Weekly Press Columns Digest
29 December, 2019
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - The good news was that the United States of America (USA) has removed the name of Sudan from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) on religious freedom and placed it on the Special Watch List (SWL) for a final removal from the list of violators of the religious freedoms, said Al-Tahir Satti in a column that was published by Al-Sudani daily newspaper of Sunday.
Satti quoted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as saying the removal was made in light of a significant progress in the bilateral relations between the two countries following the ouster of Beshir's regime in a popular revolution.
There are other reasons for this US move, including legal measures taken against officials of the defunct regime responsible for egregious violations of the freedoms, including the religious freedoms, causing the designation of Sudan to the CPC list in the mid-1990s, said the columnist.
The removal from this list is not of less importance than the removal from the terror list for which Hamdouk and his government are struggling hard, said Satti, noting that if not for the recent US removal from the religious blacklist no-body in Sudan would have heard of its existence because the former regime has never mentioned it; "there may be other blacklists we are not aware of."
He said the removal from the CPC list was a result of a recent visit by Prime Minister Hamdouk and the accompanying delegation that included Religious Affairs Minister Nasr al-Dinn Mufarrih, a company that was ridiculed by a "short-sighted" advisor of former President Omar al-Beshir who and other advisors "would have sent their boss to Guantanamo and would have rubbed the Sudan from the map of the world if the regime remained any longer," the columnist said.
Satti predicts that the Sudan would in the near future be delisted as a state sponsor of terrorism, quoting US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy as saying his country is no longer a foe to the Sudan, and the removal from the terror list is not like clicking a button but the US Administration is currently discussing commencement of the procedures that could lead to that removal.
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Counter-revolutionary groups have begun to organize themselves for thwarting the December Revolution and spreading chaos, utilizing the tolerance and peacefulness of the Revolution and, of late, some odd organizations have surfaced, including one called (The Sons and Inhabitants of Khartoum), a detestable racist and regionalist group that claims to have the sole right of occupying Khartoum State positions.
This remark was made in a column published on Aljareedah daily newspaper of Monday written by Zuhair al-Sarraj who said that the group, writing widely on the newspapers, claimed this right as if Khartoum is a property of their own, not a capital of the Sudan that hosts all constitutional institutions as well as the Sudanese people with their diverse cultures and affiliations.
It has been reported that this group has submitted three memoranda to the Sovereignty Council, the Council of Ministers and the Freedom and Change Forces (FCF) containing 13 demands, including their right in the Sovereignty Council and the Legislative Assembly and their right in appointment of the governors of the states, alleging that this was provided for in the Constitutional Document, said Sarraj describing this as a corrupt and false allegation.
He said, on the contrary, the Constitutional Document does not stipulate any sort of preference of regions and states over others but that the Republic of Sudan is a sovereign, democratic, multiple and non-central state in which the rights and duties are based on the citizenship without discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, culture, gender, color, regionalism or economic or political leaning.
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The rule of law is a safe way for building a robust Sudanese state, something that requires rapid reforms in the judicial and security systems and amendment of the laws that contradict the public interest, besides trial of the corrupts and criminals and serving justice to the aggrieved people, said Asma'a Juma'ah in a column published by Altayyar daily newspaper of Tuesday.
She believes that there is noticeable laggardness in achievement of the duties of the Transitional Authority, fomenting concern by the Sudanese people as well as the world for a return of the former regime.
The world is now earnestly following the measures being conducted by the Transitional Authority for reinstating the lawful state and is waiting for serious steps to be taken in this respect, particularly as the country's relations have improved with the international community that deals only with a lawful state and, for this reason, it is inevitable for Khartoum to speed up imposition of the law and justice as any slackness in this matter entails a high cost to the Sudanese people and to the world as well, the columnist warned.
She said the world has begun to send messages of concern to the Transitional Authority, citing a message Amnesty International sent on the occasion of the first anniversary of the December Revolution urging the new regime to live up to the expectations of the Sudanese people and to respect its commitments to reinstatement of the rule of law and human rights and to establish a credible and capable judiciary for taking the criminals to justice.
Asma'a said Amnesty International also called upon the Transitional Authority to abide by the international law for handing former President Omar al-Beshir over to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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Writing in Alyoum Altali daily newspaper of Wednesday, Abdul Jalil Suleiman has warned the government of Abdalla Hamdouk against accepting a prescription by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and an advice by a new Sudanese businessmen group for lifting subsidies from the fuels, predicting that this would further aggravate the living hardships of the overwhelming majority of Sudanese people.
There is no country on earth that has had its economic situation improved by IMF prescriptions, while the well-off members of the businessmen group that was formed to replace the former Sudanese Businessmen Association are not in a position to appreciate the living conditions of the Sudanese people suffering from the soaring prices of the basic commodities which will certainly rise further if the subsidies are lifted from the fuels, said Suleiman.
He said the government should explore other options, including encouragement of production and productivity, imposition of high rates of taxes on people of high incomes, halting temporarily allowances of the government's high-scale officials, cutting down the public spending and bringing the imports down to the minimum.
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Columnist Taha al-Numan, writing on Akhir Lahza of Thursday, commented on the remarkable activities by Sudanese Attorney-General Taj al-Sir al-Hibir following up charges and violations of the symbols of the defunct regime and telling the press that the cases filed against those people amounted to 400 in number.
Numan said the surprise was a statement by Hibir that his office has opened an investigation with former President Omar al-Beshir, his Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Mohamed Husssein and other aides for involvement in violations in the war in Darfur, besides cases of persons, including Islamist Abdul Hay Yusuf, who Beshir confessed in the court that he had given them foreign currencies which he was convicted of dealing in and was sentenced to two years in a reformatory.
The columnist said it was originally planned to hand Beshir over to the Hague International Criminal Court (ICC) in conformity with demands by the people of Darfur and other Sudanese parties, but Numan said the Sudanese Attorney-General acted on a recent statement by the ICC Prosecutor-General that, after the regime has changed in Sudan with a new judiciary, the trial of those involved in war crimes and genocide could be held in Sudan.
Hibir said, whether it is held in Khartoum or Al-Fasher, a hybrid court of the Sudanese Judiciary and the ICC can deliver harsher verdicts than the Hague Court because the latter does not pass death penalties.
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A radical change has occurred in the Sudan, especially in the Sudanese character, that calls for formation of new and reformation of existing political parties possessing strategies with plans and programmes for development in the various walks of life, wrote Amani Abu Salim in Alhadatha daily newspaper that appeared on Saturday.
In the past, before and after the independence, the parties were sectarian bodies led by Sufis assisted by a few educated persons (mainly Umma and Khatmiyah) with basically illiterate followers of strict religious allegiance, said Amani.
She added that the conditions in the country have now changed as education and enlightenment have spread horizontally and vertically with numerous schools, universities and institutes, international satellite television and radio services besides the internet and the social media connecting the Sudanese people with the world.
The political parties have either to adopt strategies, programmes and ideas that appeal to the country's interests and to the widely educated Sudanese individuals whose character has radically changed or they will be abandoned by the electorate who are now largely free of sectarian affiliation, said Amani.
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