KHARTOUM
A representative of the Security Services’ Coordination Committee in Khartoum State confirmed to Sudan News Agency (SUNA) on Tuesday that “all students belonging to the armed rebel movements are prohibited from carrying any activity, organising a gathering or a demonstration, as they are affiliates of these movements waging war on the government”. He said that the authorities consider the students’ activities in Khartoum as “an extension of the war, the looting and burning in the field”.
“The security services will fiercely fight and deter the practices of groups belonging to the armed movements.” He added that “activities inside their headquarters are allowed without a permit from the competent authorities”. “Yet, if those activities are carried out in public places, a permit must be obtained.”
On its part, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has condemned “the crimes committed by the National Congress Party (NCP) militias at the University of Khartoum”. “They fired live bullets at students during a peaceful demonstration, rejecting the killing of their families, and drawing the attention of the international and regional community to the ongoing war and genocide, and crimes against humanity that are still committed in Darfur,” Jibril Adam Bilal, the JEM spokesman told Radio Dabanga.
“The regime, as usual, could not tolerate a peaceful demonstration, which it cracked down with a barrage of bullets that killed some, and injured dozens. Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested by the security forces.”
“JEM considers the attacks on the demonstrators as an extension of the Khartoum regime’s serious crimes in the marginalised regions of Sudan. We hold the National Congress Party responsible for the killing, wounding, and arresting of the peacefully demonstrating students. These crimes prove beyond any doubt that the initiative of a broad national dialogue launched by Al Bashir is worthless.”
The armed movement demanded from the ruling NCP to immediately release the detained students, and to cancel the prosecution of Darfuri students in residential complexes in Khartoum.
Photo: Demonstrating students trying to escape tear gas, 11 March 2014 (Radio Dabanga)
Related:
University of Khartoum suspends classes after death Darfur student (12 March 2014)
‘Limited riots at university’: Khartoum police (11 March 2014)
One dies as troops fire on Darfuri students in Khartoum (11 March 2014)