The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-27)

A12 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27 , 2021

The World

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Biden pledges support

for ASEAN nations

During a virtual summit with
the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations, President Biden
announced an initiative that
would provide up to $102 million
to expand the U.S. partnership
with the 10-nation bloc.
“Our bottom line is that
ASEAN is essential. I want to say
that it is essential for the
regional architecture of the
I ndo-Pacific, and the United
States is committed to ASEAN
centrality,” Biden said during a
brief appearance at the start of
the summit. ASEAN nations, he

said, are a “linchpin” to security

in “our shared region.”

The $102 million will fund

health-care programs and

research, including $40 million

for emerging infectious diseases

in the region, as well as a climate

initiative. It will also support

economic growth programs and

fund education-related loans.

— Mariana Alfaro

IRAN

Cyberattack blamed in

disruption of fuel sales

Fuel sales were disrupted at

gasoline stations across Iran on

Tuesday, after what officials said

was a cyberattack crippled a

system that allows consumers

t o buy subsidized fuel using

government-issued cards,

I ran’s state-run news agency

said.

“The disruption in the

intelligent fuel system caused

the fuel cards in the system not

to be identified,” the Islamic

Republic News Agency said.

T he cause was a “cyberattack,

which technical experts are

solving,” it said.

Officials said they were

restoring the distribution

network by disabling the subsidy

system station by station, and

said that fuel remained available

at the “free” rate — double the

unsubsidized rate.

— Kareem Fahim

Moderna pledges coronavirus

vaccine for African nations:

Moderna said it will make up to

110 million doses of its vaccine

available to countries in Africa,

the world’s least vaccinated

continent. The firm said it plans

to deliver 15 million doses by the

end of this year, with 35 million

in the first quarter of 2022 and

up to 60 million in the second

quarter. It said “all doses are

offered at Moderna’s lowest

tiered price.” Officials in Africa

hailed the plan. “It is a great day

for us,” said Strive Masiyiwa, the

African Union’s special envoy on

the coronavirus.

Cyclonic storm pounds Sicily: A

powerful cyclonic storm hit the

southern Italian island of Sicily,

causing widespread flooding

around the city of Catania,

turning streets and squares into

rivers and lakes, and causing at

least two deaths, officials said.

The Italian weather site

Ilmeteo.it said that parts of Sicily

and the adjacent toe of Italy,

Calabria, were being pounded by

a rare tropical-like cyclone

known as a medicane, and that

the sea was 8 degrees Celsius

(46 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer

than the average for this time of

year. The storm was expected to

peak on Thursday or Friday.

German parliament elects

female president: A n ew, more

diverse and younger German

parliament has elected a woman

from the center-left Social

Democrats (SPD) as its

president. With the SPD’s Olaf

Scholz seen replacing retiring

chancellor Angela Merkel of the

Christian Democrats, the party

nominated health policy expert

Baerbel Blas to replace Wolfang

Schaeuble as parliamentary

president in an effort to ensure

that the country’s top three

political offices are not all held

by men. She is only the third

woman to serve in that role. The

SPD, which finished first in the

election, is in talks to form a

coalition government with the

Greens and the pro-business

Free Democrats by Dec. 6.

— From news services

DIGEST

BY MAX BEARAK

nairobi — As dawn broke Mon-
day, countless young men and
women who for nearly three
years have routinely flooded
S udan’s streets to call for a civil-
ian government woke up to the
sound of their phones incessantly
buzzing with messages carrying
gut-wrenching news.
The civilian leader of the gov-
ernment, Abdalla Hamdok, had
been detained by the military
along with his wife. So had almost
his entire cabinet. Security forces
had already spread out across the
capital, Khartoum, and the Inter-
net that the citizens were using
for messaging was about to be
throttled.
“It was a mind-boggling mo-
ment to process,” said Elbashir
Idris, 26, a community organizer.
“I looked out my window at 5 a .m.
and could already see the first
tires being burnt in protest —
those big black fumes.”
Despite a vast and well-coordi-
nated protest movement in favor
of a transition to democracy, and
an aggressive push by Western
governments to support Sudan’s
emergence from authoritarian-
ism after the ousting of longtime
dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir
in 2019, years of progress seem-
ingly were swept away before
most Sudanese had wiped the
sleep from their eyes.
Complex dynamics were at
play: Sudan’s military and civil-
ian leaders had been sharing
power in a shaky arrangement
weakened by mutual suspicion
and disagreements on funda-
me ntal questions such as whom
to hold to account for decades of
atrocities committed under
Bashir and whether the military
should be able to control parts of
the economy. Players both old
and new are vying for power in a
Sudan that seems up for grabs.
When the fragile house of
car ds collapsed Monday, all pre-
tense of power-sharing was put to
rest. All state governors were
dismissed; a state of emergency
gave Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-
Burhan, the country’s top mili-
tary official, near total power.
In a s peech Tuesday, Burhan
said that Hamdok had not been
arrested and that a new, civilian,
technocratic government would
be put in place that was not
“crippled by disagreement and
differences,” as he claimed Ham-
dok’s had been. He also said there
had been threats to the prime
minister’s life, but provided no
evidence.
“Simply to protect him, he is in
my residence,” Burhan said, ac-
cording to a simultaneous trans-
lation provided by Al Jazeera
news channel. “Once the threat is
over, he can go back to his resi-
dence, and you can visit him.
There were true threats to him,
and that’s why we kept him in
safe custody. No one can deny he
has offered great contributions to
our country.”
As for the fates of at least a
dozen other civilian officials,
Bur han said: “Certain individuals
have been put in custody — those
individuals believed to under-
mine national unity and national
security. We are not muzzling
mouths, we are blocking any
voice [that] directly undermines
our national harmony.”
Burhan did not address allega-
tions that the military had fatally
shot at least seven protesters,
according to a doctors associa-
tion, and injured more than 100
in clamping down on Monday’s
anti-coup demonstrations. He
did, however, say Internet facili-
ties were to be restored Tuesday.
Sudanese activists and analysts
alike said the attacks on protest-
ers spoke much louder about the
military’s resolve to retain power
rather than restore stability.
“We understand this is a mara-
thon,” Idris said. “The Sudanese
people have been through multi-
ple revolutions. But now we are
ready to resist. We’ve learned how
to barricade, how to empty the
roads, and then come out in

numbers.”

Idris and others spoke of mass

protests already planned for Sat-

urday that would echo the

“march of millions” that pro-civil-

ian-rule groups organized after

past bouts of repression. On Tues-

day, a g eneral strike against the

coup had already taken root, and

most shops in Khartoum were

closed, with streets empty.

Western governments tried to

intensify pressure on Burhan, us-

ing what leverage they had to

persuade him to reverse the pow-

er grab. The U.S. State Depart-

ment announced the suspension

of aid that had been earmarked

for smoothing Sudan’s transition

to civilian rule — $700 million

that could provide a steadying

influence on the country’s infla-

tion-battered economy.

But the ease with which

Burhan was able to sweep aside

his civilian counterparts under-

lined how strong his hand is, said

Magdi el-Gizouli, a Sudanese

ana lyst at the Rift Valley Insti-

tute.

“Burhan might be able to pull

this off with the support of other

allies, namely Egypt, the Saudis

and the Emiratis,” he said. “He is

not a pariah like Bashir became,

nor is he an Islamist. He will find

a new, more pliant civilian face,

he will maintain formalities, and

the West will simply end up

dealing with that person.”

While rumors abounded

among those in the protest move-

ment about Burhan’s Arab allies

and their role in the coup, a

senior Western diplomat, speak-

ing on the condition of anonym-

ity to relay sensitive discussions,

said that Egyptian officials at

least were caught off guard by

Burhan’s move.

“The Egyptians seemed to be

as surprised by the military’s

recklessness as a number of West-

ern governments,” the diplomat

said.

Instead of international sup-

Sudan’s protesters v ow to defy military takeover

After three years of pushing for democratic transition, activists watch their hard-fought progress seemingly disappear in coup

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

ASHRAF SHAZLY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

TOP: A d emonstrator carrying a Sudanese national flag walks by

roadblocks set up by protesters on a street in the capital,

Khartoum, on Tuesday to denounce a military coup that overthr ew

the transition to civilian rule. ABOVE: Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-

Burhan, the country’s top military official, speaks during a news

conference in Khartoum on Thursda y. RIGHT: A man beats a water

container repurposed as a drum during a protest in Khartoum.

port, however, Burhan may lean

more heavily on new domestic

partners now that his relation-

ship with Hamdok and the anti-

Bashir protest movement has

been definitively severed, Gizouli

said.

Through a peace process driv-

en mostly by the military, Burhan

has cultivated close ties with the

leaders of Sudan’s disparate rebel

groups — many of which Burhan

fought as a commander under

Bashir.

Under the umbrella of an ac-

cord signed in Juba, South Sudan,

last year, “Burhan has convened a

viable set of alternatives to civil-

ian leaders in the country’s pe-

ripheries where most of the re-

sources that fuel Sudan’s econo-

my come from,” Gizouli said.

Controlling those resources is

the clearest way to understand

the military’s desire to prevent

civilian leaders from gaining an

upper hand in the government,

which they were slated to do next

month under the original terms

of the transitional government. It

would have been the first time in

decades that Sudan had a civilian

government.

“The military had much to fear

from passing this key milestone

in the transition,” the Interna-

tional Crisis Group wrote in a

post-coup update. “Under Bashir,

the generals came to enjoy un-

checked control of key economic

sectors, running a web of compa-

nies with billions of dollars in

assets. The Hamdok administra-

tion had sought to roll back these

privileges by bringing many of

the military’s companies under

civilian management.”

The question of whether the

military can withstand another

wave of massive protests will

soon be put to the test. In 2019,

after Bashir’s downfall, military

and paramilitary groups were

accused of massacring more than

100 protesters. Only weeks later,

hundreds of thousands took to

the streets again.

In his speech Tuesday, Burhan

referred to the mostly young pro-

testers, saying, “We know that

many of the youth have been

misled if not radicalized.”

“No one should fool them-

selves. Burhan [is] not going any-

where soon,” Gizouli said. “But

how can he govern the cities —

they are bristling, full of unem-

ployed people, a full-on urban

crisis, students looking for work,

living on hustling trades, hunting

for bread and fuel, in despera-

tion. How will Burhan get them to

accept this?”

Protesters like Idris say accept-

ing defeat is not an option.

“It’s a waiting game now,

which side has the stamina,” he

said. “I believe in the people, not

the military.”

[email protected]

Siobhán O’Grady in Cairo and Paul

Schemm in London contributed to

this report.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES