Sudan An Early-Morning Coup

The first indication of a coup was an ominous radio silence in the predawn hours of Friday. Then at 8 a.m., Radio Omdurman, Sudan's official station, resumed with martial music, followed by a solemn announcement: "The June Revolution has come to restore to the Sudanese citizen his injured dignity and rebuild the Sudan of the future."

Thus calmly and apparently bloodlessly, the three-year-old civilian government of Prime Minister Sadiq el Mahdi was toppled late last week. Although the timing was unexpected, the coup came as no surprise. The armed forces had demonstrated unusual restraint during the Prime Minister's ineffectual reign, which neither advanced a political settlement in the savage six-year-old civil war nor dealt with the country's vicious poverty and famine. Speaking for the rebellious forces, Brigadier Omar Hassan Ahmed el Bashir said el Mahdi had "wasted the country's time and squandered its energies with much talk and policy vacillation."

There were few signs of disturbance in the dusty, sunbaked capital of Khartoum. Paratroop and armored units surrounded the presidential palace and government ministries. The city's international airport and key bridges were closed, but communications lines remained open. The Egyptian-owned Middle East News Agency reported the arrest of some officials, but there was no immediate word on el Mahdi's whereabouts.

The restlessness of the military became public last February when the army issued an ultimatum to el Mahdi: Seek peace with the rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, or resign. In response, the Prime Minister formed a new coalition government and made overtures to the SPLA. A cease-fire followed, but the two sides failed to reach agreement.

One reason for the impasse was el Mahdi's refusal to lift the state of emergency imposed after the ouster of President Gaafar Nimeiri in 1985. El Mahdi also ignored demands by the predominantly Christian rebels for nullification of the Shari'a, the Islamic law that imposes harsh penalties like amputation and stoning for even minor crimes. Army officers were further angered by el Mahdi's mismanagement of Sudan's economic crisis, which has saddled Sudan with a $13 billion foreign debt.

Ironically, the coup was preceded by weeks of rumors in Cairo that the exiled Nimeiri would soon stage a comeback, but his desire to return to power seems unrelated to last week's revolt. It was apparently a homegrown plot led by impatient brigadier generals, not the senior command. The political direction of the new regime is uncertain, but the draconian nature of its decrees indicates that the new leadership means business. Its first orders: the dissolution of parliament and political parties, a ban on political opposition, the disbanding of labor unions and the cancellation of newspaper licenses.