[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 23, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           KHARTOUM CHARACTER

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, there is much good news in Africa, 
and, unfortunately, it does not make the headlines.
  Africa is moving steadily, if not dramatically, toward greater and 
greater democracy. But it goes in fits and starts and without 
consistency. Probably the most discouraging place in Africa today is 
Sudan.
  It is discouraging because there are hundreds of thousands--perhaps 
over 1 million--who face severe malnutrition in the southern part of 
the country.
  The government is oppressive, and despite assurances that the 
government gives me from time to time that they are moving in a more 
constructive direction, I have seen little evidence of it.
  An article by Joshua Hammer, who heads Newsweek's Nairobi bureau, in 
the New Republic, gives something of the character of the situation in 
the capital city.
  I do not suggest that the government alone is responsible for the 
difficulties in that country. Unfortunately, there is division among 
those who oppose the government in the south. That has added to the 
bloodshed and the loss of life and the lost opportunity to get food to 
desperate people who need it.
  But if the government in Khartoum were to take a more tolerant 
attitude to those who may differ politically or religiously, Sudan 
could be one of the better examples of progress in Africa. Today it is 
the opposite.
  At this point, I ask to insert into the Record the Joshua Hammer 
article.
  The article follows:

                  [From the New Public, Feb. 7, 1994]

            Khartoum Character: A Visit With Sudan's Despot

                           (By Joshua Hammer)

       Muhammad Bashari steered his battered yellow taxi along the 
     bank of the White Nile, peering nervously into the rearview 
     mirror, ``Do you see anyone behind us?'' he asked. He sped 
     through the near empty streets of Khartoum, passing white-
     robed herdsmen and their goats. We were going to interview a 
     leading oppositionist, and Muhammad feared surveillance. 
     Earlier, he had spotted two plainclothesmen watching us in 
     the lobby of the Khartoum Hilton; that was when he handed me 
     the name of his friend at the U.S. Embassy. ``He got me out 
     of jail last time after only eight days,'' Muhammad said.
       I met Muhammad my first evening in Khartoum, an arid city 
     of palm trees and minarets at the confluence of the White and 
     Blue Niles--the crossroads of Africa and Arabia. I had come 
     to investigate reports that the National Islamic Front, 
     Sudan's ruling party, was covertly sponsoring international 
     terrorism charges that led to its being placed on the State 
     Department's black list last August. But I became even more 
     intrigued by the transformation of the once democratic 
     Sudanese society wrought by the NIF. In just four years, 
     they've banned political parties, shut down the press, 
     tortured thousands of oppositionists in ``ghost houses''--
     unmarked residences hidden away on Khartoum's outskirts--and 
     carried out Koranic, or sharia, law with a vengeance. This 
     process has not only destroyed the economy and forfeited 
     Western development aid, but has instilled fear and loathing 
     in much of the population.
       Muhammad was no exception. A paunchy, pleasant-faced 
     attorney in his 40s, he quit the bar after the NIF seized 
     power in a military coup in 1989. He said it was difficult to 
     work in a legal system packed with Islamic zealots--and he 
     realized that he could make a bundle as a $150-per-day guide 
     for Western journalists. The decision had cost him. He had 
     been investigated, followed and interrogated by the police; I 
     thought it prudent not to use his real name in this article. 
     As we drove through Khartoum, looking for black market 
     gasoline at $7 a gallon, he vented his frustration. ``The NIF 
     cleans the streets--but most of all they clean out 
     stomachs,'' he said.
       Khartoum has indeed been drained of its natural, African 
     vitality. Liquor, nightclubs, Western movies and discotheques 
     are all banned. (I spent many disgruntled evenings at the 
     Hilton's Sunset Lounge, drinking ``favorite cocktails and 
     after-dinner drinks'' like guava and lime juice.) State-run 
     T.V. airs little but Islamic conferences and footage of 
     government soldiers in southern Sudan. About the only 
     entertainment that the NIF permits is soccer. Muhammad and I 
     watched Khartoum play Port Sudan at Khartoum stadium. Some 
     25,000 men (women aren't allowed) cheered wildly and munched 
     sunflower seeds, savoring a cathartic escape from government 
     control. ``Some NIF people want to ban football, too,'' 
     Muhammad told me. ``But they know if they did that the people 
     would rise against them. They would be finished.''
       All Sudanese office workers are now obliged to join the 
     Popular Defense Force, an Islamic paramilitary group. 
     Everywhere here you see men and women clad in coffee-colored 
     uniforms, chanting Islamic slogans (``God is great! We are 
     ready for the enemy!'') as they jog through the streets. I 
     accompanied one group of bank worker ``volunteers'' to a dirt 
     field by the confluence of the Niles. Panting Arabs with 
     hefty guts performed a two-hour regimen of exercises 
     alongside jet-black Dinka tribesmen from the Christian south. 
     Employees looked away when I asked what would happen if they 
     refused to participate. (One man whispered they would lose 
     their jobs.) ``We want the roots to grow deep and change the 
     manner of the people,'' the bank's chairman, a leading member 
     of the NIF, told me. ``We want to rebuild the culture 
     according to Islamic principles.''
       The principal architect of the NIF's revolution, party 
     chairman Hassan al-Turabi, speaks perfect idiomatic English 
     punctuated by weirdly disarming little giggles. Clad in a 
     white turban and traditional white robe known as the jelabia, 
     Turabi sipped tea and spoke about how Sudan had ``created an 
     inspiring example for the whole world.'' I asked him about 
     the Sudanese martial arts expert who had attacked and nearly 
     killed him in 1992 at Ottawa's airport. The assassination 
     attempt reportedly terrified Turabi, who now is said to sleep 
     in a different house nearly every night. Turabi just giggled. 
     ``A black belt in karate and he couldn't even kill me with 
     four blows,'' he said. ``It made a symbol of Islam. Now I am 
     famous all over the world.'' Turabi denied the existence of 
     ghost houses, claimed the economy was booming and said the 
     cutoff of aid was good because it rid the country of Western 
     dependence.
       My last morning in Khartoum, we drove to meet Muhammad 
     Ibrahim Nugud, a distinguished attorney and leading anti-
     government politician who spent two years in jail between 
     1989 and 1991. We wound through sandy back alleys to evade 
     the cops. Nugud is watched round-the-clock, but nobody was 
     visible outside his walled compound this day. ``They've taken 
     their morning tea break,'' Nugud said. He had been up all 
     night coordinating defense strategy for an imminent treason 
     trial of top opposition members. He looked bleary-eyed and 
     depressed. ``Everybody knows the lies, the phony success 
     stories,'' he said. ``But we are filled with fear.'' My guide 
     dropped me at the airport an hour later, still uncertain 
     whether our expedition had jeopardized his safety. ``Wish me 
     luck,'' he said. Then he drove away, finished--for now--with 
     his dangerous game.

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