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Sudan to Return Remains of Officers Executed by Bashir Regime

Naba Mohiedeen

   KHARTOUM - TheSudanese militarysaysthe remains of 28 officers who were
   executed three decades agowill be returnedto their families. The men
   were arrested in April 1990 and accused of taking part inacoup plot
   against then-President Omar al-Bashir. Families of the executed
   officersnow want to see Bashir and his aides face justice.

   Abbas Ghalib was an armycolonel when heand 37 other military officers
   were placed under arrest in 1990.

   Ghalib, however,was one of only10 officerswho escaped the death
   penalty.

   Ghalibsays heremembers seeing his fellow officers put on trial in
   Khartoum.

   Ghalib says there were mock trials.He said,"You stand in the court
   ifyouare guilty or not. If yes, the sentence is execution. If not
   guilty, the sentence is also execution. You don't have the right to
   defend yourself or any kind of rights, you don't have any right to
   talk. Once the execution sentencewasissued, they led the officers
   away,chained in handcuffs," he added.

   The executions took place less than a year after Bashirtookpower in a
   1989 military coup. They were intended to eliminatethose who
   opposedBashir and hisIslamistgovernment.

   Last week,thepublic prosecutor charged Bashir and a group of his aides
   with undermining Sudan's constitutional order through the 1989 coup.

   That was welcome news to Khartoum resident Mohamed Bashir, the son of
   one of the officersexecuted. When his father, Lieutenant Colonel Bashir
   AbuDeek, wasput to death, Mohamed was only four years old.

   He has maintained a dream of achieving justice for his father ever
   since.

   MohamedBashir says he has been waiting for this day for thepast30
   years, to finally find the remains of the martyrs, to know how the
   trial went and the conditions they went through.Bashir says these have
   beentheir demands for the past 30 years.

   Colonel Ghalib was spared death only through luck and pressure by the
   military to stop the executions. In the end, he spent three years in
   prison.

   Ghalib says hesupports efforts to hold Bashir accountable for his
   crimes andto turnSudan into a viable democracy.

   Ghalib says their main goal was to restore democracy, legitimacy for
   the exited political parties and finding a constitutional draft
   determining the democratic governance structures in Sudanin addition
   toestablishingapolitically unbiased army,along withpolice and other
   forces.

   Last month, the military announced it will upgrade the ranks of the
   executed officers to restore their honor.

   But that is just a first step for Ghalib and the families of
   theexecuted officers. They want the officers' bodies returned for a
   proper burial, and for the executioners tofacetrial.

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