official working in Kenya, "but we're not sure yet whether this is just a ploy by the Sudanese to vent rising domestic anger over Israel, or if it's a genuine plan to do something really stupid." "It certainly looks unhelpful," reported the paper, quoting a senior U.S. intelligence source told the Wall Street Journal on April 9 that Bashir’s recent moves have created anxiety in Washington, rekindling doubts about whether Khartoum is sincere in its stated commitment to fight international terrorism. The infrastructure of such a movement was in the process of being dismantled, especially after the September 11 terrorist bombings in the U.S., but could now be on its way back.Ī definite effect of such a reconstitution will be a freeze of the current thawing of relations between the Sudanese government and the U.S., ties which have been warming after Khartoum cooperated in tracking down Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network as part of the international anti-terror coalition forged by U.S. Khartoum is sending a clear signal that, confident the United States will not unleash missiles on the country, Sudan now wants to take tentative steps to retrace its rabid pro-Islamic policies, which will see a revival of the international Islamic movement within its borders. Hence, it is feared that Bashir supports the decision to set up the camp. Although he has not commented publicly on the issue, Bashir is known to be closely aligned to the PDF, which was formed in November 1989 and has been instrumental in the government army crushing the rebel Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) in the country’s civil war.
"This is a call to all parties, institutions, trade unions, students and youths, men and women, to join the camps," he said.Ībbas said that the camps were set up according to a directive by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. In his April 6 statement, he vowed that the PDF, which has been blamed for some of the worst atrocities in the Sudanese civil war, would mobilise all Sudanese people, including women, to protect the Palestinian people and liberate Jerusalem. In the meantime, Abbas has been shrilly issuing instructions on the issue. Some observers say that the Sudanese government is using the Middle East crisis to deflect attention away from the country’s domestic problems. Turabi’s detention makes the calls for an anti-Israeli Jihad very perplexing. Ironically, even as Islamic fundamentalists in Khartoum expressed their glee over the plan, the Sudanese government had firmly stated that it refuses to release the country’s Islamic guru, Hassan al-Turabi, who has been under house arrest for the last two years. Although details of the whole operation were sketchy, it has been observed that the Islamic generals are keen to resume their commitment to the international Islamic movement by offering to deploy Sudanese Islamic fighters and other international brigades to the Middle East.
"The training camps are ready to receive volunteer fighters as from today," Major General Ahmed Abbas, the commander of the pro-government paramilitary Popular Defence Force (PDF), had announced April 6 on Sudan TV. Sudan has now jumped into the fray of Middle East conflict, following the Sudanese government’s recent announcement that it has set up military camps across the country to train volunteers who would join the Palestinian uprising against the current Israeli military occupation of the West Bank.
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