kasha in the capital of sudan

July 29, 2008

         Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy has received very disturbing news from different sources this weekend confirming that a “Kasha” is taking place right now in the three cities of the capital of Sudan, particularly in the marketplaces and shopping centers. “Kasha” is a term in Arabic which loosely means, “Clean the capital of dirt”. This term has been used since the time of former President Nimery, during which time the security personnel and the police would ask people in the streets for their IDs and where they came from. If they found out that these innocent, unsuspecting people were from the South, or Darfur, or Nuba, they forced them on trucks and sent them to jail. In Jail, they would ask them to return to where they came from, but only after inflicting extreme brutality.

When al-Bashir’s government came to power, he used the same term, “Kasha”. At first the word was used figuratively, however it eventually took on a literal meaning. Al-Bashir took on all the same tactics as Nimery’s regime, only worse. Al-Bashir’s regime eventually changed the term “Kasha” to “Al-Nizam” which means to organize or to make tidy. While the actions behind the term remained the same, or possibly worse, al-Bashir’s regime chose this particular term to change the connotation of the process. By a simple turn of phrase, al-Bashir managed to make his actions sound innocent, potentially good even, and completely unrelated to genocide.

The act of “Al-Nizam” has escalated dramatically within a few days of the indictment of al-Bashir. The escalation began when the security personnel in mufti interrupted people in the marketplace, on the streets and in various other public spaces. Once it is discovered that a person is Darfuri, they are beaten up and taken to ghost houses where they are beaten further and then tortured. These incidents remind us of when the Justice and Equality Movement attacked Khartoum and the government killed dozens of women and children, and tortured several others. This time the government of Al-Bashir is apparently sending a new message to the ICC and to those who are in support of the indictment by taking action against the innocent Darfuris who live in the capital. It is very interesting that al-Bashir has contradicted himself. He claims that Darfuris are supporting him in Darfur, yet he is abusing them in the capital city.

Damanga condemns segregation based on racism and the denial of freewill to the citizens of Sudan that comes in tangent with that. We urge the ICC to continue its effort against this tyranny, and bring the tyrant to justice soon. We hope that all of the African leaders will stand up and cooperate with the ICC, not with the perpetrators and killers, so as to assure justice and dignity for the people of Sudan. We urge the U.N. Security Council to continue its efforts to enable the ICC to do its job, to bring al-Bashir and his cabinet who committed genocide and war crimes, to justice. We also advise the U.N. Security Council not to impede the efforts of justice and accountability, and to continue to support the justice that the ICC is trying to bring, until those perpetrators are all accountable, and sent to The Hague. We applaud the arrest of former Yugoslavian genocide criminal, Radovan Karadzic, and we hope that the arrest of al-Bashir will follow suite.