AN APPEAL TO THE ARMED FORCES OF SUDAN TO REVOLT (May, 11 th ,2018)
Officers, noncommissioned officers, soldiers, airmen and sailors of the Sudanese Armed Forcesrise up in the name of freedom! For the love of the people and the hope of a better tomorrow, offer your strength and courage, not to oppress the people any longer but to bring down the dictatorship that has reduced our nation to ruins. Help end the misery of our people that have suffered for nearly thirty years, as the tyrant Omar al Bashir only ruthlessly served himself and not the nation. Hear the desperate voice of the angry millions demanding change, whom no longer wish to live in hunger and fear and without hope, precisely because you too are our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, because we are you and you are us and we can only ever be one people and we are all proud Sudanese crying out for justice.
Recognize better, that your Commander in Chief has lost all legitimacy, does not have the mandate of the people and does not love you and only uses you, just as he uses the nation as his personal plaything. Why are you being sent to fight in Yemen, when it is not Sudan’s war? He has reduced you to a poor man’s mercenaries and he sells your lives cheaply. How much is your life worth? Do not fail to understand that because of him, the world largely does not respect or admire us and Sudan exists in isolation and poverty because he is correctly regarded as a thief and a butcher, just another African despot, a caricature of another African leader who robs his people and denies their will. Does it make you angry that Omar al Bashir has stolen nine billion dollars from the national treasury and kept it for himself in foreign banks?
Think of your comrades that have been killed in battle or returned home from war permanently disabled from wounds unable to work. What becomes of their families and the widows? Does the government, that is so broken it barely functions as it is, provide for them adequately for the loss they have suffered or do they too join the ranks of the destitute and hungry? And where your service and devotion is meant to be rewarded fairly and the armed forces are meant to provide equal opportunity, how many of you have been denied advancement or career opportunities, because your skin was the wrong color, you were from the wrong tribe, the wrong religion and you refused to participate in corruption that is so rife in your ranks, particularly in the highest echelons of the command structure?
Do you wish to keep making war on your own people? Are you comfortable being forced to kill defenseless civilians and those who justly defend them? What will you do when you are asked to open fire on your own families, friends and neighbors and to burn your own village and to terrorize your own city or town? Could you shoot your own father and mother and still sleep well at night? How long has Sudan been at war, a war it cannot afford, that shatters and divides the nation, leaving only destruction, tears and bitterness in its path and stops a better future from emerging? What do you want for your own children?
Have you seen with your own eyes what chemical weapons do to children and do you want to serve a pitiless man who orders chemical weapons to be dropped on his own people, just so he can stay in power shamelessly? Though he pretends he is a man of God, does God want brother to keep killing brother for the whims of one, selfish, fat man and the criminals who serve him, also only to enrich themselves, while the rest of the nation suffers?
What constitutes your self-respect and code of honor? What is a soldier without his honor? What is the meaning of your duty now? To follow a doomed regime to its inevitable collapse that will also consume you and force you perhaps to die in a lost cause? It is understood that many of you serve, because of your genuine love of country, where others also wear the uniform because you saw no other alternative to build a future for yourselves and your families and you cannot feed them solely on dreams.
But you took an oath to defend the sovereignty of the nation and the people and when that sovereignty has been usurped and the people betrayed by the treachery and greed of the fat man, you are no longer bound by that oath to him or his servile henchmen. Instead to nobly uphold the true meaning of that oath, it is your sacred duty now, to no longer look away from the anguish of the people, to rally to them, to defend them, to fight in their name, because the nation is your family, not al Bashir, and now you must bear arms against him to free them, where your rebellion will define your integrity and honor and you can be proud to wear the uniform because you return to serving the nation and the people as you were meant to.
Get rid of the cruel, fat man, who has dishonored you, by dishonoring the armed forces by cynically using you as the tool of oppression to keep the nation in bondage. Liberate yourselves and thus help liberate the nation. Bring the fat man to his knees and help uplift the nation to stand, tall and proud and hopeful once more. Become a soldier of democracy and freedom, not of tyranny, thievery and dictatorship. Join all of us whom fight for liberation and help us light the torch of freedom to rebuild a united, free, prosperous and just nation and we will embrace you again and form one national family.
But do not tarry, do not delay, the time for action is now and it is long overdue, the regime is hanging by a slim thread, you can see for yourselves how the economy, the infrastructure of the nation are in a state of steady collapse, and even the basic necessities of life are scarce. That so many have taken to the streets to protest the price of bread, tells you all you need to know, where al Bashir and his cronies have led the nation to, nothing else but ruination. Instead of firing on the crowds begging for bread or the students demanding democratic change, join them and protect them, march alongside them.
Those of you who have the demonstrable courage and willpower start organizing now, mobilize and unite and move against the illegitimate government. Seize your own garrisons, arsenals, supply depots, headquarters and communications centers.Take control of the airports and harbors and key road and highway junctures. Occupy the state’s propaganda machinery and take control of the radio and television stations and newspapers that disseminate the dictatorship’s lies. Move on the presidential palace itself and surround it and take control of the national assembly and all the key ministries and every important government headquarters or military and security facility across the nation. Paralyze the fat man, where if you light a thousand fires across the country, he won’t know where to order his reprisals first. And if most of you are with the people, who will do the dirty work for the fat man? He will soon understand his last days have come.
Take great care not to commit any atrocities nor to harm the innocent but arrest and treat humanely, all those you know that have perpetrated atrocities and crimes against the peopleand hold them securely until they can face justice in a transparent way, we will allow international observers to witness, when peace returns and order is re-established. In rising up against the government do not become what we wish to bring down, do not become enemies of the people, act with honor, restraint and not with wanton violence, be professional soldiers and show the world you are men and women of honor, not butchers. However, fight resolutely those who will choose to go down with the tyrant. Yet, encourage everyone in the police force, border guards, paramilitary forces and other security units to join in the uprising.
As you assemble, elect among yourselves the commanders who will lead you and coordinate among all the units that will revolt, so you act in a unified way. From this leadership cadre form a provisional Free Armed Forces high command and start engaging directly with the field commanders and leadership of the Sudan Liberation Movement and Army and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North, where the lines of communication will be open to you in a fraternal spirit for a shared common cause to renew our country, so we may also coordinate joint military action. Thus together with the civilian population across the nation, we will side by side bring the regime down and the revolution will come to its victorious conclusion.
Be aware with no shadow of doubt, that the people are not desirous of another military dictatorship, we will not participate in bringing down one fat general to replace him with another to feed on the bones and the blood of the people and deny their will and desire for freedom. Instead, we urge your collaboration for the greater good of the nation, selflessly, in a united effort, to help maintain security and stability after the tyrant has fallen and he and his henchmen are arrested, so the nation does not descend into anarchy and chaos and new civil war once the regime has collapsed does not ensue, as plagues South Sudan. Then together for a finite period of time, we will form a provisional, interim coalition government, uphold human rights, guarantee the safety of all civilian population centers, restore freedom of expression, free political prisoners and work tirelessly for the welfare of the people. With all the dysfunction that prevails, necessity demands that ours is a functioning, peaceful nation again, as soon as possible, or the revolution and your intended rebellion will serve no purpose.
Once stability is achieved in a period not to exceed more thannine to twelve months we will oversee a free and fair election, also open to international observation, restore and guarantee constitutional freedoms and must agree beforehand as a matter of inviolate principle, that the result of the election will be upheld. All we seek is that the sovereignty of the people will never again be betrayed and that democracy will be established as the sole pathway and universal right, to govern the Sudanese people, in a secular, free society, where the self-determination of all Sudanese will never more be infringed.
Soldiers, airmen and sailors of the Sudanese Armed Forces, your destiny is calling and if you truly recognize that your greatest moment of truth has arrived, you now have the opportunity together with the people and all those who fight for them, with and without arms, to write what will be recorded in history as the most glorious and honorable page turning in the annals of the Sudanese Armed Forces. Help us take back our nation. Help us forge a new tomorrow for our children, who are also your children.
Remember how our warrior ancestors won great victories in antiquity. Remember that we are a great people and that this is an hour that demands greatness from you. Remember the noble Pharaoh and immortal General Taharqa. Remember how our warriors who stood up to the colonial invader made the British soldiers tremble in their skins when they saw our battle lines. Now make the ruthless dictator tremble. Harness the spirit of our ancestors that served our people well in days of courage and adversity and let it inspire you to take bold action on behalf of the people whom long for deliverance from the darkness. Join us, let us be brothers and sisters again, not enemies, for the sake of one people, one nation, meant to live in unity, dignity, prosperity and justice. Rise Up and let the world know that the Sudanese Armed Forces choose liberty not tyranny. Let the nation and the people know that you love them.
Sincerely, Abdul Wahid al Nur, Chairman Sudan Liberation Movement and Commander in Chief Sudan Liberation Army
