VZCZCXRO3350
OO RUEHGI RUEHMA RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHKH #0315/01 0670835
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 080835Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3182
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000315 
 
DEPT FOR AF A A/S CARTER, AF/SPG, AF/E 
NSC FOR MGAVIN AND CHUDSON 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC PGOV PREL SOCI AU UNSC SU
SUBJECT: HOARSE BASHIR KICKS OFF DAYS OF ANTI-ICC, ANTI-WESTERN 
RALLIES OF REPUDIATION 
 
¶1. (U) On March 5, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, now a wanted 
ICC indictee, kicked off the first of a series of popular 
demonstrations aimed at solidifying support for the regime and for 
the President personally.  While the rhetoric has often been 
incendiary, the rallies have so far been peaceful. NCP officials 
continue to stress privately that despite the bitter anti-Western 
rhetoric "for local consumption," the regime is acting responsibly 
towards its national and international treaty obligations and 
continues to behave that way. 
 
¶2. (U) March 5th began with an unusual, live broadcast of the 
Sudanese cabinet of ministers meeting featuring various senior 
officials expressing their rejection of the ICC and unqualified 
support for the President. While SPLM officials and ministers 
present, including FVP Salva Kiir, and SLM Senior Assistant to the 
President Minni Minnawi kept silent, VP Taha, followed by Minister 
of Justice Sabdarat led the charge coolly focusing on legal, 
diplomatic and political reasons for opposing the ICC decision. 
 
¶3. (U) The cabinet meeting concluded, senior officials moved 
directly to the much touted "million man" rally on Khartoum's Nile 
Avenue and Martyr's Square (the number seemed much smaller, perhaps 
under 100,000 according to some sources). Kiir and his ministers 
were able to make a hasty getaway but VP Taha, Eastern Front leader 
Musa Muhammad Ahmed, hardline Minister of Defense Abduraheem 
Hussein, Presidential Advisor Bona Malwal (an anti-SPLM, Southern 
renegade) and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Al-Samani 
al-Wasila (who heads a pro-regime DUP splinter group) 
enthusiastically joined Bashir on stage. Among the popular chants 
were; "Down, down, USA!" and "Oh Ocampo, you coward, Bashir is on 
the march," and the evergreen "With our souls and our blood, we will 
sacrifice for you, Bashir." 
 
¶4. (U) A hoarse Bashir spoke extemporaneously noting that Sudan has 
been under attack by colonialism before and is again. He described 
how Sudan defeated "the international war criminal, Gordon Pasha" at 
the site where the Presidential Palace stands today. Colonialism 
later returned with more modern weapons but was resisted fiercely by 
the Sudanese, including Osman Digna, who broke the British Square. 
Sudan continued to resist when it became the first independent 
country in sub-Saharan Africa. 
 
¶5.  (U) Bashir described the attempts of "neo-colonialism" for the 
past 20 years (the years of NCP rule) to impose its will on Sudan. 
The ICC, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and UN Security Council 
are all tools of this new form of colonialism. Sudan is a symbol of 
one of free peoples in the third world - Asia, Africa and Latin 
America - which resists these forces of hegemony. The President gave 
a shout-out of support to the "mujahids of Hizbullah in Lebanon and 
Hamas in Gaza" who are also resisting these forces. He attacked 
those countries who talked so much about human rights and persecuted 
tribes in Darfur but had slaughtered the original inhabitants of the 
Americas and Australia. He moved on to the "crimes of America" - 
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam and Iraq - adding that the former US 
President had lied to his own people and the world about weapons of 
mass destruction and had destroyed Iraq, causing millions of deaths 
and refugees, which dwarfed anything that happened in Darfur. 
America also blindly supported Israel and its many crimes against 
the Palestinians and in Lebanon. 
 
¶6. (U) Warming up, Bashir said that the true criminals and liars are 
the United States and Europe. The West had tried an economic siege 
against Sudan and it had failed, it had tried a diplomatic siege and 
it had failed. He warned that neo-colonialism wants Sudan's oil, 
gas, land and water, "we say no to them."  The President boasted 
about the expulsion of Western NGOs on March 4 and warned that 
others - both NGOs and diplomats - can stay as long as they behave, 
if not they too will be expelled. On March 7, the regime organized 
still another rally in support of Bashir, by "the sons of South 
Sudan," featuring a range of pro-NCP Southern renegades including 
Bona Malwal and former Foreign Minister Lam Akol. March 8 the 
President takes the show on the road to Darfur, starting in El 
Fasher, with the presence of most of the diplomatic corps (except 
for the excluded P-3) and that of SRSG Qazi, JSR Adada, and UN/AU 
Mediator Bassole to add a patina of international legitimacy to his 
outbursts. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Presidential Advisor Ghazi Salahudin crowed to CDA 
Fernandez on March 7 that "we should thank Ocampo, because the 
President has never been more popular, and will easily sweep 
democratic elections this year now." But he also noted that the USG 
should not take the bitter anti-American rhetoric - much of it off 
the cuff - coming from the President, from other senior NCP 
officials, from the state-controlled media and from mosque prayer 
 
KHARTOUM 00000315  002 OF 002 
 
 
leaders at face value. Other senior NCP officials have made the same 
point for months - that popular mobilization, incendiary rhetoric, 
and targeted expulsion of some NGOs (although the actual number and 
scope of those ordered to leave has even surprised many inside the 
regime) - would constitute a "measured response," that the regime 
would exercise restraint, and that the NCP was acutely aware of its 
responsibilities and obligations. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Comment: The Khartoum regime has so far, in the early days 
of the crisis, succeeded in keeping some sort of separation between 
verbal escalation and tangible acts - but only just. It is still 
early, though, and emotions are running very high in Sudan. 
Certainly both the expelled and some remaining NGOs are experiencing 
increased ongoing harassment, theft, and pressure. The regime also 
clearly intends to use the UN/AU presence to its benefit, providing 
it as a convenient political cover for its actions. It remains to be 
seen in the long run, however, whether a regime that frequently and 
clumsily uses brutality and cruelty as a daily political weapon can 
now whip up the mob, work itself into a public frenzy, and still be 
in control of events, and walking this fine line. End comment. 
 
 
FERNANDEZ