TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2019 The Boston Globe TheWorld A
By Mohammed Daraghmeh
and Joseph Krauss
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RAMALLAH, West Bank —
The US Embassy in Jerusalem
on Monday was forced to post-
pone a conference it organized
in the city of Ramallah after
Palestinian officials and fac-
tions called for a boycott and
threatened to organize protests.
The Palestinians cut all ties
with the United States after it
recognized disputed Jerusalem
as the capital of Israel in 2017,
and view the Trump adminis-
tration as unfairly biased fol-
lowing a series of actions seen
as hostile to their aspirations
for an independent state.
The embassy had organized
a conference this week to bring
together alumni of US educa-
tional and cultural programs,
including dozens of Palestin-
ians from the Gaza Strip who
received permission from Israel
to attend. The territory has
been under an Israeli-Egyptian
blockade since the Islamic mili-
tant group Hamas seized power
there in 2007.
The Palestinian leadership
viewed the conference as an at-
tempt to circumvent its boycott
of the US administration.
‘‘We are aware of recent
statements regarding a planned
event for alumni of US educa-
tional and cultural programs,’’
the US Embassy said. ‘‘In order
to avoid the Palestinian partici-
pants being put in a difficult sit-
uation, we have decided to
postpone the event for now.’’
It said this and other events
‘‘are designed to create oppor-
tunities for exchange and dia-
logue between Americans and
Palestinians at the grassroots
level.’’ ‘‘This event in particular
is intended to give alumni of all
ages and backgrounds from Je-
rusalem, the West Bank and
Gaza an opportunity to net-
work with each other and to en-
gage in leadership and capacity
building activities,’’ it said.
Israel captured east Jerusa-
lem, the West Bank, and Gaza
in the 1967 Mideast war, terri-
tories the Palestinians want for
their future state. The Trump
administration is at work on a
long-awaited peace plan, but
has not endorsed a two-state so-
lution to the conflict. The Pales-
tinians have already dismissed
the plan, saying it is certain to
be slanted toward Israel.
Representatives of several
Palestinian factions held a press
conference Monday at the hotel
where the meeting was to have
taken place. Spokesman Isam
Baker told The Associated Press
that the Palestine Liberation
Organization, an umbrella
group, had reached out to the
hotel and the invitees asking
them to boycott the meeting.
‘‘Most of the invitees and the
hotel administration agreed
with us that the invitation has
political implications and it is
not innocent,’’ he said.
‘‘The US administration,
which has cut off all aid to our
people, shut down our office in
Washington, and placed huge
pressure on our leadership to
accept a pro-Israel political
plan will not do any good for
our people,’’ he said. ‘‘There-
fore, we are boycotting any ac-
tivities it organizes.’’
The United States cut more
than $200 million in develop-
ment aid to the Palestinians last
year, gutting several longrun-
ning programs.
A statement released Sun-
day by the ‘‘national and Islam-
ic forces of the Ramallah gover-
norate’’ said they were deter-
mined to thwart the
conference, calling it an at-
tempt to ‘‘break the will of the
Palestinian people.’’By Declan Walsh
NEW YORK TIMES
Sudan’s deposed leader,
Omar al-Bashir, told investiga-
tors that he had received $
million from Saudi Arabia, a
Khartoum court heard Monday
during the opening of al-
Bashir’s keenly anticipated trial
on corruption charges.
A senior police officer testi-
fied that al-Bashir, who was
ousted in April after months of
street protests, had admitted to
receiving part of the money
from envoys sent by the Saudi
crown prince, Mohammed bin
Salman. The remainder came
during the reign of King Abdul-
lah, who died in 2015.
Al-Bashir was confined to a
cage and surrounded by uni-
formed security officials for the
two-hour hearing, in a sight few
Sudanese could have imagined
during al-Bashir’s 30 years in
power. The former leader spoke
only to confirm his name, age,
and residence. His lawyer dis-
missed the accusations.
It was a dramatic start to a
trial that has come to signify
the momentous changes under-
way in Sudan since al-Bashir
was ousted in April. Many Su-
danese hope to sweep away the
vestiges of al-Bashir’s period of
rule, when Sudan endured nu-
merous internal revolts, be-
came an international pariah,
and was subjected to US sanc-
tions. More recently the coun-
try suffered a crushing econom-
ic collapse that spurred the up-
rising against him.
Even so, most Sudanese say
the revolution is incomplete.
Al-Bashir, 75, has yet to face
charges in the most serious ac-cusationsagainsthim,includ-
ing genocide and war crimes.
And some of his closest lieuten-
ants have retained their grip on
power.
On Saturday, Sudan’s mili-
tary and civilian leaders signed
a power-sharing deal to run the
country jointly for the next
three years until elections can
be held. A transitional govern-
ment run by civilians, with a se-
nior general in charge, is sched-
uled to assume power Sept. 1.
The generals, most of whom
owe their careers to al-Bashir,
insist they will not send him to
The Hague to stand trial at the
International Criminal Court,
where he faces a decade-old in-
dictment on charges of geno-
cide, war crimes, and crimes
against humanity.
Those charges stem from a
brutal campaign in the western
region of Darfur in which up to
300,000 people were killed.
Many of the generals who led
that campaign, including the
head of a notorious paramili-
tary unit, are expected to hold
senior positions in the newpower-sharing government.
The account in Monday’s
hearing of large personal pay-
ments from Saudi royalty also
highlighted the enduring influ-
ence of one of the richest coun-
tries in the region on one of the
poorest.
Saudi Arabia and its ally, the
United Arab Emirates, backed
al-Bashir, who sent thousands
of troops to support the Saudi-
led war campaign in Yemen.
But the Saudis and Emiratis
quickly switched sides after al-
Bashir was ousted, offering a $
billion aid package to the mili-
tary junta that toppled him.
The trial being held in Khar-
toum, the Sudanese capital, fo-
cuses on corruption charges.
Al-Bashir arrived at the
courthouse in a large military
convoy. As he arrived in the
courtroom he waved his hand
to supporters, who responded
with cries of “God is great.”
It was striking to see al-
Bashir — for decades one of the
great survivors among African
autocrats — take a seat inside a
cage. He smiled as he listed hisplace of residence as Kober
prison, a facility in Khartoum
where he once dispatched his
own enemies.
The corruption charges stem
from a raid on one of al-Bashir’s
residence in the days after his
ouster, when police and mili-
tary officials seized bundles of
cash in various currencies that
the military junta’s leader, Lieu-
tenant General Abdel-Fattah
Burhan, later valued at about
$113 million.
Police Brigadier General
Ahmed Ali Mohamed, a detec-
tive in the team investigating
thedeposedleader,testified
that al-Bashir had admitted to
receiving $25 million from
Crown Prince Mohammed and
an additional $65 million in
two payments from King Ab-
dullah, the predecessor to the
kingdom’s current monarch,
Reuters reported.
Sudan’s prosecutor general
said in May that al-Bashir had
been charged in the deaths of
protesters in the uprising that
eventually led to his ouster.
That trial has not yet begun.
Another major figure from
al-Bashir’s era, the former spy
chief Salah Gosh, is also facing
scrutiny. Last week the United
States imposed sanctions on
Gosh for his role in the alleged
torture of detainees by the Na-
tional Intelligence and Security
Service, which he led until al-
Bashir’s ouster. The sanctions
bar Gosh, his wife, and his
daughter from entering the
United States.
In a statement announcing
the measures, the State Depart-
ment said it supported a “tran-
sitional government that is tru-
ly civilian led and differs funda-
mentally from the Bashir
regime, particularly on the pro-
tection of human rights.”JIM YOUNG/ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ambassador to Israel
David Friedman at the US Embassy in Jerusalem in March.UScutsWestBank
forumoverprotests
Palestiniansurge
boycottofevent
Sudantriesex-leaderon‘corruption’
Saudisallegedly
gavehim$90m
EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Sudan's deposed ruler, Omar al-Bashir, sat in a defendant's
cage during the opening of his trial in Khartoum Monday.BOSTON GLOBE MEDIA
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