SUDAN POLITICIANS SLAM AUSTERITY MEASURES

     Khartoum, 23 Dzulqa’idah 1434/29 September 2013(MINA) – Islamist groups and members of Sudan’s ruling party have called on President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to cancel deeply unpopular austerity measures amid deadly unrest.

      The call on Saturday came after police fired teargas to break up thousands of people in the capital during a sixth day of protests against cuts to subsidies on cooking oil and fuel that doubled pump prices over Friday night.

      Several people were injured in Sudan’s capital Khartoum after police opened fire on a funeral that turned into an anti-government protest.

      Thirty-one members of the quasi-official Islamist Movement and the ruling (NCP) signed the petition, the first sign of dissent inside ruling circles after a week of unrest that has killed dozens.

       “Mr President, in the light what is happening we demand an immediate stop of the economic measures,” the petition read.

       Demonstrators called Bashir a “killer” at the funeral on Saturday – the sixth day of protests spurred by udprice increase in the northeast African country already burdened by economic pain and war.

      Tear gas was fired on thousands of people who had gathered for the funeral of Salah al-Sanhouri, a 26-year-old pharmacist who was killed the previous day, chanting: “The people want the downfall of Bashir.”

       Thousands of people have been out on the streets daily across Sudan, angry at the rising cost of fuel. Authorities say 33 people have died over the past week.

      Sudan’s information minister told Al Jazeera quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting, that the government had expected anger after it withdrew the fuel subsidy, but that the protests had turned into “riots”.

      Hajooj Kuka, a Sudanese youth activist, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the situation in Sudan was “like a war zone”.

      Human-rights groups have accused the government of violent repression of protesters by adopting a shoot-to-kill policy.

     Bashir has ruled Sudan since coming to power in a bloodless 1989 coup. He has not commented on the protests since announcing the lifting of subsidies on Sunday – part of austerity measures driven by a severe financial crunch exacerbated by the secession of oil-producing South Sudan in 2011. (T/P09/E1).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).