[An Nahar] More than 100 Sudanese lawyers in black legal gowns demonstrated on Thursday in defense of free speech, Agence La Belle France Presse reported, on the 13th day of unprecedented public protests."Demonstration is a constitutional right," said one of their banners,
| No doubt they can show exactly where it is in the laminated copy of the Sudanese constitution each keeps in his hip pocket. |
Eighty legal practitioners in Khartoum held the silent protest by standing outside a courthouse for about an hour, while another 40 carried out a similar action in the capital's twin city of Omdurman, the news hound observed.
They also held signs objecting to high food prices.
Rights groups say scores of people have been set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
since the protests against inflation began on June 16 at the University of Khartoum.
After 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.
announced austerity measures, including tax hikes and an end to cheap fuel, the protests spread to include a cross-section of people in numerous locations throughout the capital and other parts of Sudan.
Demonstrators in groups of 100 or 200 have burned tires, thrown stones and blocked roads in a growing call for regime change, which has been met by police tear gas.
In a rare show of restraint, riot police stood by while the lawyers protested.
On Sunday, lawyers erupted into the streets for a protest in El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan state, but some were set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
, witnesses said.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged the government on Thursday to avoid "heavy-handed suppression" of protesters, who say they will intensify their actions on Friday.
Rights groups say scores of people have been set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
Pillay called on Sudan "to immediately and unconditionally release those who have been tossed in the clink
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
for merely exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and expression.
"Reports of ill treatment in detention are very worrying and must be investigated promptly."