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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
Following the 1976 coup attempt, Nimeiri and his opponents
adopted more conciliatory policies. In early 1977, government
officials met with the National Front in London, and arranged for
a conference between Nimeiri and Sadiq al Mahdi in Port Sudan. In
what became known as the "national reconciliation," the two
leaders signed an eight-point agreement that readmitted the
opposition to national life in return for the dissolution of the
National Front. The agreement also restored civil liberties,
freed political prisoners, reaffirmed Sudan's nonaligned foreign
policy, and promised to reform local government. As a result of
the reconciliation, the government released about 1,000 detainees
and granted an amnesty to Sadiq al Mahdi. The SSU also admitted
former supporters of the National Front to its ranks. Sadiq
renounced multiparty politics and urged his followers to work
within the regime's one-party system.
The first test of national reconciliation occurred during the
February 1978 People's Assembly elections. Nimeiri authorized
returning exiles who had been associated with the old Umma Party,
the DUP, and the Muslim Brotherhood to stand for election as
independent candidates. These independents won 140 of 304 seats,
leading many observers to applaud Nimeiri's efforts to
democratize Sudan's political system. However, the People's
Assembly elections marked the beginning of further political
decline. The SSU's failure to sponsor official candidates
weakened party discipline and prompted many assembly deputies who
also were SSU members to claim that the party had betrayed them.
As a result, an increasing number of assembly deputies used their
offices to advance personal rather than national interests.
The end of the SSU's political monopoly, coupled with rampant
corruption at all levels of government, cast increasing doubt on
Nimeiri's ability to govern Sudan. To preserve his regime,
Nimeiri adopted a more dictatorial leadership style. He ordered
the State Security Organisation to imprison without trial
thousands of opponents and dissidents
(see Security Organizations
, ch. 5). Nimeiri also dismissed or transferred any
minister or senior military officer who appeared to be developing
his own power base. Nimeiri selected replacements based on their
loyalty to him rather than on their abilities. This strategy
caused the president to lose touch with popular feeling and the
country's deteriorated political situation.
On June 5, 1983, Nimeiri sought to counter the south's
growing political power by redividing the Southern Region into
the three old provinces of Bahr al Ghazal, Al Istiwai, and Aali
an Nil; he had suspended the Southern Regional Assembly almost
two years earlier. The southern-based Sudanese People's
Liberation Movement (SPLM) and its military wing, the Sudanese
People's Liberation Army (SPLA), which emerged in mid-1983,
unsuccessfully opposed this redivision and called for the
creation of a new united Sudan.
Within a few months, in September 1983 Nimeiri proclaimed the
sharia as the basis of the Sudanese legal system. Nimeiri's
decrees, which became known as the September Laws, were bitterly
resented both by secularized Muslims and by the predominantly
non-Muslim southerners. The SPLM denounced the sharia and the
executions and amputations ordered by religious courts.
Meanwhile, the security situation in the south had deteriorated
so much that by the end of 1983 it amounted to a resumption of
the civil war.
In early 1985, antigovernment discontent resulted in a
general strike in Khartoum. Demonstrators opposed rising food,
gasoline, and transport costs. The general strike paralyzed the
country. Nimeiri, who was on a visit to the United States, was
unable to suppress the rapidly growing demonstrations against his
regime.
Data as of June 1991
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