Wikileaks: VP Taha & Gosh appear open to removing Sudan’s Bashir
Article
Comments (9)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
September 4, 2011 (WASHINGTON) – The Sudanese vice president Ali Osman
Taha and former director of the National Intelligence and Security
Services (NISS) Salah Gosh acknowledged that President Omer Hassan
al-Bashir has become a liability in the wake of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) move against him, a Wikileaks cable shows.
JPEG - 31.7 kb
Former director of the National and Intelligence Security Services
(NISS) Salah Gosh (L), Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir (C),
Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha (R)
According to the November 2008 document, the then Sudanese foreign
minister Deng Alor told the U.S. charge d’affaires Alberto Fernandez
of two separate meetings that he had had with Taha and Gosh following
a visit to Khartoum and Juba by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
A week prior to that, Alor himself had travelled to Cairo where he met
with Mubarak, foreign minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit and intelligence
chief Omer Suleiman.
It was only four months after the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo
presented his case against Bashir to the court’s judges and the ruling
National Congress Party (NCP) was scrambling to fend off regional and
international pressure but in the process seemed to have resulted also
in divisions on how to deal with an indicted Bashir.
Taha asked Alor at a meeting on November 11, 2008 for more insight
into the Egyptian view on Sudan by saying "Ahlak al-Misriyeen, keif
[How are your people the Egyptians]?"?
Alor explained to Taha that "the Egyptians are genuinely worried about
Sudan and think we are approaching the ICC issue in a wrong way".
The Sudanese Vice president reportedly agreed that the Sudan People’s
Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Egyptians are probably right about
the ICC "but the President won’t listen to reason”.
Taha’s position contrasted sharply with what a senior government
official toldSudan Tribune in July 2008 that the VP opposed handing
two other ICC suspects “on the grounds of preserving Sudan’s
sovereignty”.
But another official in Sudan’s presidency confided to Sudan Tribune
that Taha was on board regarding extraditing former state minister of
interior Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kushayb.
Alor also had a two-hour meeting with Sudan’s spy chief on November
12, 2008 who expressed fears that the Egyptians may be conspiring with
officers within the Sudanese army to find a military replacement for
Bashir.
"We both know that the warrant is coming, anything could happen here
at any time." Alor quoted Gosh as saying.
"Can we allow the whole country to be destroyed because of one
person?" Gosh said which prompted a question from Alor on who was he
referring to and the spy chief admitted it was Bashir.
Alor responded by telling Gosh "You better take off your jacket
because you must be wearing a wire".
GOSH PROMOTING TAHA TO TAKE OVER FROM BASHIR
Gosh called on Alor to have the SPLM engage more closely with Taha,
"Ali Osman is a good person, he is a statesman” and suggested that he
spend more time with him.
"Ali likes you. He is not as comfortable around Salva Kiir who doesn’t
talk when he is angry." Gosh suggested to Alor that "both the SPLM and
NISS don’t like the military," a suggestion that the the foreign
minister rejected, adding "we are neutral in the SPLM. We made a deal
with a party not an individual."
Gosh cryptically remarked that "some of our [NCP] people are cowards,
they don’t want to take bold action." He noted that, "if something
happens, [presidential assistant Nafie Ali] Nafie and [Finance
minister Awad] Al-Jaz will not be factors, they will follow," the
implication being that they will follow Taha.
Most observers in Khartoum believe that Taha has long been planning to
take over from his boss with the aid of NISS chief as they belong to
the same Shaygiyya tribe. The ICC warrant issued in March 2009 further
fueled this speculation.
However, in August 2009 Bashir abruptly sacked Gosh and made him his
security adviser before again firing him in April of this year. He was
also stripped of his leadership positions at the NCP.
BASHIR UNDER PRESSURE
Alor said that during his visit to Cairo, the Egyptians conveyed to
him that Bashir is increasingly isolated with only some of the senior
professional officers in Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) loyal to Bashir, but
they are not really in charge of most of the military.
Both Alor and Mubarak commiserated about the time when Bashir
attempted to replace Gosh with retired Army General Al-Fatih Erwa,
former Sudanese ambassador at the United Nations, issuing a decree
reinstating him as a Lieutenant General in preparation for placing him
as director of NISS.
But Bashir was confronted by VP Taha, Nafie, Al-Jaz, Minister of
Defense Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein and Presidential Affairs Minister
Bakri Hassan Salih and told the Sudanese president that appointing
Erwa was a party "red line" for them.
The Sudanese leader was forced to reverse his order after 24 hours.
The Egyptian president told Alor that "when a President makes a
mistake, he corrects it but waits a while to show that he is in
charge, Bashir couldn’t do that".
The US embassy cable notes that Erwa is a “secularist former head of
security in the Nimeiri regime, who worked closely with the USG in
moving thousands of Falasha Jews from Mengistu’s Ethiopia to Israel in
the 1980s. Perceived as an "old army buddy" of Bashir, he also has
clashed in the past with the civilian Islamists”.
EGYPTIAN CONCERNED ABOUT A PALACE COUP
Mubarak said that he advised his Sudanese counterpart that he should
seek engagement with the ICC to find a way out.
"You need both horses, or you won’t win the race." Mubarak said before
adding legal advisors told him that there is no way that Bashir can
avoid an arrest warrant being issued.
He said that he had dispatched a legal expert, Mohyideen Surur, who
participated in the writing of the Rome Statute, to try to talk sense
to Khartoum, noting "the NCP will pay dearly by refusing to deal with
the ICC. They have less than two months left to get out of this."
Mubarak added that no one will come to Sudan’s help on the United
Nations Security Council (UNSC) to get an Article 16 deferral if the
Sudanese don’t recognize the process. Alor said that Mubarak had
delivered the same grim prognosis privately to Bashir on November 10
in Khartoum.
“Al-Bashir Miskeen [Bashir is a sore sight]", Mubarak said.
The Egyptian spy chief on the other hand told Alor that Cairo is
"worried of the possibility of a palace coup" in the next few months
in Khartoum. He referred to Bashir’s former ally Hassan al-Turabi as a
possible instigator of such an attempt "but his chances are slim."
Suleiman said that Bashir is steadily and quietly losing control to a
clique led by VP Taha, supported by NISS chief Salah Gosh. The two of
them, in conjunction with Jaz and Nafie, are consolidating power.
He said Taha is using the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ali
Karti to be his liaison with SAF. Karti, who used to be a Popular
Defense Force (PDF) leader during the civil war has maintained his
ties to much of the army.
Suleiman said that Nafie and Gosh are not security rivals but allies
and said Finance Minister Al-Jaz oversees the party security
apparatus.
"Even the police doesn’t really report to the Interior Minister" but
through a private firm called the Nasr Company to Taha. Nonetheless
Suleiman stressed that Egypt prefers Bashir or another army officer
and fear that the "real Islamists" will take over soon in Sudan.
"We didn’t allow them in Egypt, we throw them in jail here, and we
don’t want them next door. Taha is acceptable, for now, but he will
change once he takes power,” the Egyptian spy chief said.
Following the toppling of Mubarak’s regime, Bashir lashed out at the
deposed leader saying that Sudan has "endured a lot of harm [from both
countries Egypt and Libya]".
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has lost his grip on power in the last
few weeks but, unlike Egypt, through a peaceful uprising that turned
into an armed rebellion.
Egypt and Libya were also the first countries to receive Bashir after
the ICC judges issued an arrest warrant for him.
(ST)
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD
info" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
