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Africa Horn
Sudans Bashir vows freedoms and open government
2011-02-06
[Asharq al-Aswat] Sudan's president promised a future of freedom and open government on Saturday in a strikingly conciliatory speech following a week of small protests in Sudan and an uprising in neighbouring Egypt.
But weren't they going to make Sharia the law of the land once the south toddled off?
Omar Hassan al-Bashir's address to supporters on the outskirts of Khartoum was short on detail and made only a glancing reference to recent unrest but was notable for its disarming rhetoric.

"We open the door for freedom. We have nothing to fear from freedom ... Freedom is guaranteed by the constitution," Bashir told the crowd.
That and $5.50 will get you a cup of coffee... until the price goes up, anyway.
"Anybody who wants to make chaos, we will deal with him according to the law. Our doors and our hearts and our hands are open without fear."

Young Sudanese have mounted a series of short-lived demonstrations across the north in recent weeks complaining about price rises, and calling for political change and an end tohuman rights
... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you...
 abuses.

Facebook pages and other social networking websites said the protests were inspired by the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. In each case witnesses said police, sometimes armed with batons and teargas, moved in quickly to end the protests.

Bashir's government is under additional economic and political pressure as it waits for the widely expected secession of the country's south, the source of most of its oil.

Southerners overwhelmingly voted to declare independence in a referendum in January, according to early results, in a vote promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north.

Bashir, usually known for his more combative rhetoric, said he accepted almost all southerners had voted for separation.
Note the "almost all" which when translated, means "it'll be easier to sort out those that didn't and kill the rest".

He reminded the crowd that his National Congress Party (NCP) had also won the support of most northerners in last year's presidential and parliamentary elections.

"The NCP has a mandate but we open the door for everybody who wants to participate," Bashir told the crowd in an apparent reference to northern opposition parties, some of whom have recently called for protests.
Posted by:Fred

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