Sudan: A Pre-Election Coup Uncovered

The March 1996 visit to Sudan for elections coincided with reports of a coup plot. As I discovered, diplomats in Khartoum viewed the discovery of this new plot as another sign the country's Islamic leaders were not as secure in their grip on power as the staging of national elections might suggest.

A top Sudanese political official has dismissed the coup plot involving dissident army officers as a minor affair which resulted in a few arrests.

The influential Secretary General of Sudan's National Congress, Ghazi Salaheddin, characterizes the plot as amateurish and says the attempt never posed a serious threat to the government headed by General Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

“That was a very minor thing, so it was not a very major, threatening attempt and it seems that the officers who were involved were rather amateurish in the way they handled the coup attempt.”

Mr. Ghazi, regarded as a powerful figure in the current Sudanese political system, gives no details about the plot other than to say a few people were arrested.

Sudanese opposition sources speaking on condition of anonymity say they heard 15 people were arrested, but claim the leader of the group, a colonel, escaped and is still at large. These sources also charge it is unclear whether there was a bona fide coup plan or whether authorities simply moved against suspected dissident elements in the military.

On the surface, the Bashir government, which seized power in a 1989 coup of its own, appears confident enough about the future that it is currently conducting national Presidential and Parliamentary elections. Opposition parties, banned since the military takeover, are boycotting the poll and General Bashir and his supporters are certain to retain power.

But diplomats in Khartoum, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the official admission this week that there was a coup plot underscores their belief that Sudan's Islamic authorities are not secure and no longer in full control of the army.

They say additional evidence to support this view comes in the form of new and credible information that army units in at least two places in southern Sudan have mutinied.

The dissent is linked to opposition to the ongoing civil war in the south -- a more than decade-old conflict with predominantly Christian and Animist rebel groups that has proven costly to Khartoum in both money and manpower.

The diplomats say they also believe the recent crash of a Sudanese C-130 military transport plane outside the capital was caused by a suspicious explosion. They say it may have been the result of sabotage carried out by disgruntled elements within the military.

This portrait of an internal threat to Sudanese authorities comes at a time when the Khartoum government is also facing increasing international condemnation about its alleged support for foreign terrorist groups.

Officials here categorically reject charges that they host, sponsor, or train terrorists and rebels from abroad. But there appears to be at least some concern that this week's scheduled anti-terrorism conference in Egypt may once again put Sudan in the international spotlight.

The National Congress Secretary General, Mr. Ghazi, claims Sudan is being demonized in the west and says he views the conference in Sharm el-Sheikh with suspicion.

But diplomats say that in recent weeks Sudanese authorities have privately given them direct and indirect assurances that they are taking steps to lower the profile and even reduce the presence in Sudan of militant Islamic groups. They say these include Hamas, which maintains an office in Khartoum and which has been linked to recent deadly terrorist bombings in Israel.