One of the world’s worst dictators is facing an uprising

Worldly

Vox Media Podcast Network

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2019

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the burgeoning protest movement against Sudan’s longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir. Bashir, who was responsible for the Darfur genocide and once sheltered Osama bin Laden, did not face a major uprising during the 2011 Arab Spring — but now is dealing with something similar, an uprising that could topple his regime. On Elsewhere, they continue the series on music, this time discussing a Turkish band called Grup Yorum that has gotten into major hot water with the country’s government. Zack has thoughts on the piccolo, Jenn breaks down Lindsay Lohan’s unlikely Turkish connection, and Alex quotes Heath Ledger’s Joker. References and further reading: If you want to dig deeper into Omar al-Bashir’s relationship with Osama bin Laden, Jenn recommends this book. For more on the Sudanese government’s role in the 1993 WTC bombing, page 121 of this book is a good place to start. The BBC has a very informative Q&A about Darfur. The official ICC page for al-Bashir. Jenn recommends this book for anyone who wants to understand the civil war that eventually led to South Sudan’s independence. This piece goes into more detail on the US decision to lift the sanction on Sudan. We played a small clip from this longer Al Jazeera segment on the Sudan protests, and Alex described this video of the protests. If you want to read more about the protests and the price of bread, the team recommends these three pieces. Jenn talked a little bit about “ghost troops,” but here’s more information on those. Sudanese protesters were killed on Wednesday as part of the crackdown. A more in-depth read on Mubarak stepping down in Egypt. A guide to how the Syrian civil war started, which explains why people are worried about something similar in Sudan. Why Sudan didn’t get large Arab Spring protests back in 2011. Here’s why one Sudanese expert thinks the military might topple al-Bashir. Jenn mentioned a Daily Beast interview with a former CIA agent who talked about Sudan. Grup Yorum are longtime sympathizers of a Marxists terrorist group in Turkey, DHKP-C. Here’s the song we played a short segment from. Currently, 11 members of the band are in jail; two have sought asylum in France. In October, the lawyer defending the arrested Grup Yorum members in trial was himself jailed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Almost a decade ago, we saw massive uprisings across the Arab world, the Arab Spring. In country after country
0:14.7	there's a backlash against oppressive regimes and longtime dictators leading to
0:18.3	massive street demonstrations. Sudan was an exception, the protests there were limited, but now that's changing.
0:25.0	Thousands of Sudanese citizens are taking to the streets to call for their leaders' downfall.
0:29.5	Today on the show, we're going to talk about why these protests are happening and why they're
0:33.4	happening so much later than what we saw in other parts of the Arab world. This is
0:37.5	worldly from the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Zach Bichim here as always with Jen
0:41.7	Williams and Alex Ward.
0:43.2	Hey.
0:43.7	Hello.
0:44.7	Before we get to the new protest themselves, we need to understand the backstory of the current
0:48.2	Sudanese government.
0:49.2	Alex, kick us off.
0:51.2	So you need to know about the leader of the country, Omar al-Bashir.
0:54.8	He's been one of the region's bad guys for many years.
0:57.9	He came into power in 1989 after he led a military coup to overthrow the elected
1:02.4	government and since he's been there
1:04.6	he shored up his power banning political parties you know dissolving the parliament
1:08.7	taking complete control and real strict control of the press and then actually 1993 kind of names themselves president and the leader.
1:17.0	As part of shoring up his power, he formed an alliance with the country's powerful Islamists and he began to push for the Islamicization of the country
1:26.1	instituting Muslim law Sharia law and part of this also included embracing radical Islamists from around the world,
1:34.9	including a young man some of you may have heard of a guy named Osama bin Laden.
	...

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