Police brutally injuring Umma Party Members Including Dr. Mariam Sadiq Spokeswoman
Halima Mohamed Abdel Rahman
December 24, (KHARTOUM)-The Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and police riot control department, today brutally attacked members of opposing Umma National Party with hoes and tear gassed them while they were assembling in the headquarters.
Sources said that a large number of Umma party were seriously injured, including Dr Mariam Sadig Al –Mahdi , party spokeswoman, who was taken to hospital where she had her wounds stitched and her arm put in plaster and kept in hospital, but no statistics were given on casualties.
Mariam, 44 year-old, married and mother of a number of children , is the elder daughter of Sadiq al Mahdi, former elected prime minister, from his wife Sara Mahmoud. Dr. Mariam emerged as a political woman, in the early 1990s, when joined the Umma (Nation) Army as an officer and then promoted to the executive apparatus of the Umma Party, and finally to General Secretariat where she is in a leading position. Mariam who is actively engaged in politics, is the spokeswoman for the Umma party.
She was certified from jouran as physician, but abandoned the profession of medicine to politics..
Mariam is the sister of Dr. Rabah Sadiq, World Pulse member, who was among the 40 women beaten and arrested last week while protesting a You Tube video depicting a brutal lashing of a young Sudanese. (http://www.worldpulse.com/node/32091).
Dr. Mariam descended from a great politician dynasty in Sudan. Her father, Sadiq al-Mahdi was Prime Minister of Sudan on two occasions: first briefly in 1966-67, and second in 1986-1989 when he was ousted by the sitting government. Her grandfather was Mohamed Ahmed Al-Mahdi who fought the condominium rule, liberated the country and established the first National Government that last four 14 years (1885-1899).
All her brothers and sisters are politically engaged in politics and members of the Umma Political party established in 1945.
Eye witness told World Pulse that the attack began when the security blocked all roads leading to Al-Hijra mosque in Omdurman, West of Khartoum state, preventing members from doing Friday prayer and attending to speech being given by Sadiq Al-Mahdi ,leader of the party.
Police and riot police threw tear gas into the Umma Party House, started beating randomly the assembled people and occupied the house for a short time.
Sources said numerous were injured but no statistics were given over the number of causalities, adding that the attack aimed at forbidding the Umma Party collective leadership emergency session, which scheduled today to discuss the recent development on the Sudanese political arena, especially the January 9 2011 southern Sudan upcoming referendum on self determination whether to stay within the united Sudan or to separate and its implications on the future of the country.
Worth noting that Last week Sadiq Al –Mahdi called upon the Sudanese government to start change from within, and form a national government and a consensus government to lead the country wisely at this crossroads. He gave the government a delay to January 26 to agree to his initiative or he might retire from politics or join the opposition. The government rejected his offer, and told him through media, to retire or join the (armed) opposition.
It is known that Sadiq’s party leads a peaceful opposition from within and rejects all forms of armed opposition. AL-Mahdi finds consensus and is widely accepted by the Sudanese who call him “the wise of the nation).
Ansar (followers of Mahdi) Affairs’ Authority of the Umma party yesterday rejected Sadiq’s intention to retire and renewed its commitment to his leadership. Leadership from the different states of Sudan convened decided to make a peaceful march from the Umma House to the Mosque of Al Hijra where Sadiq, would address.
The Authority had also rejected president Al-Bashir declarations made at Gedarif, Easternn, during harvest festivity, to make Sudan an Arab country applying Sharia laws and adopting Arabic as the only official language of the country, if the south opted for independence.
“If south Sudan secedes, we will change the constitution and at that time there will be no time to speak of diversity of culture and ethnicity,” President Omar Bashir told supporters at a rally in the eastern city of Gedaref. “Shariah (Islamic law) and Islam will be the main source for the constitution, Islam the official religion and Arabic the official language,” he said. (Source Arab News).
The Ansar Authority said in a memorandum in Arabic widely published in numerous websites as well as print press that there was no legitimacy to those who had thrown a legitimate government by a coup d’etat, and formed a new one through rigged elections. The authority warned the government of exploiting Sharia to suppress and oppress people or had injustice done to them.