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SUDAN: Security Agency Boosted

SUDAN: Security Agency Boosted The president will have the power to appoint state governors. Sudan's parliament on January 4th passed constitutional amendments allowing President Omar al‐Bashir to appoint state governors directly and expanding the mandate of its powerful security agency. “The amendments were approved unanimously,” national assembly speaker Al‐Fatih Ezzedine Mansour said after parliament agreed to 18 changes. Elections for state governors had also been due to take place in April along with presidential and parliamentary polls. The proposed amendments pushed the date of the elections back by 11 days, and polling is now scheduled for April 13th. Bashir, 71, is standing again in the election which is widely expected to extend his reign but opposition parties have said they will boycott. Another amendment expanded the responsibilities of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service. The amendment means the NISS is now a “regular force whose mission is to oversee internal and external national security”, Badria Suleiman, head of the committee that examined the amendments, said. The NISS will also “work to combat all political, military, economic and social threats, as well as terrorism”. Previously, Sudan's constitution said the NISS was a body for gathering and analysing intelligence, although it already ran military units in addition to having plain clothes officers. It has authority for the Rapid Support Forces or RSF, a counter‐insurgency unit deployed in the western Darfur region and in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. MPs from the opposition Popular Congress Party pulled out of a session in parliament on January 3rd over the amendments. “What is happening is a violation of the constitution,” said the head of the PCP's parliamentary bloc, Ismail Hussein. Sudan has an interim constitution signed under a 2005 peace agreement that ended 22 years of bloody civil war between the north and south. Bashir seized power in a 1989 coup and won a 2010 presidential election marred by an opposition boycott, with observers saying the vote failed to meet international standards. (© AFP 4/1 2015) The Sudanese Communist Party ( SCP ) denounced the constitutional amendments saying it would turn the country into a police state. Suleiman Hamid, a leading SCP figure said at a press conference on the 3rd that the amendments granted NISS powers beyond its basic task of gathering intelligence including detention, torture, confiscation and suppression of peaceful protests. “NISS became a striking force which has troops and equipments comparable to those of the Sudanese army. It attacks any popular actions and bans any [political] activity even inside political parties headquarters”, he added. (Sudan Tribune 10/1) On January 15th, the National Election Commission pushed back the deadline for applications to run in the presidential polls, saying just two candidates had so far won approval to stand. One of the applicants was President al‐Bashir and the other was lawyer Fadl el‐Sayed Shuayb , who is the head of the small Federal Truth party. (© AFP 15/1 2015) Meanwhile, two more opposition parties have decided to suspend their participation in national dialogue, even as the Popular Congress Party ( PCP ) of Hassan al‐Turabi reiterated its commitment to the internal political process. The National Umma Party ( NUP ) suspended its participation in the national dialogue in May 2014 following the arrest of its leader Sadiq al‐Mahdi , and called for elections to be suspended in order to create the right political environment for the conduct of the process, and to include rebel groups. In a statement released on January 20th, the Reform Now Movement ( RNM ) of Ghazi Salah Eddin al‐Attabani and the Just Peace Forum ( JPF ) led by al‐Tayeb Mustafa announced they had decided to boycott a meeting between the President and the dialogue committee, saying they had no confidence that some participating parties were not opposition representatives as they had stated. The unraveling political rapprochement in Khartoum takes place against a backdrop of increasing violence in the country's periphery. The United Nations ( UN ) has warned of a deteriorating situation in Darfur, as the government has pushed for UN‐African Union ( AU ) peacekeepers to exit the war‐torn western region. Negotiators failed in December to reach a cease‐fire in a related but separate insurgency in the southern provinces of Blue Nile and South Kordofan mounted mostly by former civil war fighters who were left in Sudan after South Sudan seceded in 2011.The government has rebuffed opposition and rebel demands to link political negotiations with peace talks. (Sudan Tribune, VoA 20/1) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series Wiley

SUDAN: Security Agency Boosted

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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ISSN
0001-9844
eISSN
1467-825X
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-825X.2015.06101.x
Publisher site
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Abstract

The president will have the power to appoint state governors. Sudan's parliament on January 4th passed constitutional amendments allowing President Omar al‐Bashir to appoint state governors directly and expanding the mandate of its powerful security agency. “The amendments were approved unanimously,” national assembly speaker Al‐Fatih Ezzedine Mansour said after parliament agreed to 18 changes. Elections for state governors had also been due to take place in April along with presidential and parliamentary polls. The proposed amendments pushed the date of the elections back by 11 days, and polling is now scheduled for April 13th. Bashir, 71, is standing again in the election which is widely expected to extend his reign but opposition parties have said they will boycott. Another amendment expanded the responsibilities of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service. The amendment means the NISS is now a “regular force whose mission is to oversee internal and external national security”, Badria Suleiman, head of the committee that examined the amendments, said. The NISS will also “work to combat all political, military, economic and social threats, as well as terrorism”. Previously, Sudan's constitution said the NISS was a body for gathering and analysing intelligence, although it already ran military units in addition to having plain clothes officers. It has authority for the Rapid Support Forces or RSF, a counter‐insurgency unit deployed in the western Darfur region and in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. MPs from the opposition Popular Congress Party pulled out of a session in parliament on January 3rd over the amendments. “What is happening is a violation of the constitution,” said the head of the PCP's parliamentary bloc, Ismail Hussein. Sudan has an interim constitution signed under a 2005 peace agreement that ended 22 years of bloody civil war between the north and south. Bashir seized power in a 1989 coup and won a 2010 presidential election marred by an opposition boycott, with observers saying the vote failed to meet international standards. (© AFP 4/1 2015) The Sudanese Communist Party ( SCP ) denounced the constitutional amendments saying it would turn the country into a police state. Suleiman Hamid, a leading SCP figure said at a press conference on the 3rd that the amendments granted NISS powers beyond its basic task of gathering intelligence including detention, torture, confiscation and suppression of peaceful protests. “NISS became a striking force which has troops and equipments comparable to those of the Sudanese army. It attacks any popular actions and bans any [political] activity even inside political parties headquarters”, he added. (Sudan Tribune 10/1) On January 15th, the National Election Commission pushed back the deadline for applications to run in the presidential polls, saying just two candidates had so far won approval to stand. One of the applicants was President al‐Bashir and the other was lawyer Fadl el‐Sayed Shuayb , who is the head of the small Federal Truth party. (© AFP 15/1 2015) Meanwhile, two more opposition parties have decided to suspend their participation in national dialogue, even as the Popular Congress Party ( PCP ) of Hassan al‐Turabi reiterated its commitment to the internal political process. The National Umma Party ( NUP ) suspended its participation in the national dialogue in May 2014 following the arrest of its leader Sadiq al‐Mahdi , and called for elections to be suspended in order to create the right political environment for the conduct of the process, and to include rebel groups. In a statement released on January 20th, the Reform Now Movement ( RNM ) of Ghazi Salah Eddin al‐Attabani and the Just Peace Forum ( JPF ) led by al‐Tayeb Mustafa announced they had decided to boycott a meeting between the President and the dialogue committee, saying they had no confidence that some participating parties were not opposition representatives as they had stated. The unraveling political rapprochement in Khartoum takes place against a backdrop of increasing violence in the country's periphery. The United Nations ( UN ) has warned of a deteriorating situation in Darfur, as the government has pushed for UN‐African Union ( AU ) peacekeepers to exit the war‐torn western region. Negotiators failed in December to reach a cease‐fire in a related but separate insurgency in the southern provinces of Blue Nile and South Kordofan mounted mostly by former civil war fighters who were left in Sudan after South Sudan seceded in 2011.The government has rebuffed opposition and rebel demands to link political negotiations with peace talks. (Sudan Tribune, VoA 20/1)

Journal

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series – Wiley

Published: Feb 1, 2015

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