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To: Andy who wrote (673)	12/17/1999 10:52:00 AM
From: Razorbak	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1713

Sudanese President's 'Coup' Could End Turabi's Dream December 15, 1999 Web posted at: 8:17 p.m. EST (0117 GMT) CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Apparently tired of being only a front-man, Sudan's president essentially staged a coup to take the power his title would normally imply. Dissolving Parliament and declaring a state of emergency this week was Omar el-Bashir's best hope for sidelining the Parliament Speaker Hassan Turabi, who engineered el-Bashir's rise to power -- then tried to limit his power when the president showed ambitions of his own. "We can no longer tolerate two governments," the president was quoted in Wednesday's Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper as saying. "There cannot be a real president who is Turabi and a ceremonial one who is el-Bashir." The United States long has accused Sudan of harboring terrorists. In August 1998, U.S. forces bombed a pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum claimed to be involved in chemical weapons production and tied to Osama bin Laden, whom Washington suspects was behind the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa. El-Bashir and Turabi both have peppered speeches with fiery anti-American sentiments, but if Turabi is out of the picture, there could be an opening for some improvement to U.S.-Sudanese relations. El-Bashir may try to strengthen his position by seeking allies in neighboring Egypt and further afield, and to do so he may have to tone down anti-U.S. rhetoric. If the president succeeds, Turabi's dream of what he has called an Islamic revival also is shunted aside -- a prospect that would appeal to the West and to Sudan's African neighbors. But first he will have to smooth the political crisis in his own country, which deepened Wednesday with the resignation of a second Cabinet minister in as many days. Minister of Cabinet Affairs Mohamed Al-Amin Khalifa, a long time military comrade of el-Bashir, quit Wednesday to protest the president's imposition of emergency rule. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail of the ruling National Congress party is said to have resigned Tuesday. Turabi's promotion of radical Islam has made Sudan a pariah as far as the United States and other Western nations are concerned and has made many in its own neighborhood nervous. "I care that the Islamic revival spreads, especially in the Arab world because they are historically closer to the origins of Islam and can lead the international revival," Turabi said in 1994. Over a generation, Turabi's now-defunct National Islamic Front slowly strengthened its position by infiltrating the bureaucracy and the army. With the military on its side, it installed el-Bashir as president in a 1989 coup that ousted a civilian government. El-Bashir said Wednesday that differences between him and Turabi began in 1992, but were contained. It wasn't until this year that the oft-rumored power struggle publicly boiled. In October, the ruling National Congress threw its support behind Turabi, who proceeded to push for constitutional amendments that would limit el-Bashir's power. Before the amendments could be voted on, el-Bashir disbanded Parliament and declared the state of emergency. Turabi, however, has been a political player in Sudan since 1965 and isn't likely to give up easily. Inside and outside Sudan, Africa's largest nation, politicians are choosing whom they will line up behind. El-Bashir, a lieutenant-general, has the Sudanese army's backing. Turabi is supported by elements of the Popular Defense Forces, civilian militias that aid the government in its 16-year-old war against southern Sudanese rebels. Several African nations, including Egypt and Libya, have announced support for el-Bashir. Though el-Bashir is unlikely to change the Islamic character of the nation -- he was touting his own Islamic credentials this week _ his approach is that of a military leader not an ideologue. Turabi was the force behind Sudan's 1983 implementation of Islamic law, a big factor in the revival of the Arab-led northern government's war against Christian and animist African southerners. The military's desire to end the civil war -- a tangle of ethnic, cultural and religious divisions that has claimed nearly 2 million lives -- appears no stronger than Turabi's. Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. cnn.com