[WSMDiscuss] Sudanese protesters call for more reforms as they return to streets (Samy Magdy, Associated Press)

[Jai Sen]

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Sudan in movement…, People in movement…, Resistance in movement…, Movements in movement…, Africa in movement… ?

[Also, below :

In Pictures: Thousands of Sudanese take to the streets again (al-Jazeera)

Sudanese protesters call for more reforms as they return to streets

Samy Magdy, Associated Press

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-protesters-call-for-more-reforms-as-they-return-to-streets-of-sudan/ <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-protesters-call-for-more-reforms-as-they-return-to-streets-of-sudan/>

Civilians hold the national flag at a barricade as members of a Sudanese pro-democracy group demonstrate on the anniversary of a major anti-military protest, in Khartoum, Sudan, on June 30, 2020.  (MOHAMED NURELDIN ABDALLAH/Reuters)

Sudanese protesters returned to the streets Tuesday to put pressure on transitional authorities, demanding justice for those killed in the uprising last year that led to the military’s ouster of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

As the rallies got under way, police used tear gas to disperse protesters marching on a road leading to the airport in the capital, Khartoum.

One protester was shot in the chest and later died at the Omdurman Educational Hospital, said Mohammed al-Haj, head of the intensive care unit. It was not immediately clear whether police were behind the shooting.

The “million-man march” was called by the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, and the Resistance Committees, which were instrumental in the protests against Mr. al-Bashir and the generals who took over power for months after his removal.

Security forces closed off major roads and streets leading to government and military headquarters in Khartoum ahead of the protests, which fall on the anniversary of the Islamist-backed coup that brought Mr. al-Bashir to power in 1989, toppling Sudan’s previously elected government.

The protests are also the first major demonstrations since rallies last year – three months after Mr. al-Bashir’s ouster – when hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Sudan’s capital and elsewhere in the country to press the then-ruling military council to hand over power to a civilian government, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Monday sought to reassure the protesters, saying that their demands are “legitimate” and “necessary to correct the revolution’s track.”

He said the military-civilian alliance that rules Sudan during this transitional period was “sensitive and critical,” adding that there are many “difficulties” that threaten its stability. He did not elaborate.

Mr. Hamdok promised that his transitional government would work to carry out the protesters’ demands in the next two weeks.

“In the coming days, a number of decisive decisions … will follow,” he said. “Some of them may have a significant impact – politically, economically and socially – and some parties will try to use them to fuel and create instability.”

Earlier in June, security forces arrested at least nine leaders of Mr. al-Bashir’s now-dissolved National Congress Party and Islamists for plotting “hostilities” against the government, Information Minister Faisal Saleh said Monday.

They were arrested in a raid on a house in Khartoum on June 18, and brought to prosecutors for further investigations, Mr. Saleh said.

Sudan’s former foreign minister, Ibrahim Ghandour, who also headed Mr. al-Bashir’s party, was arrested Monday at his Khartoum home, the party said in a statement. The party’s leaders were holding a “normal societal activity” when he was arrested, the statement said.

Mr. al-Bashir had fired Mr. Ghandour in February last year, after he told reporters that the government was behind seven months on paying diplomats’ salaries. The former top diplomat was appointed the party chairman after Mr. al-Bashir’s removal in April last year.

Last August, the protests, along with international pressure, forced the generals to sign a power-sharing deal with the protesters, creating a joint civilian-military “sovereign council.” However, the civilian part of the government has struggled to assert authority in the face of the military’s power.

The protest organizers also called for the appointment of civilian governors for Sudan’s provinces and making peace with the country’s rebels who were part of the power-sharing deal.

They also called for swift, public trials for Mr. al-Bashir and top officials in his government. Mr. al-Bashir, who has been in prison in Khartoum since his removal, faces an array of accusations related to the 1989 coup and the crackdown against the uprising against his rule.

The crowds gathered in Khartoum and its twin city, Omdurman, as well as in several other cities. Footage circulated online showed protesters marching peacefully, waving Sudanese flags. Some were seen wearing face masks, but few observed social distancing requirements to avoid contracting the novel coronavirus.

Meanwhile, in central Darfur province, hundreds of people, mostly displaced and refugees, were camping for the second day outside government buildings in the town of Nitrite.

The protesters call for the resignation of the provincial government, and a halt to attacks by government-sanctioned armed groups, said Adam Regal, a spokesman for a local organization that helps run refugee camps in the area.

Mr. Regal shared footage showing hundreds of people, mostly women, holding signs that read: “Freedom, Peace and Justice,” the slogan of the uprising against Mr. al-Bashir.


In Pictures :

Thousands of Sudanese take to the streets again

Protests held in several cities to demand economic reforms and justice for those killed in anti-gov't demonstrations

al-Jazeera

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/pictures-thousands-sudanese-streets-200701062416344.html <https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/pictures-thousands-sudanese-streets-200701062416344.html>
Tens of thousands of protesters poured onto the streets of several Sudanese cities to "correct the path of the revolution" that removed longtime President Omar al-Bashir last year.

Demonstrators on Tuesday gathered in the capital, Khartoum, and its twin cities Khartoum North and Omdurman, waving Sudanese flags and chanting slogans calling for greater civilian rule.

The protesters want economic reforms and the appointment of civilian state governors, as well as justice for those killed in the anti-government demonstrations before and after the overthrow of al-Bashir in April 2019.

"Our demands are peace ... and justice." a protester in Burri, east of Khartoum, told AFP news agency. "This march is to put the revolution back on course."

The "million-man march" was called by the Sudanese Professionals Association and the so-called Resistance Committees, which were instrumental in the months-long protests against al-Bashir and the generals who took over power for months after his removal.

Sudan has since August been led by a civilian-majority administration presiding over a three-year transitional period.



"Our demands are peace ... and justice. We call for economic reform and the appointment of civilian governors to states," said a protester in Burri, Khartoum. Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters



A musical break for protesters in the streets of the capital, Khartoum. Mohamed Hassan/EPA


SEE LINK ABOVE FOR MANY MORE PICTURES !



____________________________

Jai Sen

Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of Ottawa

jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net>
Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) 

CURRENT / RECENT publications :

Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press.  Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN <https://www.amazon.in/dp/9387280101/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522884070&sr=8-2&keywords=movements+of+movements+jai+sen>, MOM1Flipkart <https://www.flipkart.com/the-movements-of-movements/p/itmf3zg7h79ecpgj?pid=9789387280106&lid=LSTBOK9789387280106NBA1CH&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_1&otracker=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=ff35b702-e6a8-4423-b014-16c84f6f0092.9789387280106.SEARCH&ppt=Search%20Page>, and MOM1AUpFront <http://www.authorsupfront.com/movements.htm>
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
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