By Matthew Russell Lee
KHARTOUM, October 9 -- In downtown Khartoum on Saturday morning, a raucous crowd of several thousand demonstrated against the separation of Sudan. Their signs said it was colonialists drawing lines again on Africa, asked International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo why the US is not a member of the ICC, which has indicted President Omar al Bashir.
Groups of men in white turbans shook green treelike plants and women in bright orange robes stopped for Inner City Press to photograph their banners, many with English subtitles thanking Bashir for “stopping the long war in the South.”
Sudanese jazz played from a bandstand, toward which people continued to stream, past Omdurman National Bank under reconstruction.
The background, Inner City Press is told, is that Southerners rally on the 9th, in the run up to the secession referendum scheduled for January 9, 2010. Unity supporters also now gather on the 9th, though most of them won't be eligible to vote. There were reports of a pro separation rally at the University of Juba campus in Khartoum.
Khartoum demo Oct 9, UN Security Council not shown, (c) MRLee
Inner City Press visited the headquarters of UNMIS, near the airport. UNMIS has taken over a police hospital, across a dirt street from “Judges' Home.” Inside, some of the offices had no electricity on Monday. The walls have photographs from Juba and Abyei. If there is a war, Inner City Press was told, it will probably start in Abyei.
The UN Security Council, meanwhile, met in the basement of the luxury hotel the delegation stayed in with the members of the South Sudan Referendum Commission. There was a photo “spray” at the beginning, then the Press was ordered out. There came word of the demonstration, first a false rumor of one in front of UNMIS, which happens not infrequently, then the transfer to downtown.
The crowd was still gathering when Inner City Press rushed to catch up with the Security Council which had moved to a meeting with Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti. We will report on Karti's speech, and UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant's response, in a separate piece.
After the two speeches, the UN rushed the press corps back to the hotel, taking care to entirely avoid the growing area taken up by the demonstration. Would the Security Council likewise avoid the demonstration? Watch this site.
