1,300 Sudanese students threaten to resign in El Gezira Aba

Hundreds of Darfuri students at El Imam El Mahdi University in El Gezira Aba have threatened to resign from the university in protest against the failure to address the issue of the Darfuri students who were expelled from Bakht El Rida University.

On Tuesday a student leader told Radio Dabanga that they held discussions at various faculties to clarify their position on Monday and Tuesday.

He said that the students who will resign will be more than 1,300 if the case of their colleagues at Bakht El Rida University is not dealt with within 72 hours.

SLM-AW

Meanwhile, Abdelwahid El Nur, the head of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW), has strongly denied reports of any role of the armed movements in the decision of the students expelled from Bakht El Rida University.

Yesterday El Nur told Radio Dabanga that “those who point to the movements being behind the students' position show ignorance and lack of awareness which is a grave mistake”.

He stressed that “the students have sufficient awareness and knowledge to defend their rights and choose their means”.

He described events at Bakht El Rida University as “an extension of the cessation policy that the National Congress Party has been pursuing in order to push the people of Darfur towards the idea of self-determination”.

He said that the National Congress Party will not reach its objectives, pointing out that “the people of Darfur are aware that they are a basic component of Sudan geographically and demographically”.

National Democratic Forces

In Khartoum, the opposition National Forces confirmed their “support and solidarity with the Darfuri students who resigned from Bakht El Rida University politically, informationally and legally”.

National Democratic Forces leader Mohamed Diaeldin told Radio Dabanga that the opposition national forces renewed in a statement on Monday their keenness to return the students to the university without any security or administrative harassment.

The opposition national forces composed of all opposition parties at home as well as civil society organisations held the Director of Bakht El Rida University responsible for the deterioration of the situation at the university.

They said he has failed to manage the crisis and demanded his departure.

They have also called on the government to abandon security solutions and respond to students' objective demands.

The statement stressed the release of all political prisoners, led by Ibrahim El Sheikh and Bakri Yousif immediately.

Displaced

In Darfur, the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees Camps has called for the return of the expelled Darfuri students from Bakht El Rida University and the immediate and unconditional release of the detainees.

Yesterday the Coordination demanded in a statement that anyone involved in provoking racial and tribal strife from the professors of Bakht El Rida University and anyone who offended the students of Darfur be punished.

In its statement, the Coordination condemned the actions of the Khartoum government of provoking sedition through the director of the University of Bakht El Rida University, who is an affiliate of the Popular Security.

“The people of Darfur in the so-called national reconciliation government to show courage once in their lives to take a humanitarian stance and resign from this racist government and to win their relatives and students instead of taking care of the empty positions and allocations of haram money from the sweat of the oppressed,” the statement concludes.

Mediation attempts

Kamal El Zein, member of the students’ Crisis Management Committee, told Radio Dabanga on Sunday that “five rounds of mediations did not lead to any solution”. “As a result, the remaining Darfuri students, feeling they have been subjected to fierce racism by the university administration, began to leave for their homes today.”

However, Darfuri university students who arrived in El Fasher over the past days were stopped at the entrance to the North Darfur capital, for their “intentions to destabilise the city”.

The collective resignations by the Bakht El Rida students last week are part of their action to have fellow students readmitted to Bakht El Rida, and the charges of others who have been arrested on accusation of murder, to be dropped.

The ten detained students are accused of killing two policemen during student protests that were violently dispersed at the University of Bakht El Rida on May 9. The students also demand the reinstatement of 14 other students, expelled from the university after the protests and subsequent clashes.

A mass of students wanted to deliver a joint statement to government representatives in Khartoum last Tuesday, but their buses were stopped and their entrance barred after they decided to walk the remaining distance to Khartoum. The village leader of Sheikh El Yagout, south of the capital, offered them shelter in the meantime.