Repression in Sudan, 30 years after Tiananmen

This week, we remember with grave emotion the tragedy of Tiananmen, which, 30 years ago, on 4 June 1989, killed the democratic aspirations of Chinese youth by killing hundreds or thousands of students (the number has never been officially established).

This week too, the civil and pacifist revolution that brought down Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir last April, and the democratic transition that the world hoped for, seem to be coming to a halt: on Monday, June 3, paramilitary forces violently repressed citizens gathered in a sit-in outside the army’s headquarters in Khartoum. The result: more than a hundred deaths.

The demonstrators remain mobilized by refusing any agreement with the army and calling for civil disobedience to save the revolution, while the Security Council struggles to agree on a text denouncing this savage repression (veto by China and Russia). How many more deaths will we have to wait to avoid another bloodbath?

To see our previous weekly editorials on international news, take a look here!