Sudan Toppling an Unpopular Regime

By Hunter R. Clark.

President Gaafar Nimeiri was approaching Cairo International Airport, stopping over to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after a ten-day visit to the U.S., when he heard the news: the Sudanese armed forces, led by his closest associate, Commander in Chief General Abdul Rahman Suwar Al Dahab, had overthrown him. The coup climaxed a period of turmoil that had gripped Nimeiri's country for more than two weeks and escalated during his absence. A stocky, gray-haired soldier, Suwar Al Dahab, 51, announced that the army wanted to bring under control "the worsening situation in the country." The military, he said, would "transfer power to the people after a limited transitional period." The new regime not only dismissed Nimeiri, 55, but suspended the constitution, imposed martial law and dissolved the Sudanese Socialist Union, the country's only legal political party.

According to reports from Khartoum, the bloodless coup was greeted by tens of thousands of Sudanese celebrating in the streets. Two days earlier, the capital had resounded with the largest and most vocal antigovernment demonstrations since Nimeiri came to power in his own military coup almost 16 years ago. At least 20,000 demonstrators, among them doctors, lawyers, bank clerks, uni- versity staffers and engineers, marched through the dusty streets of Khartoum chanting in English, "Down, down with the U.S.A.," and in Arabic, "Down with one-man rule." Police used tear gas to drive the crowds away from the presidential palace, where they were attempting to present a petition demanding Nimeiri's resignation. With the demonstration came a general strike that paralyzed the capital. Telephone and telex links were severed, and Khartoum airport was closed, virtually cutting the city off from the outside world.

In Santa Barbara, Calif., where President Reagan was spending the Easter holiday, White House Spokesman Larry Speakes predicted that the coup would not have a major effect on Washington's close relations with Khartoum. Said a State Department official: "The demonstrations provided the release for a kind of pent-up antagonism that took on a momentum of its own." Within hours, Libya, a foe of the Nimeiri regime, became the first country to recognize Sudan's new military leaders. Despite this recognition, Western diplomats in Cairo said they were hopeful that the leaders of the 60,000-man Sudanese army would not radically shift away from Nimeiri's pro-Western outlook.

The deposed leader's decision to go ahead with his trip to the U.S. in spite of the deteriorating situation at home was typical of the confidence and bravado that had kept him in power for so long. The protests leading up to the coup began two weeks ago: demonstrations by students were followed by a three- day rampage of unemployed youths in Khartoum, who looted stores and burned cars and gasoline stations. Though Nimeiri insisted that the disturbances were the work of Communists and Muslim fundamentalists, they appeared to have been sparked by an economic austerity program, prescribed in part by Washington and the International Monetary Fund. The plan forced the authorities to raise prices on basic commodities like bread and gasoline. In addition, the country's ailing economy has been sagging under the pressure of an influx of more than a million refugees from Ethiopia and other neighboring countries that, like Sudan, are suffering from an extended drought.

Adding to Nimeiri's troubles was a protracted and expensive guerrilla war against the Marxist 10,000-man Sudanese People's Liberation Army, which has been active in the south. That region's people, largely Christians and animists, resented Nimeiri's attempts to impose strict Islamic law.

In response to the increasing unrest, Nimeiri tried in recent months to moderate some of his policies. He cut back sharply on his 19-month-old drive to Islamize the country's legal system, a policy that had resulted in book burnings and the arrest of citizens for vague offenses like "intended adultery." Harsh Islamic punishments for criminal offenses, including the cutting off of thieves' hands, were suspended. Nimeiri also offered to hold peace talks with the southern rebels' American-educated leader, John Garang. To date, Garang has refused to negotiate with the government despite military setbacks, perhaps out of a belief that time is on his side. Following the coup, however, there were reports that Garang's rebels had called for a cease- fire.

Nimeiri had wound up his visit to Washington after persuading President Reagan to release the $67 million in U.S. aid that had been suspended to increase pressure for the controversial austerity reforms. But the aid package came too late, even for the wily and skillful Nimeiri.

With reporting by Philip Finnegan/Khartoum