Namaa Al Mahdi - Peaceful Demonstrations in The Sudanese Capital City Khartoum

Quote: Peaceful Demonstrations in The Sudanese Capital City Khartoum Turn into Violence and Arrests by The Sudanese Riot Police and a Prominent Sudanese Journalist Beheaded in Mysterious Circumstances. Four thousand riot police officers in pick up trucks with Kalashnikov guns, electric sticks and leather whips broke this afternoon’s peaceful demonstrations in the Sudan’s capital city Khartoum. Hundreds of people were beaten and then arrested by the Sudanese police forces. All detainees were released except the prominent Sudanese politicians Mr. Siddig Al Saddig Al Mahdi, Dr Mariam Al Saddig Al Mahdi and Mrs. Sara Nougdallah. The call for the peaceful demonstrations was made by the Sudanese Umma party leader and Imam of the Ansar Movement Sayed Saddig Al Mahdi. In a supercharged address to the nation last night on the 5th of September 2005 he condemned the unjustified increase in basic commodities prices implemented by the Sudanese Government of National Unity and called for the people to protest peacefully in a demonstration held in the capital city of the Sudan Khartoum. The unfounded increase of basic commodity prices which occasioned this protest is a 30% increase in fuel, sugar and wheat prices, which was implemented by the majority of the ruling National Congress (NCP) members against the will of the Sudanese opposition parties, the Umma Party, the Popular Congress Party, and the Sudanese Communist Party. It was also implemented against the will of the Sudanese parties currently in the Government of National Unity, the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement and the Sudanese Unionist Party and the Sudanese Liberation Movement. The NCP offered no reasonable explanation to the sudden increase in the cost of living for the people of Sudan, and the sudden increase of the burden of everyday living to the many Sudanese who are currently living under the poverty line, earning less than $1 USD a day. This increase in the basic commodities cause a similar 30% increase in the prices of perishable and non-perishable goods, and adding to the plight of the people who can barely afford to feed themselves and their families in the Sudan. The Umma Party leader’s address to a congregation of Sudanese at the Umma party headquarters in Omdurman, Khartoum Sudan was aimed to urge the people of the Sudan to protest peacefully against the sudden increase in the price of everyday living, to urge the Government of National Unity of the Sudan to respect the Constitution of the Sudan which does not oppose peaceful demonstrations and to discourage the Sudanese security forces and the Sudanese police forces to inflict harm on the unarmed civilians who will make up the demonstration. The Umma party had been granted a permit for the demonstrations by the Sudanese security forces, but a similar permit was refused by the police forces with the excuse that the current state of the country does not allow for such actions by a group of Sudanese people. The demonstration plans went ahead regardless and it was planned that the people meet in Khartoum and to march to the Ministry of Finance which was implementing the price increases. 4000 riot police were used to diffuse a demonstration of less than a thousand people, most of the demonstrators were beaten by the riot police sticks, diffused by heavy tear gas which could be felt across the capital city and then most of them were arrested. One of the people arrested, a British citizen Essam Al Mahdi only came to the scene of the demonstration when he heard the news of the riots police physical assault on his cousins, daughters of Sayed Saddig Al Mahdi the Sudanese Umma Party Leaders, Mrs. Randa Al Saddig Al Mahdi, professional pharmacist and mother of six, Mrs. Rabah Al Saddig Al Mahdi, prominent Sudanese journalist and Mother of two, Mrs. Omsalama Al Saddig Al Mahdi, housewife and mother of three, Dr. Mariam Al Saddig Al Mahdi, prominent Sudanese politician and mother of six. He arrived on the scene just when the riot police were pushing new mothers Randa Al Saddig Al Mahdi to the ground and he joined the rescue formed by Alwasig albirrer and Siddig Al-Saddig, using themselves as shields only to be arrested along with the demonstrators. The prominent Sudanese journalist Mrs Amal Abbas, along with Dr Mariam Al Saddig Al Mahdi, Mr. Siddig Al Sadig Al Mahdi, Dr Abdulrahman Al Ghali Al Jali, , Mr. Al Wathig Mohamed Ahmed Al Berier, Mrs. Sara Noukdallah, Esam Faisal Al Mahdi, Mr. Adul Salam Salih Abdul Salam Al Kalifa, Mr. Adbullahi Ismail Al Mahdi, Mr. Mourtada Al Ghali Al Jali were arrested along with truck loads of prominent Sudanese Umma party members, Communist party members and Popular Congress party members and other Sudanese citizens. All were later released following the signing of a declaration by them not to be involved in such actions again except for Mr. Siddig Al Saddig Al Mahdi, Dr Miriam Al Saddig Al Mahdi and Mrs. Sarra Noukdallah. These three were charged at the Khartoum South Shimaliya police station and will be facing the courts tomorrow at an unspecified time. Later on in the afternoon riots broke again in Al Souk Al Arabi in Khartoum and the heavy handed riots police was seen rushing to crush the riots which seem to have emerged from the morgue following the mysterious abduction and decapitation of a prominent Sudanese journalist Mr. Mohammed Taha Ahmed Mohammed. Mr. Mohammed Taha was abducted from his home in Khartoum in mysterious circumstances, his decapitated body and head were found today thrown out in the open in a major street in the Sudanese capital. The riots were diffused by the riots police use of tear gas which has leaked into the homes of the residents of Khartoum and stung their eyes and the eyes of their children, heavy whips were seen lashing onto the vulnerable Sudanese citizens whether involved in the riots or not. All public grouping and meeting were dispersed by the riot police using heavy sticks, electric sticks and tear gas. Tonight Further riots erupted in Souk Omdurman , Khartoum and the heavy handed riot police are practicing their inhuman crowd diffusion methods on the innocent Sudanese citizens.