Old habits die hard
Sudan has now jumped into the fray of Middle East conflict, following the Sudanese government’s recent announcement that it has set up military camps across the country to train volunteers who would join the Palestinian uprising against the current Israeli military occupation of the West Bank.
"The training camps are ready to receive volunteer fighters as from today," Major General Ahmed Abbas, the commander of the pro-government paramilitary Popular Defence Force (PDF), had announced April 6 on Sudan TV. Although details of the whole operation were sketchy, it has been observed that the Islamic generals are keen to resume their commitment to the international Islamic movement by offering to deploy Sudanese Islamic fighters and other international brigades to the Middle East.
Ironically, even as Islamic fundamentalists in Khartoum expressed their glee over the plan, the Sudanese government had firmly stated that it refuses to release the country’s Islamic guru, Hassan al-Turabi, who has been under house arrest for the last two years. Turabi’s detention makes the calls for an anti-Israeli Jihad very perplexing. Some observers say that the Sudanese government is using the Middle East crisis to deflect attention away from the country’s domestic problems.
In the meantime, Abbas has been shrilly issuing instructions on the issue. In his April 6 statement, he vowed that the PDF, which has been blamed for some of the worst atrocities in the Sudanese civil war, would mobilise all Sudanese people, including women, to protect the Palestinian people and liberate Jerusalem. "This is a call to all parties, institutions, trade unions, students and youths, men and women, to join the camps," he said.
Abbas said that the camps were set up according to a directive by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Although he has not commented publicly on the issue, Bashir is known to be closely aligned to the PDF, which was formed in November 1989 and has been instrumental in the government army crushing the rebel Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) in the country’s civil war. Hence, it is feared that Bashir supports the decision to set up the camp.
Khartoum is sending a clear signal that, confident the United States will not unleash missiles on the country, Sudan now wants to take tentative steps to retrace its rabid pro-Islamic policies, which will see a revival of the international Islamic movement within its borders. The infrastructure of such a movement was in the process of being dismantled, especially after the September 11 terrorist bombings in the U.S., but could now be on its way back.
A definite effect of such a reconstitution will be a freeze of the current thawing of relations between the Sudanese government and the U.S., ties which have been warming after Khartoum cooperated in tracking down Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network as part of the international anti-terror coalition forged by U.S. President George W. Bush.
In fact, one senior U.S. intelligence source told the Wall Street Journal on April 9 that Bashir’s recent moves have created anxiety in Washington, rekindling doubts about whether Khartoum is sincere in its stated commitment to fight international terrorism. "It certainly looks unhelpful," reported the paper, quoting a senior U.S. official working in Kenya, "but we're not sure yet whether this is just a ploy by the Sudanese to vent rising domestic anger over Israel, or if it's a genuine plan to do something really stupid."
Should such sentiments persist, or America’s fears become confirmed, the ongoing normalising of relations between the two countries will stall, and Sudan will remain longer in the U.S. State Department’s list of countries that sponsor terror. It could also inflame fresh anti-Khartoum rhetoric in the U.S., especially among black Congressional leaders horrified by Sudan’s soiled human rights record and Christian evangelicals enraged by religious persecution in the country.
The U.S. government hasn’t officially commended on the issue publicly, but American newspapers have reported that Washington has asked Bashir to clarify the matter. Whatever response Bashir has given isn’t yet known, but one fact is clear: continued ambiguity or dilly-dallying will hurt Khartoum’s efforts for diplomatic rehabilitation. Regional analysts fear that it could also undermine current efforts by the U.S. to end the country’s civil war, which is now entering its 19th year. At the moment, Washington is reviewing a Khartoum-authored peace proposal which the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mustafa Ismail is optimistic will please the U.S. But the rumblings by his Islamic masters could seriously undermine his case.
A similar fate could also meet calls by a respected international think tank to seize the current "window of opportunity" to end the war. In a recent report, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) says that now is the moment to "seize the chance (to end the war) before the sides completely re-commit themselves to resolving Africa's longest civil war on the battlefield" (see February issue of Africanews).
Such pleas could fall on deaf ears. Abbas’s announcement continues to inflame Islamic radicals in Khartoum, where massive demonstrations are taking place. The largest of these marches occurred on April 7, when hundreds of thousands of Sudanese of all political shades joined hands in condemning Israel and the U.S. over the Middle East imbroglio. They chanted: "Strike back, bin Laden!" calling on America’s number one enemy to launch an attack on the two countries. The march was organised by the Popular Organisation to Support the Palestinian Intifada, a committee backed by the ruling party, state-controlled trade unions, and Islamic clerics.
Similar calls were made April 6 by Sudanese medical unions, who also urged a boycott of American products. "Workers in medical professions have decided on a popular boycott of all American commodities: juices, food, and means of transportation," said Ahmed Bilal Osman, Khartoum’s Health Minister as he marched with thousands of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, medical students and hospital workers and administrators to a United Nations office in the capital. There, they handed over a protest letter warning the global body that it must move with haste and implement all UN Security Council resolutions, demanding an immediate Israeli military withdrawal or lose its credibility. But the most dramatic was another march held on April 3. There, the Vice-Chancellor of the Khartoum-based Omdurman Islamic University, Mohammed Osman Saleh, told the Palestinian Ambassador to Khartoum, Mahmud Abu Rajai, that he has thousands of volunteers awaiting instructions. "A thousand young men from Omdurman Islamic University and another thousand from the Holy Quran University are ready at your disposal," said Saleh as the marchers shouted "No to peace, yes to jihad (holy war)."
Efforts to raise money for the Palestinian cause have accelerated, with fund-raising campaigns currently underway in all mosques and other public places in Sudan. A daily Sudanese paper, Al Anbaa, stated that the country’s Workers Trade Unions Federation had donated US$400,000 for the cause. Not left out were 44 eminent Sudanese Muslim scholars, who issued a stern warning that all Islamic armies "should not stand with their arms folded while Israel is killing the Palestinians." They also called for smuggling arms into Palestinian territories.
This charged political climate has made matters worse for Foreign Affairs Minister Ismail, who has been forced to make embarrassing diplomatic turn-rounds on the matter. Hours before Abbas said that the camps were ready, Ismail was firm that only a political solution could end the Middle East crisis.
He also shot down suggestions floated by Iraq that Arab countries use sanctions and oil as weapons to deal with the turmoil. "I believe that without that, any other means of boycotting or sanctions will not be beneficial," he said, pointing that that Sudan would not agree to the use of economic sanctions, boycotts, or oil as weapons against Israel. However, in the face of the fanatical goings-on in Khartoum, Ismail has been forced to change tack and say, "the first practical step for the recovery of the Palestinian rights is that the Islamic countries entirely sever their ties with Israel." This could be a sign of a dramatic political shift in Khartoum, with a dramatic aftermath.