Omar al-Bashir’s two-year ‘rehabilitation’ sentence shows how far Sudan still has to go

Families in Sudan’s capital Khartoum are still scouring hospitals, morgues, police stations and in some instances the bottom of the River Nile to find loved ones killed in an anti-government sit-in on 3 June.

In North Darfur, people displaced by the civil war are living in mud huts and suffering from hunger and an unprecedented surge of dengue fever and malaria.

At bakeries across the country, there are still queues of desperate people amid a bread shortage.

In Khartoum, businessmen talk about struggling as Sudan remains a pariah due to the US listing the country as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.

The money changers wave wads of cash at passers-by as inflation soars.

It has only been a few months since a joint military and civilian body took over Sudan after an April uprising saw the toppling of dictator Omar al-Bashir.

He ruled the country for three decades with an iron fist and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide and war crimes in areas like Darfur.

It is early days. No one expects a miracle overhaul.

But the resounding message from people I interviewed across the country was concern: concern that some of those who backed Bashir are still in power; concern that the demands of the revolution would not be met and that Bashir may evade justice.

Those concerns were not allayed on Saturday when Bashir was sentenced to just two years in a minimum-security “rehabilitation centre” on money laundering and corruption charges.

As journalists pointed out, a man in 1989 was sentenced to death for the same crime.

It is just the first of what will likely be several trials. In May, he was charged with inciting and being involved in the killing of protesters. He has recently been questioned about the coup which brought him to power in 1989.

But the victims of unspeakable violence his forces have perpetrated in Darfur said they do not have enough faith in Sudan’s system to see him tried properly for these crimes.

Well before the verdict was announced, they talked of wanting him transferred to The Hague and tried at the ICC.

It’s a sticking point in Khartoum, with members of the military forces, who were former allies of Bashir but are now in power, vehemently opposing the idea.

There has been much progress in Sudan and that should be lauded and supported. But it seems it is still too early to celebrate.

Yours,

Bel Trew

Middle East correspondent