The Middle East Channel Editor’s Reader, #5
Last week’s outbreak
of the largest wave of popular protests in Sudan in nearly two decades has
opened up the possibility for change in one of the cruelest regimes in the
Middle East and Africa. Few regimes are
more deserving of popular challenge than that of Omar Bashir, who should long
since have been in custody in the Hague answering for his indictment by the
International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur.
The "Arab spring" is hardly needed to account for the
protests in Khartoum, which has a long history of popular uprisings, but it certainly frames the perception and politics of what is unfolding. The current wave of protests were triggered
by austerity measures, including cuts to food subsidies, in a tenuous political arena framed by the tensions
surrounding the new South Sudan.
Activists, especially students who had been trying to keep protests
alive for over a year and a half, have moved creatively to embrace the
online communications and organizational tactics made familiar by the Arab uprisings
of the last year and a half. The tortuous path of popular struggles in Syria,
Yemen and so many other Arab countries following early waves of enthusiasm
should be a cautionary tale about overly high expectations. But Sudan’s rising protest movement in the
face of a growing crackdown clearly merits the world’s attention.[[BREAK]]
Foreign Policy
has been on top of this rapidly developing story. For the latest coverage and analysis, see:
Amir Ahmed Nasr, aka
@Sudanese_Thinker, Sudan
Needs a Revolution
Christian Caryl, The
Sudanese Stand Up
Sigurd Thorsen, Sandstorm
Friday
And don’t miss this
outstanding slideshow of photos from the Sudanese protests.
For background beyond Foreign
Policy, The Middle East Channel
recommends:
- Khaled Medani, Understanding
the Prospects and Challenges for Another Popular Intifada in Sudan
(Jadaliyya) and Strife
and Seccession in Sudan (Journal of Democracy) — insights from one of the
best scholarly Sudan experts - Asmaa el-Husseini, Sudan’s Imminent Uprising
(Al-Ahram Weekly) - Abdelwahhab El-Affendi, Revolutionary
anatomy: the lessons of the Sudanese revolutions of October 1964 and April 1985
(Contemporary Arab Affairs) — essential background on Sudan’s history of
popular upheaval - Gerard Prunier, Darfur:
A 21st Century Genocide (Cornell University Press) —remains an
authoritative reference on that internal conflict - The Economist, "The
Spectre of Sudan’s Popular Uprisings" – prescient short note from February
2011 - Top Twitter feeds for the Sudan protests — prepared by Carol Jean Gallo for UN Dispatch
We will update with useful articles as they cross my desk.
– Marc Lynch, June
26, 2012
