Weekly Press Columns Digest
29 August, 2021
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - Three events have raised public interest and accordingly drew press commentaries during the previous week. Those were: The manhandling of a journalist until he fell unconscious by some army personnel, the decision by the high level legal committee tasked to retrieve money and properties stolen by the defunct regime in which it froze the bank accounts of some of the operatives of that regime which (the accounts) are suspected to be used in dubious, illegal activities and the sacking of the governor of the Eastern State of Gedarif on the grounds that he was part of the now dissolved National Congress Party of Omar Albashir.
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About the beating of journalist Ali Aldali by elements of the Army intelligence, wrote Mr. Haydar Almikashfi in the daily journal Aljareeda (the Newspaper):
All the regular forces: army, rapid support forces, police, intelligence and former rebel movements have used to justify illegal acts, violence, and violations of the law committed by their adherents against the unarmed civilians in that these were “isolated, individual behavior that has nothing to do with our unit.” And after this ‘half baked’ justification, they would declare the detention of the accused, question them saying they will be tried. Then the case stops there, without any punishment for the offenders.
It is our belief that the Army Intelligence whose personnel have fiercely assaulted our colleague Ali Aldali causing him to be hospitalized, will not be an exception in this attitude on the part of the regular forces: The case will end up to nothing and the culprits will not be punished. What we really want is for these regular forces not to justify the lawless conduct of their personnel as “individual behavior,” and that “the unit has nothing to do with it.”
The assaults by the army and security elements upon unarmed civilian citizens have increased in a worrying manner. Attacks on medical doctors did not stop even after the law for medical cadres protection was enacted. In these atmospheres the concerned army or security unit would come up with the justification that these were isolated attacks from individuals and that this or that unit has no hand in it.
All of this obliges those organs to check the conduct of their personnel according to the law. These bodies have to hold intensive courses on human rights for their staff, where the soldier learns how not to hurt the personal pride of the citizen and how to maintain the lives of the citizens and not to take the law in their hands even when chasing suspects.
It is our hope that the security take due measures that can make the assault on our colleague Ali Aldali the last of such misconduct, or else the call for judges to be assigned to investigate and bring to book the culprits in such offences before the civilian judiciary would be lawful and logical..
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About the freezing of suspicious banks accounts wrote Osman Ahmed Hassan in the electronic publication Sudanile:
They have used to cry and weep for any action taken by the committee digging into the corrupt legacy of the defunct regime. Their cries and weeping have increased after the freeze of (some) corrupt banking money, considering this against banking laws and regulations, saying the committee should refer to the courts of law in case it wanted to take such a step.
What this committee has done is a tiny part of revolutionary justice- the justice buried down by the notorious body, the then Military Council, before the conclusion and sealing of the Constitutional Document according to which the civilians took part in the government.
The Military Council should have frozen the accounts of the banking mafia right after the downfall of the ill-fated defunct regime in order to stem the activity of the voracious parasitic capitalism, but it (the Military Council) prevented that from happening.
I had written an article on 16 April 2019 calling for a freeze of the dissolved
National Congress Party’s bank accounts because such a freeze would certainly lead to the dismantling of the majority of that party’s financial institutions and companies and also lead to a freeze of all the assets of that party’s charities (evil) and its (the party’s) adherents.
In July 2020 Mr. Kamal Abcelrahman wrote on the website of Sky News Arabic asking: Did the banking system fall into the abyss? …Loans in billions of pounds with trivial guarantees that do not cover even five percent of the loans. Big cheats in the foreign exchange, foreign trade, medicine imports, huge profits round the clock, loans in millions of dollars for companies and individuals without any controls, bank shares sold on paper to persons who jump out of nothing to the list of billionaires in a matter of minutes.
Also wrote Ahmed Hassan Aljack, Professor of Economics in the Sudanese universities: The entirety of the banking system has turned into a vehicle of corruption and corrupting. The gangs of the ousted regime have worked to exploit the banking system in money laundering and turned the Central Bank into a commercial bank, a money store, instead of letting it play its role of supervision.
All of this has happened while we hear the critics of the committee remind us that there are watertight laws against money laundering..They tell us that banking accounts should be kept top secret.
What secrecy are these hypocrites talking about? It is the secrecy that caused corruption to spread secretly, ruining the Sudanese economy.
And where is this justice these people are talking about? It is unable to raise an accusation against those who violated the constitution in the 30 June 1989 coup, that coup which requires no evidence to put its perpetrators before a court of law.
It is a must that the financial and economic institutions be restructured, purged from residues of favoritism and corruption side by side with the provision of a sound environment for litigation in the post-revolution Sudan which is nearing democracy and justice.
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About the sacking of the governor of the Eastern State of Gedarif on the grounds that he was discovered to have been part of the dissolved National Congress Party of Omar Albashir, wrote Dr. Haydar Ibrahim Ali in the daily newspaper Aldemograti (the Democrat):
The revolution is passing through a critical stage, characterized with a degree of laxity and inaction about the implementation of its objectives and principles. We have started to hear among the youths expressions of hopelessness and restlessness that “it is no use”.
That is what the counterrevolution wants to disseminate among the youths. First to spread despair among them and then clamp down on the glorious revolution, after the youths are anesthetized and lose hope.
This is one of mechanisms of the counterrevolution which it has been actively and cunningly employing since day one of the revolution.
It takes different forms, starting from early penetration. It is known that in the early period after the downfall of an old regime a political vacuum occurs, because the defeated old forces are on the retreat, while the revolutionaries haven’t yet organized themselves in a good and perfect way to rearrange themselves for the new emergency situations.
Here the climbers and the opportunists find an opportunity to assume official and executive positions without any qualifications. They launch committees to nominate persons for senior jobs from their own groups and friends and through two-way interests.
This is the situation repeated in all revolutions. This is an exceptional situation after which the revolutionaries would soon start to rearrange their positions and correct their mistakes.
But the December Revolution, because of its casualness and popularity did not decide upon this task, allowing the opportunists to disturb the progress of the revolution and introduce harmful decisions. Here emerge naïve, but fatal mistakes. The last of these was the selection of the Gedarif State Governor. The sacking of that governor was not enough. An investigation should be conducted on how he was selected for the post and those who made the dishonest selection be questioned.
It is my feeling that he was the unlucky guy. I think there are many more such faces in the government machine, in particular in the ministries of finance, foreign affairs, higher education, justice, the Central Bank and the culture and information.
Here it is imperative upon the resistance committees to revise their ways of thinking, their ways of work and movement and play their revolutionary role in supervision and accountability, refrain from petty struggles and avoid penetration from hostile political forces.
The Prime Minister should raise his whip to deter the enemies of the people and the revolution.
He should not busy himself with initiatives, mechanisms and sterile committees.
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