Khartoum Back to Normal After Sudan Strike, Coup

Shops and banks reopened in the capital today after union leaders called off the general strike that had prompted the military’s ouster of President Jaafar Numeiri.

In Cairo, where Numeiri has remained since Saturday’s coup, President Hosni Mubarak telephoned the new junta leader, Gen. Abdul-Rahman Suwar Dahab, and reaffirmed Egypt’s support of Sudan. Dahab assured Mubarak the situation in Sudan was stable.

Official Omdurman radio said Dahab fired Sudan’s chief justice, Fuad Amin Abdul-Rahman, today but did not say why.

The official news agency SUNA reported that the Sudanese Judges’ Union petitioned Dahab to draft a new constitution and review “hastily passed laws.”

Numeiri decreed sharia, or Islamic law, in September of 1983. It was opposed by many Sudanese, both Muslim and non-Muslim, and the harshly implemented code fueled a rebellion in southern Sudan, where Muslims are in the minority.

Western diplomats said they did not expect Dahab openly to renounce Islamic law , but one predicted that he will allow it to “crumble away.” The new strongman is said to be a devout Muslim but not an extremist.

The unions’ decision Monday to call off the protests over steep price increases appeared to be the first successful resolution of a challenge to the junta.

Today, businesses reopened, members of professional unions were back in their offices and the streets of Khartoum and its sister cities Khartoum North and Omdurman were filled with people going to work or shopping.

Professional unions and political parties, although still banned under a Numeiri-era law, were meeting openly for the first time in years.