BEIRUT: A small group of Sudanese refugees in Beirut held a largely symbolic demonstration Monday to call for the boycott of this month’s legislative elections in Sudan and for the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir.
“The protest was to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Sudanese people’s revolution,” Idriss Mohammad, the organizer of Monday’s protest, told The Daily Star.
On April 6, 1985, a popular uprising ended the military rule of Gen. Jaafar Numiri and instated a civilian-led multi-party government.
Bashir, then a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army, led a coup and seized power four years later. He has been Sudan’s president ever since, despite widespread opposition and international condemnation over war crimes he is accused of committing, including genocide.
Mohammad heads a Sudanese refugee group called Anjo, comprised of political refugees who fled their country as a result of persecution by Bashir’s regime.
Around 10 members of Anjo attended the protest, which was held outside the UNHCR office in Beirut’s Jnah area around noon.
“Down with military rule” and “Omar Bashir is wanted” were just some of the slogans used, while another denounced participation in the elections as “betrayal of the martyrs’ blood.”
On Sunday, a coalition of parties and militias opposed to Bashir - named Sudan Call - released a statement calling on their fellow countrymen to “escalate the resistance against the fraudulent elections.”
Mohammad said his group endorsed the opposition’s statement, which called for continuing “the resistance campaigns until the overthrow of the regime.”
The armed rebel group Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North announced Sunday that they had hijacked a lorry carrying ballot boxes to polling stations.
The group pledged to continue their military campaign to disrupt the controversial vote, which is scheduled for April 13.
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