In previous versions of this article, a Western diplomat was quoted as making a reference to Lenin. The diplomat referenced Stalin. This version has been corrected.
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Sudan's Macabre Display Of Victory Over Attackers
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A doctor well known around Khartoum, Ibrahim supported the coup that brought Bashir to power in 1989 and was a leader of the brutal government militias that fought a civil war in southern Sudan. After Ibrahim broke with Bashir in 1999, he headed to the bush, where his movement became associated with the "Black Book" detailing how government elites were monopolizing power at the expense of areas such as Darfur.
The book eventually became a rallying point for the rebellion there.
Ibrahim "is Trotsky to Bashir's Stalin," the Western diplomat said. "And what the ruling party fears most is division from within, because that is how they came to power."
Since the attack, Sudanese security forces have conducted sweeps around Omdurman, home to a large number of Darfurians from Ibrahim's Zaghawa tribe.
Fearing an indiscriminate crackdown, many Zaghawa families have fled the city, people here said.
Hundreds of people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Watch, and there are unconfirmed reports that others have been beaten or executed. Atti said about 100 rebels and 100 to 150 government troops and civilians were killed in the fighting.
While the implications of the attack on resolving the Darfur conflict remain unclear, Bashir is enjoying a kind of fleeting public relations victory, as the United States, the United Nations and other international players have condemned the rebel attack.
Some analysts say Bashir may have deliberately allowed the rebels to reach the city in an attempt to discredit them. "JEM posed no threat," one Western official said on the condition of anonymity. "This was the regime's plan: to lure one of the last remaining Darfur rebel groups, crush it and also diminish the cause of the Darfuris as victims. Now they're seen as the aggressors."
As the sun set on the exhibition celebrating the rebels' defeat, Bashir left the field, and perhaps several thousand Sudanese were allowed in. They milled around the wrecked trucks and stared at the posters of carnage.
"They were not rebels," said one man. "They were gangsters."
The exhibition will remain on display indefinitely.
