Kasha in the Capital of Sudan

[Mohamed A. Yahya]

Kasha in the capital of Sudan

Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy has received very
disturbing news from different sources this weekend confirming that a
“Kasha” is taking place right now in the three cities of the capital
of Sudan, particularly in the marketplaces and shopping centers.
“Kasha” is a term in Arabic which loosely means, “Clean the capital of
dirt”. This term has been used since the time of former President
Nimery, during which time the security personnel and the police would
ask people in the streets for their IDs and where they came from. If
they found out that these innocent, unsuspecting people were from the
South, or Darfur, or Nuba, they forced them on trucks and sent them to
jail. In Jail, they would ask them to return to where they came from,
but only after inflicting extreme brutality.

When al-Bashir’s government came to power, he used the same term,
“Kasha”. At first the word was used figuratively, however it
eventually took on a literal meaning. Al-Bashir took on all the same
tactics as Nimery’s regime, only worse. Al-Bashir’s regime eventually
changed the term “Kasha” to “Al-Nizam” which means to organize or to
make tidy. While the actions behind the term remained the same, or
possibly worse, al-Bashir’s regime chose this particular term to
change the connotation of the process. By a simple turn of phrase, al-
Bashir managed to make his actions sound innocent, potentially good
even, and completely unrelated to genocide.

The act of “Al-Nizam” has escalated dramatically within a few days of
the indictment of al-Bashir. The escalation began when the security
personnel in mufty interrupted people in the marketplace, on the
streets and in various other public spaces. Once it is discovered that
a person is Darfuri, they are beaten up and taken to ghost houses
where they are beaten further and then tortured. These incidents
remind us of when the Justice and Equality Movement attacked Khartoum
and the government killed dozens of women and children, and tortured
several others. This time the government of Al-Bashir is apparently
sending a new message to the ICC and to those who are in support of
the indictment by taking action against the innocent Darfuris who live
in the capital. It is very interesting that al-Bashir has contradicted
himself. He claims that Darfuris are supporting him in Darfur, yet he
is abusing them in the capital city.

Damanga condemns segregation based on racism and the denial of
freewill to the citizens of Sudan that comes in tangent with that. We
urge the ICC to continue its effort against this tyranny, and bring
the tyrant to justice soon. We hope that all of the African leaders
will stand up and cooperate with the ICC, not with the perpetrators
and killers, so as to assure justice and dignity for the people of
Sudan. We urge the U.N. Security Council to continue its efforts to
enable the ICC to do its job, to bring al-Bashir and his cabinet who
committed genocide and war crimes, to justice. We also advise the U.N.
Security Council not to impede the efforts of justice and
accountability, and to continue to support the justice that the ICC is
trying to bring, until those perpetrators are all accountable, and
sent to The Hague. We applaud the arrest of former Yugoslavian
genocide criminal, Radovan Karadzic, and we hope that the arrest of al-
Bashir will follow suite.