Weekly Press Columns Digest
03 October, 2021
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - Three press commentaries that drew the editor’s attention have tackled the pressing issues of: The escalating differences between the civilian and military components of the transitional government after the reported failed military coup, the emergence of cells from the Islamic State (Daesh) in Khartoum and the massive popular demonstrations staged around the country to press for democratic transition.
On the issue of the failed military coup, wrote Dr. Abdellatif Albooni in the daily newspaper Alsudani (the Sudanese):
A war of words has erupted between the civilian and military components of the transitional government. But what is really amazing is that on the third day of the foiled coup attempt (Thursday) the war of words has slackened and the two sides met together in the joint meeting devoted for legislation, whereby they endorsed the budget amendment. The TV screens showed us smiles which, may be, were an effect of the meeting or just for show before the cameras. In either case this indicates that
the two sides are keen that (our love should go ahead!), whether truthfully or falsely.
But on Sunday a catastrophic decision removing guards from the locations of the high-level committee assigned to trace and retrieve money and properties stolen by the operatives of the ousted regime, and also from the house of the Sovereignty Council civilian Member Mohammad Alfaki for his call upon the masses to go forward and guard the revolution against the said coup Tuesday morning. The reaction to that was an oratory
party no less catastrophic.
Now the crisis between the two sides has entered its second week and the quarrel between the two components still continues. Nevertheless, none of the two parties has dared to announce the disbanding of the partnership. Even more, the acts of demonization have subsided and there is a conviction that this transitional period must continue in order to bring the country to the shores of a complete democratic rule.
The Constitutional Document was designed along this basis.
Then there came the Juba Peace Agreement to support this drive, and the two ruling partners are working according to this conviction.
PM Hamdok is all praise for this formula, seeing in it a distinct Sudanese experiment.
But this did not and will not prevent feuding and struggle between the two components, each one trying to gain more grounds and distance the other partner as much as he can.
But one party completely cancelling the existence of the other is impossible. I can say that many undeclared attempts were made by one or both of them to drop the other from the donkey’s power back, to no avail. For each party has enough shields to protect him from the other. These shields are local, regional and international and which have created an objective condition that dictates the stay of both of them.
Accordingly, it is no wonder that conciliation (after discord) would take place between the two whether today or tomorrow.
And however bitter the differences between the two may grow, the two of them must meet. This is a catholic marriage in which there is no divorce, unless one of them may choose to commit suicide and slay Sudan with him.
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About the massive demonstrations Thursday and Friday in support of the democratic transition, wrote Mr. Ashraf Abdelaziz, the Editor of the daily journal Aljareeda (the Newspaper):
For the first time the protesters go out carrying unified and harmonized placards and chant a one slogan against a return to military rule and commitment to a civilian administration of the country.
This mosaic of protesters have cherished one conviction. This is the support of civilian rule. This has appeared in the comprehensive participation that engulfed all the regions of the country, including the states adjacent to Khartoum.
It is true that some consider the transitional government to have deviated from its prescribed path, following economic policies that impoverished the Sudanese people, and that the government’s power base, the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) has fallen in the hands of the military and has not yet washed its hands from the partnership with the military, despite the continuous attempts to marginalize it (the FFC).
Regardless, the Sudanese Communist Party, that adopts this view, has called upon all its masses to take part in the processions. That is because it (the Party ) believes in the mobilization that serves its allies in their battles against the military.
The resistance committees were also at the forefronts, in fact it was them who called for the processions and oversaw their progress by the minute.
The masses have risen to support the call for civilian rule, irrespective of their conviction that the requirements of the revolution were not realized: The launch of the legislative council is still a dream. Many of the objectives for which the people went out with bare chests, facing the military and their armaments and their bullets haven’t yet been realized.
Regardless of these shortcomings which they see in the transitional government, the masses have poured in from the depths of the country to boost the government, braving the blazing heat of the summer sun. The flames of the revolution were present among them, part of the pulse of their hearts.
The families of the martyrs were also there, despite their reservations over the justice dossier and their incessant complaint about the slow progress in the justice process.
So, and despite the differences and discrepancies among the protesters, they rose up in droves to support the civilian rule. That is the lesson to be learned from the present crisis and the decisive answer that the time for military coups is now bygone and that Sudan will never be ruled by the military anymore.
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Last week the security revealed it dismantled a cell of the Islamic State (Daesh) in some parts of Khartoum. In the armed showdown the security said five of its men were killed and that eleven of the terrorist group were seized.
Commenting on this issue, wrote Mr. Yousif Alsundi in Altahreer (Liberation) newspaper:
The existence of this cell from the Daesh terrorist group in the heart of Khartoum raises a lot of real questions:
Where did these persons come from? And how? And what were they targeting? And were they all the cells or are there some others who were not discovered?
It could have been logical for the terrorist presence to recede in Sudan after the Revolution had ousted the Salvation terrorist regime. But the emergence of this Daesh terrorist group falsifies that. And this would draw the attention of the World’s security and intelligence bodies to the Sudan all anew, a matter that could aggravate the situation and lead Sudan to lose many of its expected gains, in particular in the economic and investment domains.
The history of terrorism in Sudan needs a closer look to research, analyze and discover pockets of danger that might sponsor such cells and explain their presence.
The Salvation regime group is, without any doubt, the first explanation when the Sudan (during their rule) was the pivot of terrorism. The lords of terrorism were here in Sudan during the Salvation era. The Jihad euphoria was dominant. The Popular Arab –Islamic Conference that convened here in the early 1990s and for which the Sudanese Islamic movement rallied the strongest of terror groups from all the World was held here in Khartoum.
It was that Conference that acquainted the terrorists about the Sudan and turned the country into a hot bed of terror.
The misguided Daeshi thought had found its way into Sudan across several routes, including the foreign cells that attracted and recruited university students, what was very clear inside the Ma’moon Hummaida University for Medical Studies and Technology that saw the exodus of its students (male and female) towards the Jihad under the Daesh leadership.
When the Islamists were in power, they used to provide support to these terror cells to hit international targets, in particular outside Sudan.
Investigations with the captured terrorists can unveil many secrets and open the way for cleaning the country from the terrorists.
Raising the capacities for facing terror and international coordination with the countries of the free world in the fight against terror should start at once. And the Government should see in what happened yesterday a total and real threat to the security and peace of Sudan both in the short and long terms.
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YH/AS