Sudan police tear gas new anti-govt rallies

Khartoum: Sudanese police used tear gas on Tuesday on demonstrators holding new rallies against President Omar Al Bashir's government in the capital Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman, witnesses said. Deadly nationwide protests have rocked Sudan since December 19 when angry crowds took to the streets against a government decision to triple the price of bread. The demonstrations have grown into anti-government rallies calling for an end to Bashir's iron-fisted rule stretching back three decades. On Tuesday, crowds of protesters took to the streets in three areas of Khartoum and three areas of Omdurman, across the Nile, but they were quickly tear-gassed, witnesses said. Chanting "freedom, peace, justice" and "we are not scared, we are not scared," protesters clapped and whistled as they began their rallies, witnesses said. The Sudanese Professionals' Association that has led the protest campaign has called for daily rallies against the government of Bashir, who swept to power in acoup in 1989. On Monday, the group had called for rallies in several cities and towns, including the three conflict areas of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan. But no demonstrations took place in those conflict zones. Earlier on Tuesday, some Sudanese tribesmen from the Red Sea town of Port Sudan mourned the deaths 14 years ago of 21 comrades with a sit-in against Bashir's government, witnesses and activists said. On January 29, 2005, crowds of people from the Beja tribe held a protest in the town calling on Khartoum to allocate more resources to the east Sudan region from where it hails. In ensuing clashes with government forces, 21 demonstrators were killed, according to activists. Since then every year on January 29, Beja tribesmen mark the deaths with a sit-in at Port Sudan. On Tuesday it turned into a protest against Bashir's government, witnesses and activists said. Chanting "freedom, peace, justice," the key slogan of the ongoing anti-government movement, the tribesmen gathered at a downtown square, witnesses said. "We are using our annual anniversary of mourning the 21 martyrs of 2005 to do a sit-in as part of the movement started by the SPA," Beja activist Abdallah Mussa said from Port Sudan. "This sit-in is not just to mourn the 2005 deaths, but also to mourn the deaths of those who have died in the uprising since December." Bashir has rejected calls to step down, and blamed the violence on "infiltrators" among the demonstrators. Officials say 30 people have died in protest-related violence since the demonstrations began, while rights groups say more than 40 people have been killed.