تظاهرات السودانيين بأستراليا للمطالبة بانشاء مراكز للانتخابات "توجد صور"

Western Australian Sudanese Community Demonstrates Over Registration Exclusion
The Sudanese community in Western Australia on Monday held a demonstration to protest against the Sudan National Electoral Commission's election policy.08 December 2009 By Deng Mador Koch

AUSTRALIA, 08 December 2009 (Gurtong) - They marched to the State Parliamentary building to register their distaste on the electoral procedures, as well as to draw the attention of the Australian Government, the people and the international community at large, to the brewing problems in Sudan relevant to the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

The CPA is an internationally witnessed commitment between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) on which hopes for lasting peace, harmony, economic prosperity and democratic transformations are pinned by the beleaguered Sudanese masses.

The demonstration was triggered by recent announcement by the Sudan National Electoral Commission, which listed predominantly Arab and Muslim countries, in addition only to the United Kingdom and Belgium for the whole of Western Europe; Washington, New York and Los Angeles in North America, as the only places where Sudanese nationals reside eligible for voter registration.

Apart from their unhappiness about being among those excluded from exercising their democratic rights of voting, the demonstrators demanded an immediate change of policy direction on a number of contentious areas; which are seen as deliberately engineered by the National Islamic Front aka National Congress Party strategists to hinder and undermine any efforts by the marginalised majority to bring true and lasting democratic transformation in the war torn country.

The demands by the South Sudanese community include: Urgent allocation by the NEC, of voter centres for registration in the wider Australia, New Zealand, all the states where Sudanese are resident in the United States of America, Canada and Scandinavian countries, to name but a few.

The protesters also implored the national electoral commission to urgently lift the conditions or criteria being imposed on Diaspora voter registration for the eligibility of individuals; for example, the requirement that only holders of valid Sudanese passports are eligible to register and vote is seen as null and void by the demonstrators.

They categorically emphasised that the current NIF dominated Sudanese government was in a very particular way, culpable in forcing them out of their country in the first place without any form of documentation; thus the regime did not have any moral or political authority to dictate terms and conditions of eligibility, especially when they were selective about the whole process.

“If the Sudanese government had any genuine concerns about the voter registration and voting process, the supposed centres could be supervised by neutral and competent international organisations, the host governments and the Sudanese communities to scrutinise the legitimacy of the voters, for example their being true Sudanese or not”, they said.

Another point the demonstrators touched on in their petition was the referendum laws; that the people who are eligible to vote during the referendum in 2011 must be the indigenous South Sudanese citizens and not every Sudanese who resides in the region – and the percentage of turnout for the declaration of secession or unity is known to be a simple majority.

They demanded that the same process must apply to the inhabitants of the Nuba Mountains, South Blue Nile and Abyei regions who are promised popular consultations under the CPA; and that these laws must be enacted and rectified by the current Parliament before the end of the year.

Furthermore, the demonstrators called the international community’s attention to the security and media laws in the country; that the envisioned democratic transformation would not take place in the country without enactment of any reforms to the national security laws which prevent the rights of citizens in various fields.

They said the regime is complicating reforms to the national security laws, criminal procedures laws, the immunity laws, personal status laws, trade union laws, press and publication and public order laws.

Their view was that only NCP- favouring media houses were currently allowed unhindered operation, adding that the Sudan Media centre and other press agencies based in Khartoum were mere mouthpieces of the NIF/NCP and in fact propaganda arm of the regime.

Abyei issue

The issue of North-South and Abyei border demarcation also surfaced in the petition.

The demonstrators argued that the demarcation of borders can be used in the allocation of constituencies for electoral candidates in the country, adding that any failure or delay to do that in time puts the whole process of democratic transformation in jeopardy and call into question the willingness of the Islamist military junta -turned -peace partner, to engage the Sudanese people in genuine process of nation-building.

They said that the stalemate could be a recipe for resumption of the costly civil war in the country, given the fragility of the country’s current general security situation.

The demonstrators also protested the continued heartlessness of the National Congress Party in using food and other humanitarian necessities as a weapon against helpless civilian population in Darfur.

They pointed out that the current tactics being applied by the genocidal regime in Darfur were the same tactics they used in South Sudan, Nuba Mountains, South Blue Nile and Eastern Sudan during the more than two decades of war.
They have therefore called for unhindered access to all corners of Darfur region by the international non-governmental organisations to offer humanitarian assistance and help to the people of Darfur.

The demonstrators reminded the international community that what is taking place in Darfur and what took place for more than two decades in South Sudan was an ethnic cleansing of highest degree and hence there was a need to pressurise the fanatical National Islamic Front in Khartoum to cease playing with human lives.

They also urged their Australian Government to lead in pressuring Khartoum to respect the United Nations Convention on Human Rights.

At the same time, they called on the regional body, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Security Council of the United Nations, African Union, the Australian Government, New Zealand and all the peace loving peoples in the wider international community to rescue the shaky CPA from imminent collapse and resumption of destructive war in the country.

SPLM leaders’ arrests

They said the unwarranted crackdown on peaceful protest in Khartoum yesterday, which saw peaceful protesters violently dispersed and their leaders illegally detained was a calculated move by the junta to undo the CPA as democratic elections and referendum nears in the country.

“Once the devil most vile. It is worthy emphasising here that this is a fanatical Islamist Military Junta which overthrew the democratically elected government 20 years ago and which has been clinging to power at all cost of human Sudanese lives ever since. Its head is an internationally indicted war criminal, the self-promoted Field Marshall Omar Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir”, they said.

The protests were organised and led by a coalition of activists from the SPLM Chapter in Western Australia, the Democratic Unionists Party (DUP), UMMA Party, the National Democratic Movement and Front (NDMF) Southern Sudanese Community Association of Western Australia, Nuba Mountains Community in Perth, Darfur Community in Perth, Lost Boys Association Office in Perth which is a branch of the Sudanese Lost Boys Association of Australia and Southern Blue Nile community in Perth.

Others were from Sudan Communist Party and Equatorian Community Association in Western Australia among others.