[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Sudanese security forces raided the head office of a leading opposition group on Saturday, a day before a huge protest march was planned to demand a transition to civilian rule, witnesses and a front man for the group said.
Sudan’s ruling military council and the opposition movement have been wrangling for weeks over how to manage a transition to elections since the military ousted long-time 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 Arabize Darfur 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.
on April 11.
Security forces raided the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA) office, where the group had been due to hold a news conference.
"This represents a violation of liberties that is even worse than the regime of the former president (Bashir)," Ahmed al-Rabie, an SPA front man, told Rooters. "This is a bad sign for the atmosphere of mediation between the two parties."
The military council did not immediately comment. The SPA made no mention of arrests.
The news conference was planned ahead of a march called on Sunday by an opposition coalition, the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC), that the SPA is a part of. The opposition groups are hoping as many as a million people will join the march, which they want to use to press the military council to hand power over to civilians.
Earlier on Saturday, the military council said FFC would bear the responsibility for any loss of life or damage resulting from the planned march.
"We ... hold the Forces for Freedom and Change fully responsible for any spirit that is lost in this march, or any damage or harm to citizens or state institutions," the council said in a statement carried by state news agency SUNA.
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