Khartoum — Sudanese demonstrators called President Omar al-Bashir a "killer" on Saturday, the sixth day of protests sparked by fuel price hikes in a nation already burdened by economic pain and war.
"Bashir, you are a killer," shouted about 2,000 men, women and youths after the burial of Salah Mudathir, 28, shot dead during a protest on Friday and hailed by demonstrators as a martyr.
Authorities say 33 people have died over the past week but activists and international rights groups say the death toll is at least 50.
"Freedom! Freedom!" the demonstrators chanted, calling for the end of Bashir's regime, which describes itself as Islamist. The demonstrators later dispersed when police fired tear gas, witnesses said.
An AFP reporter saw state security agents round up six people and put them into pickup trucks.
On Friday, the interior ministry said 600 people had been arrested since the beginning of the protests "for participating in acts of vandalism."
Mudathir was an atypical protester as most are from Khartoum's underclass, an analyst said.
"Now you have neighbourhoods revolting," said Magdi El Gizouli, a fellow at the Rift Valley Institute.
"These are the protests of the voiceless," who have no prospects in a bleak economy made worse by government mismanagement, Gizouli told AFP.
Police did not release the victims' names, but said "unknown shooters" gunned down four civilians during largely peaceful demonstrations which were dispersed with tear gas after Friday prayers in Khartoum.
It was the first time police confirmed that people have been shot during the protests, the biggest challenge to Bashir's rule since he seized power 24 years ago.
Saturday's protest occurred after thousands of mourners walked through the streets of the wealthy Mansheeya neighbourhood escorting an ambulance carrying Mudathir's body, one witness said.
Mudathir, a pharmacologist, belonged to a family that is prominent in business and politics.
"He was killed by a bullet to the heart this evening" while he demonstrated, a cousin told AFP on Friday night, as women wept at the family's large home.
Demonstrations began last Monday after the government scrapped fuel subsidies, leading to soaring prices.
International rights groups say 50 people were killed after being shot in the head or chest on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The powerful National Intelligence and Security Service, a bulwark of the regime that operates separately from police, has been involved in the protest crackdown.
It was key to suppressing smaller-scale nationwide protests sparked by high food and fuel prices in June and July last year.
At that time there was no mass loss of life when authorities tear-gassed and rounded up demonstrators.
But Gizouli insists those protests were different, driven by students and activists rather than ordinary Sudanese.
Crackdown is 'brutal'
The Sudanese Journalists' Network, an unofficial group of reporters who demand freedom of speech, announced that its members would stop work from Saturday because of official attempts to censor coverage of this week's protests.
"We see the killing of our people and we cannot ignore this," said a statement from the group, which claims 400 members.
Text messages referring to the Friday protests were held up in transmission for several hours and were only received early on Saturday.
The United States has described the crackdown as "brutal" and said excessive force has been used.
The European Union also expressed concern about the deaths, and a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urged security forces to exercise "utmost restraint."
The demonstrations began Monday south of Khartoum in Wad Madani, capital of the decaying agricultural heartland state of Gezira.
Rallies later spread to Nyala, the battle-scarred capital of troubled South Darfur state, and to Khartoum itself.
"The people want the fall of the regime," protesters have chanted in Khartoum, echoing the refrain of Arab Spring rallies that toppled several regional governments in 2011.
Massive protests in Sudan have twice before brought down governments, in 1964 and 1985, and late last year the government said it had disrupted an attempted coup.
The country falls near the bottom of a United Nations human development index measuring income, health and education, and it ranked 173 out of 176 countries in Transparency International's index of perceived public sector corruption last year.
Analysts say a major portion of government spending goes to the military and security agencies.
The military is fighting two-year-old rebellions in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, where insurgents are allied with rebels from the far-west Darfur region.
That alliance in April widened its offensive to topple the government by force.
Violence has worsened in Darfur this year, largely because of fighting among Arab groups formerly allied to the government.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed in Darfur.
No comments:
Post a Comment