Solidarity is crucial – what you do in the next few hours will make a difference.
Take action now:
• Email, fax or call the Sudanese Embassy. [Go here [1] for contact details for the Sudanese embassy in London] today, condemning the attacks on peaceful protesters and demanding that the Transitional Military Council withdraws all troops and militia forces from the Khartoum sit-in and other protest sites.
• Contact the foreign ministry of your government and your local member of parliament. Urge them to issue a statement condemning attacks on protesters and stating that they will hold Generals Burhan and Dagalo of the Transitional Military Council responsible for deaths and injuries to civilians. Call on your government to stop all forms of cooperation with the TMC until those responsible for killing and injuring protesters are brought to justice.
• Circulate this appeal to your trade union branch or campaign
• Read and share our background briefing on the armed men who threaten Sudan’s peaceful revolution [see below].
Statement from the Foreign Relations Committee of the Sudanese Professionals Association
3 June 2019
In the early hours of today, Rapid Support Forces backed by security forces and Police stormed the sit-in area in front of the headquarters of the Sudanese army in the capital Khartoum. Fire bullets were used excessively and injured several unarmed citizens; uncounted numbers of them are dead. The raiding forces burned the tents in the sit-in area and used excessive physical force against the protestors. The raid and attacks against civilians are still ongoing in an attempt to break and disperse the peaceful sit-in
We consider this violation a criminal offence against the Sudanese people, and a total reversion to the old regime’s tactics and policies.
The Sudanese revolution will continue and shall prevail.
The Foreign Relations Committee, Sudanese Professionals Association
foreignrelations sudaneseprofessionals.org
Briefing: Who are the armed men who threaten Sudan’s peaceful revolution?
General Hemedti – from warlord to deputy head of Sudan’s junta
Attacks by Sudanese security forces and militias on peaceful protesters at the main sit-in outside the Army General Command in Khartoum have escalated in recent days. At least two people were shot dead by the military on Saturday 1 June, according to the Sudanese Doctors’ Central Committee, following the killing of three further protesters, including a pregnant woman, last week. Sudanese army and militia leaders have threatened to use force to clear the sit-in, accusing the demonstrators of violence. The Sudanese Professionals Association hit back at the military’s claims in a statement: “We hold the TMC accountable and responsible for the crimes of the previous days. And we warn of the dangers of any further military escalation or any attempts of attacking the sit-in. The TMC intransigence and insistence on military nature of the sovereign authority during the transitional period is the main reason of increasing the tension in the street.”
In this briefing produced for UCU Congress, Middle East Solidarity looks at the interlocking military and militia forces which threaten Sudan’s revolution, and the role of EU and UK governments in supporting them.
Since December 2018, a mass mobilisation by millions of ordinary people demanding peaceful, democratic change has rocked Sudan. Dictator Omar el-Bashir, who had ruled Sudan for 30 years, was overthrown by his own generals, who then tried to take power for themselves through the Transitional Military Council. El Bashir’s regime is notorious for the large number of military and security agencies which the dictator relied on to repress opponents and fight his racist wars against people in Darfur and the Nubian mountains. Yet funding and technical support from the UK and EU government continues to empower military and security bodies in Sudan which are responsible for human rights abuses on a massive scale. The Khartoum Process, also known as the Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative, involves parcelling out funding to the security forces and border agencies in the region, with Sudan receiving some €215 Million in 2017 alone.
Rapid Support Forces
Commanded by General Mohamed Dagalo, known as Hemedti, the RSF was formed out of the Janjaweed militias which carried out war crimes in Darfur, including mass killings of civilians and mass rapes. The RSF has also been fighting in Yemen under the Saudi-led coalition and is heavily involved in border policing. As part of the Khartoum Process, the European Union has established a Regional Operational Centre, or ROCK, which has the role of coordinating the activities of East Africa security forces, including those of the Sudanese regime, with European migration agencies. Run by British, French and Italian security personnel, the Centre is designed to support different national security forces in the region, including Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Researchers and human rights organisations have evidence that the RSF is involved both in people trafficking and in brutal raids against migrants attempting to leave Sudan. The RSF has repeatedly attacked the mass sit-ins organised by protesters in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan.
NISS
The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), operates its own detention centres, where torture and other abuses are rife, according to human rights organisations and testimony by survivors. NISS forces have repeatedly attacked the sit-ins, using live ammunition and tear gas in assaults on demonstrators in the capital Khartoum, running down and killing a protester with a vehicle in El Obeid, and shooting dead a protester in Zailengi. The director of NISS, Salah Gosh, resigned shortly after Omar el Bashir’s removal from power. When prosecutors wanted to question him over a bank account containing £801m, Gosh’s guards blocked his arrest.
Armed Forces
Leading figures in the armed forces seized power on 11 April from Omar el Bashir, establishing a Transitional Military Council. As mass protests have swelled, protesters have said that rank-and-file soldiers and junior officers have sometimes protected them from attacks by RSF and NISS forces. Army troops have also used force against protesters. A day after announcing agreement on key elements of a deal to hand power over to a civilian government led by the opposition Freedom and Change Forces, the TMC suspended negotiations and sent soldiers to clear barricades, using gunfire “extensively” on Wednesday 15 May according to Reuters.
Party militias
Opposition groups report that shadowy militias linked to the ruling National Congress Party have also been involved in attacks on the sit-ins, including a major assault on the Khartoum sit-in on 13 May. According to information received by Middle East Solidarity from the Sudan Doctors’ Union, the attackers used live ammunition from guns, rifles and machine guns, tear gas and metal bars. At least 6 people were killed.
Survivor’s testimony: Dr Bushra Gamar was arrested by NISS in 2011 because of his work collecting information about the regime’s human rights abuses in Darfur.
Someone gave me a hard blow on the bottom of my back … The pain was beyond description, I felt dizzy and sick. I heard a voice ordering me to stand up on my feet. They shackled my hands and ordered me to stand on the tip of my toes facing the wall. It was excruciatingly painful so I stood on the soles of my feet to get a little bit of relief.”
Take action
• Pass a resolution in your union branch calling on the UK government to halt military and security cooperation with individuals and groups in Sudan responsible for human rights abuses
• Write to your MP demanding an end to the transfer of arms or equipment which can be used for repression to Sudan and calling on the UK government end the Khartoum process
3 June 2019
Sudan’s General Strike sends a message to General Hemeti: ‘We want civilian rule now’
The Sudanese Professionals Association [2] reported strong support for the general strike on the first of two days of action. The SPA, along with all but one of the signatories to the opposition Declaration of Freedom and Change, launched the strike call in response to delays by the ruling military council in handing over power to civilians [see below].
Public sector employees walked out across the country, defying threats by General Hemeti, the deputy head of the transitional military council, and commander of the notorious Rapid Support Forces, a brutal militia formed out of the Janjaweed forces which terrorised Darfur a few years ago. On Tuesday 23 May, Hemeti said he would sack government workers for taking part in the strike [3].
Flour mills workers on strike: Picture: SPA via Facebook
The strike was also strong in Sudan’s small industrial sector, with major flour mills shut, cigarette and edible oils manufacturers on strike, and cement workers joining the action. Workers in the military production sector were reported to have walked out [4], according to independent news station, Radio Dabanga.
Thousands of bank workers took part in strike action: Picture: SPA via Facebook
Workers in the financial sector joined the strike in droves: the SPA listed 27 separate banks and financial services companies on its Facebook page which took action on 28 May.
Pharmacies shut down across Sudan: Picture: SPA via Facebook
Pharmacies were shut across the country, alongside hospitals and clinics. Healthworkers have played a crucial role in the revolutionary movement, with doctors’ organisations providing much of the organisational backbone for the first phase of the uprising. Teachers joined the strike and organised street protests.
South Port in Port Sudan shut down by the strike: Picture: SPA via Facebook
Crucial transport hubs were paralysed by workers’ action, including the main ports. Pictures on the SPA’s Facebook page showed the docks empty of workers and signs proclaiming 100 percent support for the strike. Airport workers and civil aviation engineers also joined the strike, with large protests taking place at Khartoum airport.
Civil aviation engineers and airport workers protest at Khartoum airport in preparation for the strike. Picture: SPA via Facebook
What you can do:
• Show your solidarity with the general strike online use the #SudanStrikeSolidarity hashtag
• Follow the example of members of the UCU union in the UK [5] and pass a resolution in support of the Sudanese revolution. Read more here.
• Download a copy of our briefing on the armed men who threaten Sudan’s peaceful revolution Sudan_military_militias_2019_briefing
https://menasolidaritynetwork.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/sudan_military_militias_2019_briefing.pdf
• MENA Solidarity Network:
https://menasolidaritynetwork.com/2019/05/28/sudans-general-strike-sends-a-message-to-general-hemeti-we-want-civilian-rule-now/
Understanding and Gearing up for Our Announced Political Strike
SPA May 26, 2019
Press Release
In the runup towards the announced political strike to be carried out on May 28th and 29th, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) has issued the following public statement to help its anticipated massive participants better understand this decisive action and get ready for executing it effectively and successfully.
“To better understand it, a political strike is one of the most effective means of peaceful resistance, aimed at exerting grass-roots pressure for the realization of the goals of the Sudanese people revolution, the first and foremost of which is to ensure the immediate transfer of power to a civilian government in accordance with the Declaration of Freedom and Change, agreed upon by all the dignified Sudanese people.”
“A political strike is a decisive revolutionary activity whereby all oscillating positions and attitudes are overcome and pushed toward supporting the legitimate demands of the Sudanese people, as a matter of obligation, not an option. It’s aimed at reviving such demands in the minds and hearts of the masses themselves, reminding them of their inalienable right to power and rule. In parallel to this, it only hampers the Transitional Military Council (TMC) by alerting it to the fact that it could be deemed powerless and utterly dysfunctional overnight.
“When government, public and private sector institutions and service enterprises that generate resources to the state treasury are shut down and halted, the TMC, being the de facto ruling power so far, would be stripped of any power or functions at its disposal, unless it desperately and solely resorts to the use of arms and force, thereby stripping itself of any legitimacy, having entrenched itself on the most counter-productive trajectory of rule by the iron fist. Such a self-inflicting paradigm could easily be diffused with our peaceful antidote and our harmonious unity as attested to repetitively by our own practice and experience.”
“A political strike is only threatened to fail if some of its stakeholders have opted for acting unilaterally. That would be considered a drastic setback with damaging effects on those who have committed to carry on the strike in earnest. In this case, those “lone wolves” would have turned themselves voluntarily into nothing less than heartless criminals who have not only betrayed the revolution, its goals, aspirations and the dear blood of its martyrs, but have also “sold out” the heroic and selfless sacrifices and tireless struggle of the masses for freedom, peace and change.”
“As a necessary reminder, there are certain prerequisites for carrying out a successful strike.
• Presence in the workplace is a must for each single participant.
• Refusal to do any work while at the workplace.
• Taking to the streets at the end of the official working day, and joining the possessions and sit-ins.
Finally, we note that participation to any strike is a constitutional right, strictly protected by law, and there can be no legitimate legal action against any of its participants, unless by arbitrary measures which will be void and with no legal effect following the inevitable victory of our revolution.”
“As has been announced and scheduled, our general political strike, which includes all public and private sector institutions, even individual self-employed workers, will be held on Tuesday the 28th and Wednesday May the 29th as a gradual phase to be followed or complemented by priority measures or a continuous general strike that would culminate into a paralyzing Overall Civil Disobedience.”
Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA)
May 25, 2019