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No time to speak of diversity of culture and ethnicity in Sudan

  LiveJournal Tags: Sudan , South Sudan , NCP , Sharia law , Bashir , SPLM , Khartoum , referendum.   My worst fears are materialising! The above sentence belong to president Bashir in a speech broadcast on the national TV on Sunday (related links) Bashir believes that  after the separation of south Sudan the issues of cultural and ethnical diversity become irrelevant. The official language of the country is going to be Arabic and state religion is, and only, Islam. similar statements were made by second man and hard liner Dr. Nafi. These kind of statements just show what are the real objectives of the NCP from the beginning, NCP was not aiming for peace and unity of Sudan as a state but rather the implementation of its ideological agendas in the first place and everything else come second to that even if this lead to the fragmentation of the country. The conflict in Darfur has nothing to do with religion  (both sides are Muslims)but has everything...

Sudan is not on the list!!!

Technorati Tags: USA , Khartoum , NCP , National Congress Party , SPLM it has been emerged that the USA is offering the government in Sudan to be taken off the states supporting terrorist list if it facilitate a smooth referendum for south Sudan. The question is what Obama administration is really offering the Sudanese people? to specific what is the offer for the northern? In simple term the USA is offering a life extension for a dictator radical party in north of Sudan in an exchange for, hopefully, a free democratic south Sudan with no major conflicts. The USA could not care less about the situation in the north as long as the NCP distant it self from radical groups and keeps its cooperation with CIA on fighting terrorist groups. This will only hurt the opposition movements and weaken them and make them think that the only way to make the NCP respond to their demand is by drawing the USA attention, and the best way to do this is by starting an armed conflict. so Darfur confl...

Sudan & Rami Khouri !!!!

Technorati Tags: abyei , africa , civil war , darfur , independence , khartoum , ncp , splm , south sudan , southern sudan , sudan A recent article regarding Sudan referendum by Rami Khouri showed how little knowledge the Arab elite knows about Sudan. I have to be honest and declare that  i have not read the whole article. This is remarkable because it may be the only explicit and credible case of Arab people exercising the opportunity to define their country’s shape and its ideological orientation. It is after this part when I stopped reading, it was clear to me that the author has no clue about Sudan. First of all, the people who are going to decide if they want to remain within Sudan or have their own country are not Arab! the majority of them are of African ethnicity which played a big role in the north-south civil war and the war in Darfur now. I agree with him in regard to the idea that none of the Arab states chosen their boarders, it was made by France and ...

Sudan Post referendum part two

one of the important issue need to be sorted before the independence of the south ( which is just a mater of time) is the fate of southern in the north mainly in Khartoum . during the civil war many southern were forced by the war to move to the north. they live in displaced camps scattered around the capital. the last censes estimate their population to be around 500,000 but many observers regard this figure as underestimation and they estimate their population to reach around 2 to millions at least. Sadly, in the last few days couple of statements came from NCP members including members in government, painted a dark picture for the fate of southern in the north. for example they would become foreigner instantly if the southern voted for independence. Recent roamers from khartoum is that southern in the north are apply for nationality and sudanese passport while in the same time there is instructions in the ministry of home affairs to delay the process if not to prevent it. ...

Sudan Post referendum part one!

  The question is not whether south Sudan is going for independence or not, the question is what is going to happen after the month of January next year! everyone seems to be expecting the worse! the UN is already preparing for crisis when the south chooses independence. The international crisis group has predicted that the boarder between the two nation is going to be a cause of tension specially when it come to people movement between the two sides. I will focus on what i would expect to happen in the north mainly. There are very strange phenomena that is happening in the north, first the NCP suddenly woke up to the possibility of independent south Sudan! and it is trying to insure southern vote for unity in the coming four months, let us not forget the party had almost whole five years to do so and only now it start to take action against northern who raise their demand for the separation of south Sudan(alintibaha news paper). the second thing worth mention is some out o...

Girifna!

  I know everyone now is concerned with referendum and likely separation of south Sudan but let us go back to the election period and have a look on this video. Recently there has been this movement called “Girifna” which in Arabic means “we are fed up”, I know it sounds strange that one world translate into three worlds in English. Since the aftermath of the election the movement seems to be getting weaker and lost momentum! i guess it was inspired by arising hope of change and the possibility  that there will be a new face for Sudan politics, but the hope was shattered by the announcement of Bashir victory.  Did anyone hear anything since that time about Girifna? you can find them at http://www.girifna.com/ Sudanese Elections: Music & the Vote with NasJota and Girifna from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo . Girifna Related articles by Zemanta Activists, Journalists Increasingly Threatened in Sudan (humanrights.change.org) Sudan suspends BBC A...

The North!

There will be big changes in the north after election. The National Congress Party (NCP) will be in control of most, if not all, power positions. The NCP does not care if the result of the election is recognised by the international community as legitimate. The party will be happy with the trade off it reached with SPLM , You have your referendum and we have the north. Opposition parties would still weak and unable to mobilize the community against NCP, not because the public support NCP but mainly because they lost faith in Opposition parties. Yasir Arman was recognised by many as change and an alternative to the traditional leaders in the north, specially among the youth, but his draw was a disappointment for them. The NCP will continue to crack down on freedom of expression in the north. It will monopolise the market and maximise its profit. The dangerous alliance between money and religious stream will continue and this can only lead to more corruption. Will the NCP hold January ...

The Day after the elections

Sudan current situation is really a mess, at the time when everyone was hoping the elections may be the magic key which lift the country from its deep problems and lead the way to a new era of peace and prosperity, instead the election in it self become a problem and an obstacle to stabilisation. It seems the NCP is heading for a landslide victory in northern states where Bashir somehow managed to get all the votes, and SPLM is taking over south Sudan. The reaction to the election process ranged from pure fraud as described by opposition including SPLM, to below international standards as described by international bodies, or completely fair and just as the NCP states. So far there is no results yet, the National Election Committee still waiting for the numbers to be submitted from south Sudan. Bashir and NCP will win in North, SPLM take over south Sudan, and the opposition now is out of the game. The coming few months will be crucial for Sudan stability. In the coming few posts I wi...

The Joke of Sudan!

The moves by SPLM did not leave any room for ordinary people in the north of Sudan but to perceive SPLM as true partner for NCP in weakening northern parties. After all NCP does not give a dam about south Sudan separation and this is the only one thing that SPLM think of. NCP will tolerate losing oil resources in exchange of full control of the north and normal relations with the USA. Related articles by Zemanta Sudan: Lesser of two evils | Editorial (guardian.co.uk) Sudan presidential candidate urges boycott (cnn.com) US envoy holds Sudan crisis talks (news.bbc.co.uk) SPLM sold out opposition (ymw3.blogspot.com)

????????????

First of all let me apologise from absence the last couple of weeks. In fact I will be away for couple of weeks to come due to personal reasons. What made write this blog today what is this image I found in one of the online newspapers. I just do not know what to say?   The above picture has two sides, on your right hand is a picture of kids which I think they are from Darfur (or this what they want to believe). on your left side is the peace understanding agreement celebration in Doha . What the Arabic sentence say is” Omer our father brought peace”…………… I am speechless! I know this newspaper is part of the ruling party propaganda for the election but this is really beyond anything i expected from these people. Bashir brought peace to Darfur! come on, he is the one who started it in the first place! who ever came up with this ads he is defiantly stupid or he/she thinks Sudanese people are stupid. But may be we are stupid? Related articles by Zemanta ...

Shoe Throwing!

  Two days ago I heard in the news that someone managed to throw a shoe on the Sudanese president Mr. Al Bashir. He did not manage to hit him with the show as BBC Arabic revealed. At first, Sudanese officials tried to deny the whole story but later on they admit incident had happened but stated that the person who throw the shoe is not insane. While many people and commentator believe this is not the case, I believe the guy is insane. No one would risk throwing a shoe on a middle eastern President unless you are insane. What happened in Iraq by Montazir Al Zaidi is different, he throw his shoes on President Bush, not Al Maliki. This reminded me of the popular joke in the middle state which say  An American said to a guy from the middle east “ we have freedom of speech in the state and you do not have that in ME” to prove his point, the American went to the white house infront of G.W. Bush and start shouting “Down, Down Bush”. The Middle eastern guy replied “ who told y...

Sudan Elections!

The last couple of weeks were very exciting in Sudan now that the elections are just around the corner. The main headlines in Sudan are about parties nominations for the presidential elections. The National Congress Party candidate was well known for everyone from the beginning! The surprise is when Omer Albasher had to resign from heading the Military, which personally I did not expect him to comply with changes implied by the election committee. This puts Silva in a corner, as he would not leave the SPLM Army at any circumstances specially with the current tribal conflict in the South. This could be the reason why SPLM put forward Yassir Arman as its candidate for the presidential elections. This means SPLM still interested in politics of the north and not only south Sudan. by choosing Arman(Arab northern) it applies to most of the base in the north and the south at the same time. It is better not to have an Arab Muslim Candidate(Bashir) vs Southern Christian Candidate(Silva) wh...