Sudanese Activist Charged With Terrorism - New York Times (blog)

Nancy DawodRudwan Dawod in June 2009 in front of the Sudan Sunrise Manute Bol Primary School in Turalei, South Sudan.

The first tactic in President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir’s playbook for repressing the Arab spring in the streets of Khartoum is to intimidate protestors. The second is to lock up those he can’t.  (Since June the regime has put an estimated 2,000 protesters behind bars, according to groups on the ground in Sudan.)

Bashir’s third tactic has emerged in the past few weeks: discredit the opposition movement via the government-controlled media and Facebook. In particular, Bashir’s regime seeks to undercut peaceful dissidents by portraying them as terrorists.

The focus of this smear campaign is Rudwan Dawod, a Darfurian who is married to an American woman.  A student of the nonviolent politics of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, Dawod’s greatest influence was Manute Bol, the Sudanese-born NBA legend. In 2009, Dawod traveled to the southern Sudanese town of Turalei with Bol’s charity, Sudan Sunrise, to build a primary school. Seated next to Bol at a village meeting, Rudwan asked for forgiveness for the way Darfurians had been used as fighters against southern Sudanese by Bashir’s regime. It was during that trip that Dawod met a young American volunteer teacher, Nancy Williams, whom he married in 2010.

Dawod spent the past two years shuttling between the U.S. and Sudan for Sudan Sunrise, delivering aid to refugees in South Sudan and promoting reconciliation efforts. Last month, he left his pregnant wife behind in Oregon (due in September, their daughter will be named “Sudan”) for an initiative designed to show the younger generation’s opposition to the recent church burnings by Bashir’s regime. As the project director for Sudan Sunrise, Dawod planned to lead a group of Muslim volunteers to Torit, South Sudan, where they would rebuild the Catholic cathedral that has been destroyed twice by Sudanese forces. But he never got the chance.

Last Tuesday, Dawod was abducted during a non-violent demonstration organized by “Girifna,” (Arabic for “We’re Fed Up”), a pro-democracy student network campaigning for the removal of Bashir’s regime. Later that day, his father and brother were arrested in their home, which was then ransacked and stripped of anything of value.  Within two days a social media campaign appeared on Facebook slandering Dawod, and pro-government newspapers announced a terrorist circle had been arrested that was preparing to bomb Khartoum.

Sources on the ground in Khartoum report that Dawod endured several days of torture in an attempt to coerce a confession that he is a CIA operative, working for Darfur rebels to organize a campaign of terror. On Tuesday Dawod appeared in court and was charged with “criminal organization and terrorism,” which in some cases results in the death penalty.

But Girifna activists believe the regime may have made a tactical error.  If Bashir is trying to discredit Girifna, he has gone after the wrong man. They say turning Dawod into a martyr may actually galvanize the protest movement.

“This may be our tipping point,” said Girifna spokesperson, Ibrahim Babiker at a rally on Sunday in front of the White House.  “Through Rudwan people are going to see through Bashir’s lies, and see who Girifna really is.  Instead of believing that protestors are terrorists, through Rudwan people will see our vision for a better future.”

You can help Rudwan and the other Girifna detainees by writing your congressman, senator and the White House.  Information on how you can help Rudwan’s family is available at www.sudansunrise.org, in addition to information on how you can help Muslims build a Cathedral and schools in South Sudan.

Joh Zogby is the CEO of JZ Analytics and Chairman of Sudan Sunrise. Tom Prichard contributed reporting.