Battle
of
Omdurman
responsible for
Battle
of
Omdurman
.
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
The 10th May 2008
operation carried out by JEM forces on
Omdurman
is a
quantum leap in the its strategy in the prevailing stalemate situation of lack of progress of peace process and apathy of the UN-AU joint mediation. For over five years, ithe people of
Darfur
continued to be subjected to torture, killing and loss of livelihood by the genocidal National Congress Party (NCP) military machine and its allied militias on daily basis and with impunity while the International Community and other great world powers and their lip service and condemnation rhetoric. JEM is an armed rebel movement fighting for just cause of its people. It has national agenda in its political thought, believes
Darfur
crisis as a symptom of a nationwide endemic disease spread by the current ruling regime in
Khartoum
. JEM felt enough is enough and time is due to let the regime get the ultimatum that its den in the national Capital is not sacrosanct or far distant from its military arm’s strike. Operation”LONGARM” is a message of significance
at this point in time
when the NCP regime reiterates its position of “NOs” like a mantra and denies there can be any other truth than the one it is currently chanting.
JEM might have lost the
Khartoum
battle and pulled out in dignity
and managed to complete the withdrawal in the same manner it carried out the attack
but it has not lost the war.
JEM forces will return to
Khartoum
if the stalemate and lack of peace in
Darfur
persist. The international community needs to act. The people of
Darfur
want deeds not embellished words. JEM
is ready to sit down and negotiate and agree on the best ways for peaceful coexistence within the framework of one state in which all citizens enjoy equal rights and duties and live with each other as compatriots.
Important Lessons have to be learnt from Operation Long Arm as it exposed the fragility of the ruling NCP regime’s security system and the claim of GoS to have been providing
security and peace to the people of
Sudan
. Furthermore, the Sudanese public also have learned, the hard way, the degree of racism that prevails among the elements of the Apartheid NCP regime who chanted derogatory remarks to incite ethnic hatred similar to that of the Hutu racism which swept the unity of the Rwandan people. More importantly, the regime has started a campaign of harassment, intimidation and arrest of people from
Darfur
as a reprisal.
The 10th May 2008
event also indicated the degree of isolation of the ruling regime from popular support. Those who were portrayed in the state television channel and radio were elements belonged to
security and intelligence service, the police,
the infamous Popular Defence Force (PDF) as well as some hirelings. The supremacist ruling regime elements advocated every now and again their Arab ancestry, expecting an immediate rescue whenever they face an imminent danger. So far no such support has arrived to them from Arab World yet. It is ironical that the presidential advisor Dr. Mustafa Osman Ismail and
State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ali Ahmed Karti,
have flown to
Cairo
to resolve
Lebanon
's political internal crisis
while a barrage of artillery bombardment was still roaring in the streets of
Khartoum
! Members of JEM come from diverse tribal background, belonging to 67 tribal groups, from
Darfur
and other regions of
Sudan
including
Southern Sudan
. Therefore, the state owned media propaganda that portrays JEM as a sole Zaghawa movement is absurd. It seems as
if history is repeating itself in that in 1976 when the then National Font, a collective Sudanese opposition group lead by Umma Party during the former President Jaafer Mohamed al-Nimeiri, attacked Khartoum from their base in Libya.
The force was readily labeled “Mercenaries” in the manner the current NCP ruling regime has called JEM
fighters “Mercenaries” because the majority of the soldiers or almost everyone has dark skin and African features!
According to credible sources,
there is a series of random executions in various districts of the capital against all those suspected by security forces after the storming of
Omdurman
and the outcome was as follows: 17 people have been shot dead in Umbadda District, 5 in Soog
Libya
and 2 at
Khartoum
football stadium. Salah Abdalla Gosh security forces continue carrying out executing people on the basis of Zaghawa ethnic origin or for being from
Western Sudan
. This is in addition to
aggressive assault, torture, and arbitrary arrest of
hundreds of innocent Darfuri business men in
Khartoum
by the regime’s
security forces.
In the circumstances, it is incumbent upon
the United Nations (UN), as the guardian of universally-agreed international human rights laws and the Human rights groups to respond to the plight of the people from
Darfur
living in the National Capital of Sudan
as soon as possible. Will the international community
shoulder its duties towards those oppressed people of
Darfur
in the country's capital?
That is the question!
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]