For a year now, the Head of State, General Omar Al Beshir, and the Secretary General of the National Congress, Hassan el-Tourabi, have been engaged in a bitter quarrel with a new resurgence in the past month.
We do not want to pass a premature judgement on the outcome of this duel between two clans that are divided above all over divergent interests concerning contradictory conceptions on the tactics to adopt in order to assure the future of the ten-years old system. Still, we can already draw some lessons from this fratricidal conflict:
- The stabilisation and democratisation extolled for two years now, were only decoys aimed at deceiving those abroad who are easily beguiled, mainly some European governments; the 1997 peace agreement signed with six Southern rebel factions ended in a blood bath between these allies of Khartoum: the population of the Upper Nile is their powerless hostage; the 1998 constitution and the so-called  tawali  law on political parties of January 1st 1999, fell apart as soon as news of petrol production and European overture whetted appetites;
- the race between the two holders of power to win favour from the opposition, the conversion to multipartism and the respect of public liberties of these same men who plundged Sudan into a state of misery, intolerance and hatred only deceive those who seek deception. There is absolutely no difference between el Beshir and Tourabi. The former has at least been compelled to admit that he was a member of the Islamist movement since his secondary school days and that he orchestrated his putsch on Tourabi’s orders. He has only too often repeated that political pluralism would never have a place in the Sudan as long as he is alive, consequently, his call for peace and political overture cannot be taken seriously. Should these calls be genuine, one should have to question the reasons behind his terrible colonial war in the South of the country. But still to day, as can be read further on, he proclaims his intention to transform all the country’s primary schools into Koranic schools;
- the positive results of this sometimes latent, sometimes overt duel might be the lessening of   security machinery repression and the opening of a few areas of freedom for Sudan; these will be maintained as long as the army and the   regime thugs continue to hesitate between two clans.
The population in the capital can express their adversion for Tourabi -who has been involved for forty years in all the plots and compromises-, as well as their fear that an even more ferocious military regime would happen.
Concerning both regional stability and internal peace, there is no hope of a solution while an islamic dictatorship is in place at Khartoum whichever clan wins the final round.