Tweets I’ve also posted on “Linked In.”
This shorthand way of giving an overview has obvious limitations, but offers at least one way to navigate the extraordinary outpouring of information about current conditions in Sudan—political, economical, and military/security. The brutality of the violence which the current regime has determined to use in suppressing popular anger and demand for change is highlighted in many of these postings. One in particular haunts me:
Herewith a compendium of links and prefaces (stripped of hashtags, some lightly edited to remove typos, ambiguities, spelling errors) to my commentary and that of others, many on the ground in Sudan now, facing extraordinary threats as they relay video, still photos, and basic information about conditions. (Re-Tweeted text is in quotation marks; photographs with attribution when possible).
January 9, 2019:
•Ongoing barbarism in the violence of the NCP regime’s security forces: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1083051668390989824
• This is a war crime under the Rome Treaty that is the statutory basis for the International Criminal Court. More war crimes against people of Sudan by al-Bashir and his ruthless cronies:
“Regime security storms Omdurman hospital and fire live ammunition and tear gas inside the hospital 2nd day”: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1083046786669916160
• “This is a photo of the hospital. Use of firearms and tear-gas” | https://twitter.com/Hassan1hasko/status/1083034416174243840
• Dismaying to see how shallow international news reporting has been on Sudan’s economy, and the long history of political corruption leading to catastrophic policy decisions. The political and the economic have always been inseparable, as I argue in these two briefs, from 2014 and 2015: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1083024962112364544
• “Four confirmed gun wound injuries two in the leg, one in the chest, and one in the thigh. Security arrested another two; live-bullets wounded protestors along with another people from one of field clinics and prevented them of transporting to hospital”: https://twitter.com/Sudanchangenow/status/1083016813745750017
•Ominous signs behind the scenes of al-Bashir offer to turn power over to the army; splits with the Islamist movement over how to deal with al-Bashir’s manifest incompetence; support for him from former Vice President Ali Osman Taha angling for resuming some sort of power: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1083016253730684928
• There is no remorse for ordinary people of Sudan as the NCP struggles to figure out a survival strategy: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1083015348515979265
January 8, 2019:
[1] This bears extremely close watching, as al-Bashir’s grip on power has apparently untenable over past 48 hours. He is from the army and may still have the army’s backing at the most senior levels—but below that it is quite uncertain, particularly the mid-level officers: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082815148988006400
[2] The army leadership also understands that to be seen as mere proxies for al-Bashir will saddle them with the same massive economic problems that have forced this brutal man to consider leaving the presidency. There will be no “grace period” if the army simply asserts control: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082815675154878464
[3] If Sudan’s army does become proxy for continuing power in the hands of al-Bashir and his NCP thugs, this sets up the possibility of tensions between the military forces and security services—with the RSF thrown into this dangerous mix. Real stability will be hard to come by: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082829257737424896
[forming a sequence]
• Economic realities hit the people of Sudan hard, as decades of regime mismanagement have produced economic collapse. Critical pharmaceuticals are either not available or too expensive. The regime’s response to the outrage of ordinary Sudanese is to concoct a pro-NCP rally: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082791814581633024
• Security Forces Killing, Detaining Protestors: Promptly Investigate Abuses; Hold Those Responsible to Account,” HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (Nairobi), January 7, 2019 (10:00pm EST) http://bit.ly/2AyRjWu https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082656619132080131
• So many lies deemed necessary by the regime! A mark of success by protestors in Sudan. Notable that Qatar is accused of indirectly aiding al-Bashir/his regime: notable if true, given power dynamics in the Gulf. Wednesday looks to be another day of demonstrations: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082649729434087424
• “Gadarif (eastern Sudan) is no different from other #sudanuprsing cities and towns. The regime targets those who try to document; for documenting and staying up to date is revealing brutality. Many videos are believed to credible”: https://twitter.com/KhalidmeTaha/status/1082629505775267840
January 7, 2019
• The presence in Sudan of Russian Wagner private military personnel has been reported on social media for days: what does the African Union make of Khartoum regime’s use of mercenaries to preserve al-Bashir’s tyranny? Is Slavic colonialism somehow more benign than other kinds? https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082459376332562432
• The determination and resourcefulness of the demonstrators in Sudan is revealed in this update from Radio Dabanga. There can be no doubt about the resolve of the people who have braved harassment, beatings, arrests, torture, and murderous gunshots: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082390560210599938
• There’s news to be had about the uprising in Sudan outside of Khartoum, if not ample. It makes clear that political unity in opposition to al-Bashir regime is essential: without it, the uprising will be short-circuited by a “palace coup” orchestrated by army or security forces: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082350103095140354
• The “African Union”? or a reincarnation of the “old boys’ dictators club,” usually referred to as the Organization of African Unity? This dispatch remains the last word from the AU on the massive political crisis in Sudan, almost two decades after the “Constitutive Act of the African Union”: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082287143408553989
• The international community that claims to be working on behalf of the people of Sudan has become perversely silent as the al-Bashir regime continues to deny people their most basic rights. African Union? The UN? ” the Troika”? Western democracies? Silence as a way to hedge your bets on the outcome? https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082273480270331904
The people of Sudan are showing remarkable courage in the face of ruthless, violent repression by the NCP regime and its security forces
January 6, 2019
• Sudan Tribune provides an excellent overview of the day’s events (Sunday, Jan. 6). Arrests, tear gas, and a massive security presence the primary tools in Khartoum. But elsewhere–Atbara, Wad Madani–demonstrations were huge because regime has no comparable security presence: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082108214915878912
• There has still been no meaningful international response to this unspeakable outrage on the part of the Khartoum regime: targeting medical personnel as part of a plan to disrupt protests and deny care to those protesting: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082059019395780608
• “Al-Bashir regime not hesitating in attacking medical personnel as way to crush protests. This dispatch from N. Kordofan makes clear it is not simply in the Khartoum area. But in Khartoum, the attacks are savage, as Channel 4 (UK) report shows”: https://www.channel4.com/news/sudans-opposition-calls-for-more-protests-against-omar-al-bashir
• A sober, informed account of the protests in #Sudan and what the possible outcomes might be. Some worrying possibilities: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1082048396456837121
• “When you have mosques using their loudspeakers to cheer youth protesters facing lots of teargas and security pickups you have a story to tell”:
https://twitter.com/daloya/status/1082005213786112001
https://twitter.com/asaadali17/status/1081947546791133184?s=21
• “Using of excessive force against peaceful protesters and indiscriminate attack against doctors 6th January”: https://twitter.com/sumodar/status/1081990772017242117
• A regime headed by Vice President Bakri Saleh would be a ruthless and undemocratic as that of al-Bashir. This appears to be little more than the first step in a “palace coup” by an NCP leader eager to hang onto power, and willing to sacrifice al-Bashir to that goal: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1081957958861369344
Vice President Bakri Hassan Saleh–participated in the June 1989 military coup and has head the security services in the past; he is utterly ruthless
• Al-Bashir’s firing of Sudan’s Minister of Health is nothing but political theater: he and his cynical regime know full well this will do nothing to slow the catastrophic rate of inflation for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. Clear evidence that the regime is out of options: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1081924168952807425
• The continuing strike by doctors brings additional pressure on the al-Bashir regime, and further angers the long-suffering people of Sudan. The regime’s barbaric response—arrest or shoot doctors—only = increases the grievances of the people: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1081919374494236673
• “A 1 pm march is planned in Khartoum, starting from four areas: Burri, Downtown (Sayed Abdelrahman St), Al-Diyoom (east), Al-Sajana—towards the Presidential Palace. This was called for by the Sudanese Association of Professionals”: https://twitter.com/YousraElbagir/status/1081836884609908736
• “University of Khartoum professors stand on January 6 support Sudan revolutionary movement”: https://twitter.com/sumodar/status/1081870150977097728
January 5, 2019
Al-Bashir regime not hesitating in attacking medical personnel as way to crush protests. This dispatch from N. Kordofan makes clear it is not simply in the Khartoum area. But in Khartoum, the attacks are savage, as Channel 4 (UK) report shows: http://bit.ly/2AwzB6a
https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1081661527164440576
• An important dispatch today from Sudan Tribune strongly suggests U.S. officials are seeking to preserve al-Bashir regime, if perhaps without al-Bashir. This is a shameless betrayal of the aspirations of the people of Sudan as demonstrated in recent weeks: http://wp.me/p45rOG-2ma: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1081597947886878721
January 4, 2019
Dear Eric, Can you please re-tweet this link to our @Channel4News report. You have many followers who will see it if you do a direct tweet, but who won’t follow/see my reply here https://twitter.com/DariusBazargan/status/1081278616179220481
• House Foreign Affairs Committee@HouseForeign Jan 4
Chairman @RepEliotEngel today called on Secretary Pompeo to act on #Sudan human rights: https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/2019/1/engel-calls-on-pompeo-to-act-on-sudan-human-rights … https://twitter.com/HouseForeign/status/1081244090975563778
• Re-Tweet: Channel 4 (UK) has assembled an extraordinary 4-minute video documenting brutality of security forces in Sudan, including arrest and deliberate targeting of medical personnel who aid wounded protestors. Unspeakable brutality http://bit.ly/2Ru7y0O (now on YouTube).
• Little international news coverage of today’s events in the greater Khartoum area, but this dispatch from BBC speaks of protests in Omdurman. SudanChangeNow also reports demonstrations at various locations via Twitter: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1081290965804044288
• This is a clear signal from the regime that it will arrest or shoot as many Sudanese as necessary in order to retain its ruthless grim on national wealth and power: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1081261631043182596
• List of specific names/dates/locations of more than 300 people arrested or “shot dead”/”tortured to death”; more than 40 have been deliberately killed by the regime http://bit.ly/2TsZmLA A great many deaths and arrests have not yet been recorded: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1081185537552273408
• Arrests and killings: the only allies the al-Bashir regime has at this point. Today’s demonstration, after Friday prayers, is now underway—and will be another means of measuring the threat to this brutal and rapacious regime: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1081178172236988416
January 3, 2019
• The political organization within Sudan continues to show remarkable progress, gaining strength and numbers in all quarters. The demonstrations this Friday (Dec.4, 2019) will be a measure of just how broadly political coalescing has progressed. A very significant day: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1081034716957024261
• Friday, the day of prayers in Sudan, will again become the focus of political/economic outrage at the policies, and tyranny, of the al-Bashir regime. How will the police and security services respond? This is increasingly uncertain: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080966811963834368
• Another very good analysis of the intertwining of the economic & the political in Sudan’s current crisis. There is a clear consensus in these analyses—including emphasizing al-Bashir’s determination to cling to power, whatever the consequences for the Sudanese people: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080895939374706689
• Lighthouse Reports@LHreports Jan 3
@sudanreeves follows the ongoing protests in Sudan closely. We interviewed him about the Sudanese regime #DidEvilWin? https://twitter.com/LHreports/status/1080840416067575808
• More vacuous promises from al-Bashir about economic prosperity “just around the corner.” But his regime’s policies continue to be disastrously destructive, and protests will continue as long as political and economic grievances are so deeply felt: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080827410805911552
• This is a hugely significant sign the uprising by people of Sudan is far from over. And as social media/Internet “work-arounds,” including VPN, become more sophisticated, it will be easier for people to communicate and organize–the critical elements to success: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080822047876530176
January 2, 2019
• A highly informed account of just what the Khartoum regime is doing to block political conversation and planning in Sudan. If the Internet should be fully blocked as demonstrations go, this will have profound censoring effects: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080614215784771584
• The political and the economic are completely intertwined in Sudan: “Sudan’s Self-Inflicted Economic Meltdown: With a Corrupt Economy in Crisis, the Bashir Regime Scrambles to Consolidate Power,” Suliman Baldo: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080500790891106309
• More details about the possibility of regime change and new political leadership in Sudan. The detail of the plans is of note and comports well with the memo of 22 opposition groups also demanding regime change. “Unity based on justice” must be the watchword for all groups: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080479152648663040
• As political and armed opposition to the al-Bashir regime move to the fore following recent earth-shaking demonstrations, the key guiding phrases come from SPLM/A-N leader Abdel Aziz al-Hilu: “human dignity and freedom” and “unity based on justice: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080475521077690369
• This is the sort of political coalescing that has long been urgently needed. But these long-time players in Sudan’s political opposition must respect the aspirations and demands of those who have been demonstrating for justice and the democratization of Sudan: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080471778898731009
January 1, 2019
• Some timid steps by regime political opponents toward democratization and liberalization of governance in Sudan. But al-Bashir’s National Congress Party knows that if al-Bashir goes, that will be the beginning of the end of one-party rule and their monopoly on national power: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080301414885322752
• This extraordinarily sharp rebuke of al-Bashir and his regime by the “National Police Officers Association of #Sudan raises an obvious question: is al-Bashir losing hold of the reins of power? Is his support melting as his brutality increases? https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080263185725313024
• Any meaningful political leadership/organization/coalescing on in Sudan must be guided and inspired by the actions and ideals of Sudan’s courageous youth: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080211536248033287
• There are many stories such as this one that have not been told. This tells us all we need to know about the tactics of the regime in the face of popular opposition: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080210980389470209
• Until there is re-organization/re-invigoration of the national political opposition in Sudan—with the unambiguously primary goal of dismantling al-Bashir’s tyrannical and brutal NCP regime—there will be no change. Popular actions must be the engine, but a coalition is crucial: https://twitter.com/sudanreeves/status/1080210693146726400
