Tags
Arrests of Intellectuals, political repression, sadism, secret police, Shadow Battalions, Sudan, Sudan protests
Dictators may have just two options when challenged: accept safe harbor, if available, step down, and try to appreciate (and survive) the “golden years”. (In BackChannels memory, Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf is the only General and President to have done that, and he today lives in exile — and declining health — in London; Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe has been recently removed from power by his former bodyguard, Emmerson Manangagwa — of course there’s more to that story — who may protect the old man while getting hands and head around the disaster left him by the former dictator).
The other is to suppress the revolution.
Beatings. Secret detention centers. Held without charges. Torture.
“Ghost Houses”.
“Disappeared”.
“The Fridge”.
The gangs conveyed by white Toyota pick-up trucks as depicted in the above video may be known as “Shadow Battalions”.
The ISS article suggested for any protest to bring about change in Sudan, it would have to dislodge the government’s power base in the army and security apparatus, as well as the ruling coalition and the Islamic movement.
As former vice president Ali Osman Taha has said, “the authorities have full shadow battalions ready to sacrifice their lives to defend the regime”.
https://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/will-sudans-ongoing-protests-finally-unseat-bashirs-regime-18907844 – 1/27/2019 Bold added.
Omar al-Bashir must make clear the depths of the sadism he will indulge in his quest to remain in power by intimidating all who oppose his stay.
Aside: one BackChannels source has reported the use of shotgun bird shot aimed at faces to take out eyes.
The same sadism that once served Moscow (and may again serve it) at Lubyanka Prison appears repeated in the Soviet / Post-Soviet sphere of influence. Also infamous for murder and torture: Evin Prison, Iran; Sednaya Prison, Syria.
Now we have the “Ghost Houses” of Sudan.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Security forces arrested 14 professors who were gathering to protest outside Khartoum University on Tuesday, witnesses said, as anti-government demonstrations neared the end of their eighth week.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sudan-protests/sudan-security-arrests-professors-as-protests-rage-on-witnesses-idUSKCN1Q11UR – 2/13/2019
Where are those 14 professors?
What are their names?
What are their fields?
How are they doing?
Related:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/activists-sudan-police-arrest-14-academics-in-protests/2019/02/13/52e291ac-2f95-11e9-8781-763619f12cb4_story.html – 2/13/2019
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