Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
in the crackdown.
Simon Fraser, permanent under-secretary in London's Foreign Office, said in Khartoum that he hoped "these protests will be a warning to everyone including the government that the situation needs to be addressed."
Authorities say 34 people died after petrol and diesel prices jumped on 23 September when the government cut fuel subsidies, sending thousands into the streets in the worst urban unrest during President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
's 24-year rule.
Activists and international human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
groups said security forces rubbed out at least 50 people, most of them in the greater Khartoum area.
At the end of a day-long visit to Khartoum, Fraser called for "an acceleration of a genuine process for comprehensive national dialogue."
"But that does require the commitment of all the parties, and in particular the government, to give confidence through its future actions," Fraser, who heads Britannia's diplomatic service and is senior policy adviser to Foreign Secretary William Hague, told news hounds.
Bashir called in April for dialogue with "all political powers" in his country, including armed rebels.
Along with insurgencies and an economic crisis, his ruling National Congress Party faces internal dissension.
Fraser met with government officials including Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti, as well as civil society workers and others.
"We are also expressing our concern about the large number of detentions which have taken place and which I believe are still taking place, including a number of journalists and political activists," Fraser said.