From Voice of America
A Sudanese-American politician who organized recent anti-government protests in Sudan remained missing Friday, two days after disappearing on the streets of the capital, Khartoum, his wife said.
Rudwan Dawod, a political activist with the group Sudan of the Future Campaign, vanished hours before large protests were slated to begin Thursday, Nancy Dawod said.
Nancy Dawod, who lives in Eugene, Ore., said she learned of her husband’s arrest through a Sudanese lawyer who told her that he and Rudwan Dawod had been arrested together, but Sudanese authorities released the lawyer because he had no prior arrests.
Nancy Dawod said the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum was trying to call Sudanese authorities to confirm her husband’s whereabouts and that officials would go to the headquarters of the National Intelligence and Security Services on Saturday morning to request access to all American citizens being detained in Sudan.
Nancy Dawod said the lawyer, who prefers not to be identified for safety reasons, claimed he had been beaten around his head. She said she feared for her husband’s safety.
“I’m pretty worried about him. Because of his love for the people there, he just continues the struggle and is usually out in front,” she said, adding she was “hoping and praying” security forces would not harm her husband. “Because he is such a well-known public figure, I’m hoping he will be treated better.”
Nancy Dawod said she also hopedpressure from the United States would help ensure his safety.
Previous arrests
Rudwan Dawod was arrested shortly before Christmas in Sudan, then released. He was arrested on another occasion last year and detained for close to six weeks, Nancy Dawod said. He was never charged with a crime during either arrest, she added.
Rudwan Dawod returned to Sudan about two years ago.
Nancy Dawod said she, her husbandand their 6-year-old daughter, Sudan, are U.S. citizens. Dawod said she spoke to her husband a few hours before his arrest but that he was being “very cautious,” knowing that his arrest was “something that we knew could happen.”
Nancy Dawod said her husband was a candidate for first vice president of Sudan until his Sudan of the Future Campaign withdrew from elections scheduled for 2020. She said they stood with other opposition political parties “to end [Sudanese President Omar al-]Bashir’s brutal regime and enter into a transitional government” until a democratic election is held.
Plea to U.S.
Nancy Dawod called on the U.S. officials “to pivot their policy on Sudan and to support freedom and justice there,” adding there is “no betting with this bloody regime. It needs to end.”
For nearly four weeks, protesters have been demanding the resignation of Bashir, who has said that will not happen.
The U.S. decided to remove economic sanctions on Sudan last October.
Sudan’s economy has been in crisis for several months, with inflation soaring and people struggling to survive.
The protests began over rising prices for bread and fuel and morphed into a demand for Bashir to give up his 30-year autocratic rule over Sudan. Bashir has withstood large-scale protests before.
Nadia Taha contributed to this report.
zoe morgan sydney says
Ranked Ballot will give us A PERFECT MARRIAGE OF Red, Brown, Black, Purple & Yellow, Freedom with an eye for Justice & Justice with an eye for Freedom, Woman & Man, Frugality & Liberality, Tradition & Modernity, Young & Old, Rich & Poor, Left & Right, Self-interest & Idealism, City & Country, & Palestinian & Jew, Women’s Equal Representation, an Ecological Politics, All Powers to their Lowest Appropriate Level, PRACTICABLE, Instant, FULFILLED Democracy EVERYWHERE & something all can unite behind.
Because it gives an equal chance of winning to not just all parties, but all combinations of programs, Ranked Ballot, voters ranking candidates in order of preference, is simultaneously both most Just AND most Free. (See Preferentiality on Yahoo Groups. (PREFER-entiality. PREFERENTIAL-ity.) for what RB might & might not accomplish.) Because of this great light in the eyes of the world & cause it always takes its majority from the middle (while giving an equal chance to all PROPOSALS, on a case by case basis, not just one every eight years & to all VIEWPOINTS to sway the mass in their direction) RB is more top-dead-center counter-extremist than all the many recent retrenchments combined.
Here’s a HOW TO: Let everyone for Ranked Ballot write it in, in EVERY election, (leastwise for their least significant contest), let all for RB, particularly students & professors, churches & other local associations, with their great proximity & pre-existing democratic organization, install RB locally, try to get on the ballot to run on the single issue, ask those who’ve signed their petition to petition for them as well, promise a Citizens’ Advisory Board based on RB-based “Organized Communications” (OC), do local bulk mailings, demand a response from office holders to RB, vote for those supporting RB, tell all their friends about RB, help publicize RB (a full page US national ad would be sufficient to put RB to all the world, assuring that everyone knows that everyone knows about RB, making it impossible to ignore (as big media did in the case of the 2016 victory in Maine (including PBS) &/or see preferentiality on yahoo groups. (If you’re paranoid, & I know you are, these are things you can do without going outside your comfort zone. This general paranoia is the biggest reason why it is important that MJ be decriminalized, to free us to talk with each other, asap. Not only are the current laws robbing us of our current Freedom, but they’re undermining Freedom in general in the future.)
The (simplest to explain & sufficient for all good purposes, requiring no legislation to accomplish) “additive” form of (Single Member District) RB is counting the first choices & then, if no-one has 50%, adding in the next, & so on, til someone finally does. Running on the single issue of RB, promising a Citizens Advisory Board, randomly assigned discussion groups electing reps (by RB) to higher & higher random levels, til one small group remains, most in the middle, will give us instant practicable fulfilled Democracy everywhere (& could even make insecure electronic voting unnecessary).
RB will give us Practicable, Instant, Fulfilled Democracy Everywhere, a PERFECT MARRIAGE OF Woman & Man, Red, Brown, Black, Purple & Yellow, Tradition & Modernity, Young & Old, Frugality & Liberality, Rich & Poor, Left & Right, Freedom with an eye for Justice & Justice with an eye for Freedom, Self-interest & Idealism, City & Country, & Palestinian & Jew, All Powers to Their Lowest Appropriate Level, Right (ALL ENCOMPASSING) Action (The Buddhist Eightfold Path is right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness & right union with the most high), A Head for the Headless (Tech) Beast & The True Commonwealth of Sharing the Work. RB (should the PEOPLE so decide) might give us truly anything, from Sharing The Work (the workweek attached to the unemployment rate), Through Women’s Equal Representation (one of each district’s (two) reps a woman), ALL THE WAY TO replacing public education with having to prove literacy to vote (freeing teachers to make all their charges into independent learners, besides theusual babysitting role, now that there’s 24/7, infinitely reiterative teaching machines, aka cell phones). Party &/or public funded campaigns will undermine all rationale for authoritarianism, removing all cause for fear of usurpation by monied interests. While PUBLICLY financed campaigns might be difficult to accomplish, there is nothing preventing the Dems, or other “Democracist” parties from doing so in THEIR primaries. Running it on the web would save tons.
STW, the work week attached to the unemployment rate, will make politics way less relevant (& maybe even end the simmering neo cold war through its marriage of communal action & free market). STW is what’s best for BOTH all workers & all bosses. (The legislature might, for instance, set a small % by which the pay for each additional hour beyond the first hour’s agreed upon rate would be increased, making employers give less OT & hire more new workers so as to spread the work around, thereby sharing it.) This will end both too-big-to-fail & any need for make-work or foot dragging, motivating maximum productivity & giving us TRUE full employment.
FDR (or Bismarck?) gave us the 40-hour week, so this is not unprecedented.
The % difference between a 40 & 35-hour week is greater than the unemployment rate at the depths of the recent Great Recession. Workers, always having the prospect of more work, would, with a minimum of PR, take to being as (creatively!) productive as possible, eliminating large parts of the welfare state & lots of management, maybe even the need for standing armies, with all the consequent savings. Had we had such a scheme, at the start of the recent Great Recession, no-one would have seen any need for spending trillions to save giant corporations. Perhaps STW would make government so small it might be hard to find volunteers to do the job. It will cause other countries to adopt a similar plan to stay competitive (& drop costly plans to dominate the world) & the current US duopoly to let go of their own (structural) authoritarianism. Whoever adopts STW first will outstrip all others. With STW, employers would still have the right to fire for laziness or incompetence & hire for less or more than the standard work week. There’d soon be more free time, greater productivity & wealth, as well as more opportunity for individuals to start their own businesses &/or improve their skills. (Meanwhile everyone works hardest when they work for themselves.) STW is not mere “full” employment, or just a workers’ job market, but an actual Commonwealth. We’d be working half as hard for twice the wealth in no time. It will be the end of poverty. Once the rich realize they don’t have to pay all that freight for exclusivity, & that RB will give us All Powers To Their Lowest Appropriate Level, they’ll be leading the parade.
The recent win for RB in Maine, the FIRST RIGHT-LEANING PLACE to adopt it, will be tranformative. RB will allow truly anything from STW, (through Women’s Equal Representation, WER, one of each districts’ reps a woman, the only permanent affirmative category) all the way to replacing public education with having to prove literacy to vote (now that learning is universally valued & there’s mobile, broadband, 24/7, infinitely reiterative teaching machines, aka cellphones, should the people so decide. Teachers will have more time to focus on turning all their charges into independent learners, besides the usual babysitting. (RB also won in Benton County Oregon at the same time.)
RB is the answer to all things. It will give us the breathing room to sit back & work out all the details at our leisure, secure in the knowledge that whatever the result, there will be maximum Freedom AND maximum Justice, but it will not change the essence of anyplace that adopts it, only give more nuance. No program could possibly be worth more. Men do not light a light & set it under a bushel. The lodestar of RB must be kept in mind in relation to all individuals, advocates, politicians & policies. RSVP. Tell us where we’re wrong.