PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012
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Oil will bring downfall of Sudan government: Turabi
interview. Oil once accounted for 90 percent of exports, but Sudan's economy took a beating when South Sudan gained independence in July and took away most of the known crude
reserves. Citizens have since had to cope with inflation at nearly 30 percent and a rapidly devaluing currency in a country where the economy is already reeling from U.S. trade sanctions and the cost of renewed conflict with South Sudan and rebels. "Hatred for the regime is intensifying now in the country," Turabi, the leader of the opposition Popular Congress Party told Reuters in a recent interview in Khartoum. "The economic crisis has intensified and this is very dangerous. If the hungry go out in a revolution, they will break and destroy ... I expect it won't take us long now," Turabi said. Turabi was one of the most powerful figures in Sudanese politics in the 1980s and 1990s and his comments still attract widespread attention. But the Islamist and former spiritual mentor to Sudan's President Omar Hassan alBashir has seen his influence decline sharply since the two men fell out. Sudan's government dismissed Turabi's statement, denying the economic situation
Council resolution last week that called on both countries to negotiate their differences peacefully or face sanctions. "We are ready to go for negotiations any time ... I expect negotiations to resume any time from now," Alor told a news conference in the South Sudanese capital Juba. The May 2 Security Council resolution endorsed an African Union plan demanding that Khartoum and Juba cease hostilities, withdraw troops from disputed areas and resume talks within two weeks on all outstanding disputes. It gave them three months to resolve the issues under threat of sanctions.
Sudan"s President Omar al-Bashir welcomes his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir during his arrival at Khartoum Airport October 8,2011 for his first visit since southern secession to discuss key unresolved issues, including Abyei and oil, that have undermined north-south relations.
Islamic opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi of the Popular Congress Party speaks during a news conference at the party headquarters in Khartoum January 5, 2012.
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udan's loss of billions of dollars of oil revenues will bring down the government as inflation soars, the economy buckles and people grow hungrier, opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi said in an
was that gloomy. "What Turabi says is not based on reality ... the economic situation is not as bad as Turabi is saying," said information ministry advisor Rabie Abdelatie, adding the situation was much worse in the 1980s. "There was no infrastructure, no oil, no development, no electricity. There's a big difference." Recent data have painted a bleak picture of the Sudanese economy. The loss of oil revenues has left the country with $2.4 billion gap in public finances as well as a trade deficit of $540 million at the end of this quarter, compared to a surplus of $1.7 billion in the same period last year. The government has also raised custom fees and a social development tax by 66 percent. "The government is completely broke. If hunger intensifies, people, along with their other reasons for anger ... we are worried that a revolution will come, which will lead to chaos," said Turabi, who has in the past called for the "downfall of the regime" through a popular movement instead of a military coup.
Sudan and S.Sudan at odds over talks after fighting
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outh Sudan said yesterday it was ready to reopen negotiations "any time" on a range of disputes with its northern neighbour Sudan after a spasm of fighting, but Khartoum said there could be no such talks unless the two sides settled security issues. The two countries have been at loggerheads over oil, security and frontier disputes that ignited border clashes last month and for a while raised fears of full-blown war in one of Africa's most significant oil regions. South Sudan Minister of Cabinet Affairs Deng Alor told reporters that his country, which became independent from Sudan last year, was committed to complying with a U.N. Security
Mali coup leader who stood aside now wants power back
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Captain Amadou Sanogo, leader of Mali"s military junta, speaks during a news conference at his headquarters in Kati, outside Bamako March 30, 2012.
he officer who led a military coup in Mali in March wants to take back power when the term of a caretaker president, appointed under an agreement brokered by regional mediators, runs out later this month, aides said yesterday The military nominally handed over power last month to Dioncounda Traore. Regional bloc ECOWAS, Mali's foreign donors and many political parties want him to stay in office to oversee a transition back to civilian rule even after his 40-day mandate expires on May 21. Efforts in the capital Bamako to prepare a return to civilian rule have made little progress and coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo has continued to hold sway. "Our proposition is that the only neutral umpire in this is the army.
Given the situation, only he (Sanago) can run this " Bakary Mariko, a spokesman for the CNRDRE body that represents the coup leaders, said by telephone. "For now, it is not negotiable." The CNRDRE position was confirmed by another official close to Sanogo. The coup has left the West African nation diplomatically isolated and allowed a mix of separatist and Islamist rebels to seize all the main towns in the desert north, sweeping with them fighters linked to al Qaeda. The April 6 agreement that saw soldiers hand power to Traore for an interim period stipulates that if polls are not held within 40 days, Sanogo and ECOWAS would together decide on who should lead the transition back to civilian rule.
However, at a summit last month, West African leaders said they wanted Traore to remain in place for as long as a year, a proposition that was rejected by the junta. Traore was sworn in on April 12 but the military, enjoying the support of some political parties, has continued to flex its muscles, arresting a number of senior civilian and military figures linked to ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure. ECOWAS mediators, currently holding talks in Mali, did not make any public statement. But a source close to the delegation said: "It is the choice of the person who will lead the transition that is the problem." Most of aid-dependent Mali's donors have cut non-humanitarian support since the coup.
Zimbabwe critical of S Africa ruling on abuse
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imbabwe's justice minister has denounced a South African court ruling that would allow prosecutions related to alleged torture under President Robert Mugabe. "The ruling brings the South African justice system into disrepute. No specifics have been identified, because they should have laid a blow by blow account of what crime has been committed," Patrick Chinamasa told state media on Wednesday. The Tuesday ruling could affect Zimbabwean refugees, many of whom have fled to neighbouring South Africa, and government officials, who also sometimes come on business or personal trips. In a landmark judgement, high court judge Hans Fabricius ruled that authorities in South Africa can probe and prosecute not only high-level crimes committed in neighbouring Zimbabwe, but anywhere else in the world. National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said prosecutors will study the ruling and decide what legal steps to take. "There may be an appeal,'' said James Gathii, co-chairman of the Africa interest group of the American Society of International Law. ``But I think that more likely than not the [prosecutors] and police will have to take a closer look at the case.'' The case centres on Zimbabwean officials accused of state-sanctioned torture against scores of activists following a raid on the headquarters of the Movement for Democratic Change in 2007. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is now the prime minister in a powersharing government with Mugabe, and his party hailed the decision. "Torture is a barbaric instrument of dealing with issues of politics," spokesman Nelson Chamisa told the AFP news agency. "For that reason it remains our wish that all people of Zimbabwe with injured hearts and troubled minds are brought to restorative and rehabilitative, as opposed to retributive, justice."
Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party has welcomed the South African court's decision