Sudan Kaleidoscope

...Although pro-Western, Khalil took his support from the conservative Umma party, the political wing of the predominant Moslem sect of the Sudan, the Ansar ("the followers...

...In late May, another abortive attempt was made, to which the Army's ruling Supreme Council retorted by jailing over 20 insubordinate officers and rounding up important Communist leaders...

...No shot was fired, no arrest was made, no finger was raised to defend the "degenerate" past...

...In 1933, Azhari and a group of bright young alumni of Khartoum's famous Gordon College formed the Graduates General Congress—a "social" club, since political groups were not permitted—patterned after India's Congress party...

...He may also see the Sudan as an outlet for his surplus fellahin and a source of tough fighters in a future Arab-Israeli war...

...In this unnatural alliance, Ali Abdel Rahman was the spokesman for Sayed Ali Al-Mirghani, spiritual leader of the Khatmiya...

...The sources of "corruption, confusion and degeneration" were thus removed in one sweep, and Khartoum went about business as usual...

...obliged...

...We do not only warn you, but we almost see your blood running like rivers in our streets...

...Other foreign influences, which could vitiate Sudanese efforts toward development, will no doubt come from the Soviet Union and other Soviet bloc countries whose missions in Khartoum are already out of all proportion to needs...

...These negotiations met with apparent success on November 16...

...Our main desire is to end corruption...

...The Sudan's banned political parties are also showing signs of discontent...

...It ran: "We know perfectly well that the dirty Egyptian hands under the command of Dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser arc these days designing wide conspiracy to assassinate Umma [the Government party] and Ansar [principal religious sect and backer of the Umma] leaders of this country...

...When matters are straightened out, we want to return to the democratic process...

...Could be," reply some observers...

...Abdullah Khalil retired to his home in Omdurman to fish and hunt...

...The new Government contained five civilians, but most politicians found themselves out of work...

...that their military coup of November 17, 1958 was uninspired by the spate of similar happenings elsewhere that year...

...I have no other ambition than to be a general...

...This had led some observers to believe that certain politicians, possibly Khalil and certainly the powerful Ansar, knew about the coup in advance, and perhaps approved...

...If the least harm is caused to our leaders, none of you will escape or be able to leave this country intact...

...The tragic internecine warfare among the makers of the coup, which occurred in Iraq, has now come to the Sudan, although not in so virulent a form...

...Epilogue: Like the military regimes in other parts of the underdeveloped world, the life of General Abboud's government depends ultimately on what concrete improvements it can make for the average Sudanese...

...he went to Cairo "on private matters" just before the coup, without the Cabinet's permission...

...Said Kheir: "There is no change in our foreign policy: It is one of absolute neutrality...

...Nasser also stopped sugar shipments due the Sudan for repatriated Egyptian currency...

...The villain of the piece is Sayed Ali Abdel Rahman, leader of the former People's Democratic party (PDP) backed by the second largest religious sect, the northern Khatmiya—the lifelong enemy of the Ansar...

...In December, brilliant, hard-working General Wahab, Number Two man of the regime, was saving: "There are only three generals in the Sudan, and we all made the coup...

...We warn you that the Sudanese people will not tolerate the conspiracies which Abdel Nasser has started against the leader of Tunisia, el Habib Bourghiba, whose political leadership Abdel Nasser wants to undermine because he has refused to surrender his country to Egyptian militarism or accept from Abdel Nasser the title of Second Arab National, unlike Shukri el Kuwatli who sold his country for the title of First Arab National...

...In 1924, Egyptian Army officers then stationed in the Sudan stirred up a revolt against the British...

...Nasser's intention seems to be to dominate the Nile Valley and obtain a stepping stone into Black Africa...

...In mid-summer, Khalil ordered additional water taken from the Nile for an extension of a cotton irrigation scheme after waiting for a month for an Egyptian reply...

...The multi-million dollar United States aid offer, which Khalil wanted in order to develop the Sudanese economy, was violently attacked as "an instrument of imperialism," "aid with strings," an opening wedge to obtain U.S...

...Most important, almost all the cotton backlog has now been sold...

...But the all-important Nile waters question, on which the economies of both countries depend, still remains to be settled...

...During World War II, the hesitant beginnings of real political parties were made, and in the postwar period a full-blown debate got underway over the Sudan's political future...

...The Umma party, headed by Abdullah Khalil and Sayed Sadiq, felt independence could be gained only by befriending the British and getting their consent...

...Negotiations on the equitable division of the vital Nile waters came to a standstill...

...Azhari's bright young lieutenants, like former Foreign Minister Mubarak Zaruq, can be counted on to give real vitality to the Sudanese democratic process when it is resumed...

...In November 1958, the highly regarded, crack Sudanese Army took power in a bloodless coup, but a power struggle among the top generals was not long in coming...

...More pro-Egyptian and more sectarian than the bulk of the NUP, Ali Abdel Rahman soon felt his interests threatened, and ended the marriage of convenience by bringing down the Government in July 1956...

...SUDAN KALEIDOSCOPE Scene of a military coup last November, this 'key bridge between Arab and Black Africa' now seethes with Army in-fighting and political intrigue By Joan Gillespie WHILE RIOTS BY "shebeen queens" (African women who brew illicit liquor for sale to Africans) in South African slums and rebel attacks on Algerian cities attract attention elsewhere, the political pot is boiling over in the strategic Sudan...

...The NUP regarded such a Government as a means to gain power...

...In the long run, however...

...The weaknesses of Azhari and the NUP were those of modernists in a society which is still largely tribal and religion-oriented...

...This spring, a visiting Soviet economic mission promised a small aid program, and is considering projects for fertilizer and cement factories...

...From the beginning, General Abboud stated that his regime would spare no effort to "put an end to the artificial strain which has hitherto existed" between the Sudan and Nasser...

...At the same time, the Sudan's economy, based largely on cotton, became critical...

...Of all the men who tried their hands at politics in the new Sudanese Republic, Ali Abdel Rahman seemed least able to find his place...

...Ever since the great Mahdi and his whirling dervishes, the first Ansars, swooped down upon the British at Khartoum and defeated them in 1885, the Ansar sect has been a prime force in Sudanese life...

...The editors of pro-Egyptian Sudanese newspapers and the heads of Communist-front organizations soon began receiving similar "death threats...

...Measures to lower rents in Khartoum, to have more Sudanese trained in foreign business concerns, to improve local government and to reform the educational system got the new regime off to a good start...

...bases in the Sudan—even, in the Egyptian-paid press, as a first step to an attack against Nasser...

...After two days of non-publication, the press reappeared under strong admonition not to publish anything detrimental to the regime, former politicians or foreign powers...

...The antagonist of the play is Ismail el Azhari, a former teacher and graduate of the American University of Beirut, and Prime Minister of the first government of independent Sudan, formed in January 1956...

...With the constant Army in-fighting since March—and there is probably little more than personal significance to these squabbles—the scene begins to look more and more like the nasty free-for-all of the old Parliamentary days...

...With his newly-formed People's Democratic party (PDP), he formed an Umma-PDP coalition under Prime Minister Khalil, which was in office when the military coup occurred...

...aid, and in recent months, the U.S...

...To the key post of Foreign Minister, the regime headed by General Ibrahim Abboud named idea-man Ahmed Kheir, admirer of John Stuart Mill and Harold Laski, and a law partner of former Foreign Minister Mahgoub...

...The Sudan was one of the last Afro-Asian countries to lose its parliamentary regime...

...The whole Army was with us...

...In opposition in Parliament, he was virulent, unconstructive...

...The denouement: At 3 AM on November 17, the Army, in Khartoum for the forthcoming opening of the parliament, occupied key points in the city, including Radio Omdurman...

...A look at these men and the environment in which they operated gives a clue to the country's present quarrels...

...The Sudanese insist that their act in the world's play was a unique one...

...This was probably not a reflection of any pro-Nasser sentiment—for the vast majority of Sudanese resent the country-cousin treatment they get from Egyptians—but rather practical necessity...

...On November 29, the new Council of Ministers stated that "there was nothing in the American aid agreement which limits the independence or sovereignty of the Sudan...

...In the early days after the coup the watchword of the new military government was work...

...By the end of December, the Egyptian trade boycott had somewhat eased...

...We will murder you and make of your bodies meals to feed the vultures...

...A bad cotton crop, an unwise marketing policy, and declining world prices drastically reduced Sudanese revenues...

...But what is really needed is "20 years of peace...

...Abdullah Khalil opposed it, both as a threat to his own position as Prime Minister and as a sell-out to pro-Egyptian forces...

...While the Umma and the PDP have a common sectarian outlook, Ali Abdel Rahman and Abdullah Khalil disagreed strongly on foreign policy...

...Some politicians are simmering in Khartoum jails, others are trying to take up their old occupations...

...but the Parliamentary democracy was no shining temple, just a circus tent over quarreling factions...

...Unable to gain and hold power solely on the basis of the Westernized elite, Azhari first sought support of some religious elements within the Sudan, then of foreign powers...

...We warn you against the unpleasant fate to which every Egyptian in this country will be destined, should any evil befall Sayed Abdel Rahman el Mahdi [spiritual leader of the Ansar sect, now deceased] or any other Umma leader...

...No official culprit has been found, but it was most probably Egypt's own secret service...

...The letter was signed by the "Group of Loyalty to National Legacy...

...It is probably that Nasser has his hands too full for the moment with Iraq, Syria and Jordan to turn his full attention to the Sudan...

...This medieval backing did not encourage Abdullah Khalil to make modern social reforms or to be patient with the new-born Sudanese democracy...

...The UAR applied economic pressures by refusing to continue normal purchases of some Sudanese products, such as melon seeds and camel meat, severely affecting some Sudanese tribes...

...At 6:30 AM sleepy Sudanese heard the announcement of the take-over...

...He started as Number Two man in the NUP when Azhari formed the first government with the support of the Khatmiya sect...

...By late spring, Khalil's Government was already in difficulties...

...Who sent the "death-threat" letters...

...The following day, the Sudan recognized Communist China...

...He flirted dangerously with strong external forces...

...Azhari's party had support only in the towns, none in the west and south...

...Ali Abdel Rahman often violated the coalition's neutral policy on Egypt...

...The Sudan's protagonist is Abdullah Khalil, former Prime Minister and Secretary General of the Umma party, a man with little patience for politics and an autocratic bent gained from long years of distinguished service in the Sudanese Army...

...During the March turnover, he was ousted...

...But Azhari nonetheless remains to many the hero of Sudanese independence...

...Azhari was a frequent visitor in Cairo, often calling for the "Unity of the Nile Valley," a slogan which appealed to his ambitious Egyptian hosts...

...Theoretically under Anglo-Egyptian condominium since 1898, the Sudan was really under sole British rule since 1924...

...This vast land of 12 million people, divided between the Arab-Moslem north and the Christian-pagan-Negro south, is a key bridge between Arab and Black Africa...

...Since then, Khalil, a straightforward kind of man rare in the Arab world, has preferred to deal with the British: his enemies accuse him of being their "stooge...

...And the NUP was the only non-sectarian, progressive party in the Sudan...

...From the Western point of view, Abdullah Khalil was perhaps the right man with the wrong party...

...Of these, only Abdullah Khalil escaped execution...

...In short order, the military government abolished the temporary Constitution, Parliament and the political parties, and suspended labor unions...

...Object: to get criticism of Nasser for interfering in Sudanese affairs off the front pages of Khartoum's press...

...Rumor has it that he may be back in Khartoum soon...

...The Egyptians then withdrew, leaving several young Sudanese Army officers to take the rap...

...It asked for more U.S...

...The NUP's roots are in Egypt...

...A second round of talks went on in late summer and early fall for an NUP-Umma coalition...

...One morning last fall, the United Arab Republic's Ambassador to the Sudan received a mysterious "death-threat" letter in the Khartoum mail...

...Khalil's intense Sudanese nationalism and anti-Egyptian sentiments are said to date from an incident which took place many years ago...

...They spent several million dollars for the election of Azhari and his National Union party (NUP...

...An official investigation was started, and many Sudanese hastened to apologize for the outrage and assure their powerful neighbors to the north of their abiding friendship and respect...

...Peace be upon those who follow the right path...

...Then Azhari seemed to turn on his old friends when he opted for independence rather than unity with Egypt—an act for which United Arab Republic President Nasser may never have forgiven him...

...Khalil's opponents said of his part in the November 17 coup: "He was like Samson...

...The plot: The elections of March 1958 gave Khalil's Umma party a victory...

...Azhari and several other young politicians saw independence as remote, and enlisted Egyptian support to fight the more powerful Britishers...

...When things didn't go his way, he pulled down the pillars of our parliament on all our heads...

...some accuse him of opportunism...

...But it was already too late for compromise: the Sudanese Army had decided to enter politics...

...The Egyptian-paid press then attacked the Prime Minister as an enemy of Arab friendship and a tool of the British...

...As one observer put it: "The religious sects are Sudanese...

...In March 1959 an Army group, which was out of the capital city of Khartoum at the time of the original coup, made its bid, without success...

...Early in the year, unsuccessful negotiations took place to replace the faltering Umma-PDP coalition by a National Government of all parties...

...It is still said that the ultimate arbiters of the country's politics are the thousands of camel-mounted warriors with their lethal barbed spears who could descend upon Khartoum from the West at the will of Sayed Sadiq, present head of the Ansars and grandson of the great Mahdi...

...Perhaps they will buy our surplus cotton," said one high official hopefully...

...but its failure to get a clear Parliamentary majority made the unhappy Umma-PDP coalition a continuing necessity...

...This may bring back the politicians, although not the Parliamentary system, sooner than expected...

...This tragic-comic propaganda incident was only one of many that poisoned the political atmosphere in the sunny desert Republic and brought about the demise of the parliamentary system after little more than two years' practice...