00:04 Samah Bushra: … opportunity to voice what's happening back in my country. [I'll] first [give] a quick timeline of what's happening now, and when it started, and what happened along the way. In addition to being in a dictatorship by Omar al-Bashir and his government for about 30 years — as the professor [?] said, it started many years ago. So this revolution started many years ago, and the main two uprisings were in 2011 and in 2013.
00:34 In 2011 it started with people protesting against the increase of basic goods prices, and that was coming with the political situation, and people were angry because the primary [?] results of the South Sudan referendum were out, and it's obvious South Sudan was going to separate from Sudan. This was the general atmosphere. I was in Sudan at that time, and I went out with other Sudanese people on the 31st January. We got arrested by the police, and lots of people injured, and girls being raped as well in that event. But this ended because there was not enough response from all the people, like now.
01:38 Then in 2013 it was very strong, and the Sudanese people — in September there were big protests in Khartoum and the regions, and confrontation with the police, and the police shot lots of people, and lots of school teenagers and children were involved as well, and over 200 people [?] were killed in that uprising. So 2013 was the start of organised work to overthrow the al-Bashir regime. And so committees to support families of the victims started to be established, and organised work to document what's happening, and legal committees to support the detainees and injured people, and to start suing police members who were involved in the killing. So that was the start of organised work.
03:12 Now, last year, in 2018, which is the current revolution — it actually started on the 13th of December, and started in the regions, in Blue Nile State, and then went to the [inaudible] state, and then it became [?] all over Sudan. And the start of it was that people reached — like, life became like at a zero point. People can't go to work, to universities, because there is no transport, because there is no fuel. And also, for example, my mum, she's a teacher, and she can't get her salary, because there is no money in the banks. And lots of people, they can't get their salaries, because there is no money, no bread.
03:47 So the people who were not [?] getting out with other people in the previous uprising — at that time, in December 2018, they decided to go out. So it started from here, because everyone went with their reasons. So the Sudanese Professionals Association, they took the leadership. And this Sudanese [?] Professionals Association, it's been established actually in 2012, but then it went through developments, and the main developments were in 2014 and then recently in 2018. And there are lots of unions and associations in it — doctors, teachers, pharmacists, artists, engineers — and they made a network and liaised with the trade unions.
05:20 So the Sudanese Professionals Association, as the professor [?] said, they liaised with some of the opposition parties, and they made the Declaration of Freedom and Change, which is now leading the whole movement. So on the 6th of April — which is the memory of the 6th of April 1985, the revolution against the dictator Jaafar Nimeiri — people gathered, and they suggested to go and do protests and go to the Ministry of Defence, which is also around there the residence of the president and the headquarters of the Sudan National Army. And when people went there, they succeeded to go there — we're like thousands of people. Then they decided to do a big sit-in there, which started in April, and sadly it ended on the 3rd of June with the big massacre that everyone saw.
06:25 And actually, early morning, like 4 o'clock in Sudan, people went live on Facebook, and we could see them. They are saying there are big forces coming, please help us, and if you are in your homes, come there. And actually lots of people from their houses in Khartoum, they went to the area of the sit-in, and some of them got shot and killed there. So this event stopped the negotiations which were going on between the opposition — the Freedom and Change forces — and the Military Council. So according to the Doctors' Association, on the 3rd of June itself — so on the 3rd of June itself, more than 122 people got killed, just in these 4 hours, and over 40 people got raped. Most of them are females, but there are males as well. So it was really a very, very, very sad day for all people in Sudan.
08:35 So the negotiation stopped. But there have been some mediators — maybe you know about the Ethiopian initiative, and also the IGAD initiative. The Arab League, the League of Arab States [?], also came to Sudan to do an initiative, but it wasn't popular, because people already in Sudan, they think the Arab countries are not very supportive now, especially what's happening from the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, because they got the Sudanese army to go and fight for them there in Yemen, and they provided them with lots of arms and cars. And when this event of the 3rd of June happened, we got lots of videos and pictures, and the cars that these militias are using still have the stickers from Saudi Arabia. So it is obvious — they may, I don't know, I don't think that's too big, 'cause they still have the stickers there — so you could see it is coming from Saudi Arabia, you could see it is coming from the Emirates.
10:10 So the Ethiopian initiative as well, it's failed, because the Military Council, they rejected it. At the same time the Freedom and Change forces, they accepted it. The Military Council said they want to merge the Ethiopian initiative with the [?] initiative, which happened yesterday. [interruption] So they merged them together, and so this initiative now says seven people from the Military Council in the main government, seven people from the civilians, and the president is a civilian, who is the eighth person. And also the Parliament: 67% for the Freedom and Change forces, 33 per cent [?] for other parties which didn't [?] participate in Omar al-Bashir's government. The transitional period three years.
11:51 But obviously now — this was yesterday night — so it is not clear whether the Military Council will accept it or not. But the Military Council went and announced a call to meet with the opposition armed movements, and it is expected they want to form a government with them. So it's not clear yet. So the situation is very critical, actually.
12:22 For me and for many of my fellow Sudanese people, we could see the international community is very important — the support of the international community. But at the latest meeting of the Security Council, we could see that some countries, like China and Russia, they block any decision that can help Sudan. So the Western countries — we could see also many ambassadors, they came on media, especially the UK ambassador, and they called today for the Military Council to hand the government to the civilians. Personally, I see it's not enough for us that these countries just talk, because there are lots of things — I think there is pressure, if they really want to support. For example, the selling of the arms: if you sell arms to Saudi Arabia, to the Emirates, and then, you know, they take it and they give it to the Military Council.
14:00 So also I wonder, personally, what is the situation of the European Union, because all of us, we know that they are supporting — we call them the Rapid Support Forces — in the Khartoum Process, which is they support these people with money to guard the borders, to block the immigrants who go from Africa to come through Sudan and Libya and then come to Europe. So also I wonder about the position of the European Union here. And for me it's not enough only to go on media and talk about supporting people in Sudan.
15:03 I want to talk also very quickly about some lessons that we, the Sudanese people, learned from the Arab uprisings, from our neighbours. So we learned from Egypt that we need to confront the military — actually, it's not armed confrontation, because this is the lesson that we learned from Libya and Syria. So we are peaceful [?] — our revolution is peaceful. We don't want to go to any conflict that we are part of. But also, as I say, we learned from Egypt now we need to stand by our decision and our revolution, and not just go home — as well as we know Omar al-Bashir is gone, and just we go home like the Egyptians.
16:06 So yeah, lastly, the main [?] danger [?] that I can see here now in our situation in Sudan is internal. And actually there is an African proverb, it says: when there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do no harm. So we know there is Saudi Arabia, there is the Emirates, and there are lots of other countries working against what the Sudanese people want, but they can't [?] defeat all that if the politicians inside Sudan are united. And there are some opportunist politicians, even inside the opposition — sometimes they work for their own interests, not for the people's interest. And also the national army — our national army now in Sudan is totally not supporting people, and they're just going behind the Military Council.
17:42 So the last thing I want to say: although what's happening, I'm optimistic, because I know people broke the fear. And everyone now — like, people who didn't want to protest or to go out years ago, when I was in Sudan, when we were protesting, some people came and they pushed us and they said, you are just young people, you are wasting your time, you are making noise, you are blocking the road. But now I could see everyone, everyone went out. It's just a matter of time. Thank you. [applause]
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