KHARTOUM: PRO-NCP, PRO-IRANIAN JOURNALIST BEHEADED

C O N F I D E N T I A L KHARTOUM 002157

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/SPG
NSC FOR COURVILLE AND SHORTLEY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/06/2016
TAGS: PGOV PTER KPAO PHUM PINR KCRM KISL SU IR
SUBJECT: KHARTOUM: PRO-NCP, PRO-IRANIAN JOURNALIST BEHEADED

Classified By: P/E CHIEF E. WHITAKER, REASON: SECTION 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (U) The body of "Al Wafaq" Editor-in-Chief Mohammed Taha
Mohammed Ahmed was found beheaded September 6 in the Kalakla
area south of Khartoum, after he was abducted from his home
in North Khartoum the previous night. Murders of this type
are unknown in Sudan, and the shock was signaled by
front-page coverage in the major newspapers. The murder
typifies the fractious currents of National Congress Party
(NCP) policies, public unrest, and Islamism present in the
country.


2. (C) The motive for the murder is unconfirmed, though
police arrested an undisclosed number of suspects on
September 6. Minister of Interior Al-Zubair Bashir Taha (no
relation) blamed "foreign elements" for the crime. A contact
within the police department said that some of the suspects
were Sunni extremists linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq, who
objected to Taha's pro-Shiite and pro-Iranian positions as
well as some of his previous writings on Islam. (Note: In
January 2006, 20 unknown assailants bearing knives attacked
the "Al Wafaq" offices with Molotov cocktails, the
investigation of which is still pending. End note.) A more
salacious rumor is circulating Khartoum that Senior Assistant
to the President and SLM leader Minni Minawi ordered Taha's
assassination because of a recent article by Taha that
chastised Minawi's Zaghawa tribe for demanding more power in
Darfur than its numbers justified. (Comment: Post has no
reason to believe this allegation. End comment.)


3. (C) Taha had close ties to the NCP through Vice President
Ali Osman Taha and Assistant to the President Nafie Ali
Nafie, both of whom have long-standing links to the Iranian
security services. "Al Wafaq" shares its name with an
Iranian newspaper, receives funding from Tehran, supports the
NCP, and advances anti-American and anti-Western opinions.
Taha had been a student activist for the NCP's precursor, the
National Islamic Front (NIF),in the late 1980s and sided
with President Omer Al Bashir following his split with Hassan
Turabi in 2000. In 2005, one of Taha's articles was
criticized by religious conservatives as disrespectful to the
Prophet Mohammed, and "Al Wafaq" was closed for three months.
Taha spent two weeks in prison before being acquitted.
Abdel Hayie Yousif, a well-known Muslim scholar, later
declared Taha an infidel after the publication of another
article on the Prophet Mohammed's mother.


4. (C) Taha was dragged from his doorstep into a car at 2200
hours on September 5 in full view of a police watch stand and
then driven at 120 km/hour across Khartoum, passing three
police stations on route. Contacts questioned the police's
ability to maintain law and order given the audacity of the
crime and suggested that law enforcement has devoted all of
its resources to maintain regime stability in the face of
recent protests and mounting international pressure on
Darfur. The apparent police negligence also led some to
question if the authorities colluded with the killers.


5. (U) The independent daily "Al Sudani" wrote on September
7 that "this (the murder) is an indication of the alarming
social deterioration that our country has now reached in
light of the policies of defiance and confrontation that the
government and the ruling National Congress adopt."
Similarly, the independent "Khartoum Monitor" reported that
"blaming it (the murder) on radical Islamists is not
convincing...The answer and ultimate responsibility lies with
the National Congress government. It is the government that
said Khartoum is safe for everybody, a claim that is now
obviously far from true."
HUME