[MENA] Profile of a Dictador: Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan

[Naio90]

Middle East News Agency ​

Hollywood often portrays dictators in a very particular way: a shady individual, often wearing a specially tailored pompous military uniform with big black sunglasses and a prominent mustache. A lavish lifestyle and an entourage of loyal followers and family members that compose his cabinets. These rules often govern their nations with iron fists and only for their own benefit, promoting governmental corruption and making use of populist elements to perpetuate themselves in power.​ ​ Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir was born in 1944 just north of the capital city of Sudan, Kahrtoum, to a bedium family only to join the ranks of the national army in 1960. There he quickly rose through the ranks and became a paratroop officer. In 1975 he was sent to the United Arab Emirates as the Sudanese military attaché only to return home and be made a garrison commander. In 1981, al-Bashir returned to his paratroop background when he became the commander of an armored parachute brigade. After consolidating in that position of power within the army he headed straight for the total power of the unstable African nation executing a military coup in 1989, ousting Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.​ ​ ​ With a firm grip on national power he began focusing his attention to the raging civil war, where he personally planned and ordered multiple attacks against the liberationist armies who were fighting against the central rule, while trying to maintain their ancestral lands and self-government. Not only did Al-Bashir made them feel the full force of the Sudanese regular armed forces and the notorious militia (known as the People's Defense Forces, PDF), but he also went so far as to order the direct attack against rural villages who were in the areas of operations, accusing them of collaborating with the rebels, massacring not just the men, but the women and children too. His henchmen are infamous for brutally suppressing all civil dissidents. People suspected of disloyalty or rebel sympathies were arrested and taken to prison and barracks, where they were tortured and executed. Often, his militias forcefully recruited child-soldiers, orphaned children from the ravaged villages, sometimes after being forced to kill their own parents.​ ​ His government is also famous for apparently hosting Islamic radicals, as rumors say that Osama Bin-laden has made its headquarters somewhere in Kahrtoum, from where he leads his Mujahideen operations.​ ​ All these are elements for him to maintain a total grip over the African nation and continue his personal enrichment though corruption and war crimes. During the frequent fighting, Al-Bashir allegedly looted the impoverished nation of much of its wealth only to be deposited in secret foreign accounts, if reports from investigative reporters are to be believed.​ ​ How long will Africa tolerate the persistence of these individuals, who are movie material and damage not only the continent's image, but also cuts all true possibilities of long term sustainable development by ignoring foreign calls to peace and democracy. His actions also continue to leak trouble to neighbouring nations, that have to endure wave after wave of sudanese refugees and continuous rebel or terrorist incursions.​ ​