home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=89TT0083>
- <title>
- Jan. 09, 1989: World Notes:Sudan
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Jan. 09, 1989 Mississippi Burning
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 38
- World Notes
- SUDAN
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Drought. Floods. Famine. Disease. Civil war. How could the
- situation in Sudan get worse? Last week it did, as workers
- staged a general strike that closed the airport in Khartoum and
- shut down most telephone and telex lines. Rumors of coup
- attempts swept the capital as angry demonstrators took to the
- streets demanding the head of Prime Minister Sadiq el Mahdi.
- </p>
- <p> The strike was triggered by sharp government-ordered rises
- in the prices of key commodities, including sugar and
- cigarettes. To cushion the steep hikes, the government approved
- pay raises for both public and private employees, supplementing
- incomes by as much as 500%. But the ploy did not work.
- </p>
- <p> By week's end, as police scattering crowds killed at least
- one demonstrator, the government backed down and revoked the
- price increases while leaving the pay hikes intact. The swift
- reversal does not ensure a return to relative stability. The
- Democratic Unionist Party withdrew from Sadiq's coalition
- government, and the Prime Minister reportedly intends to form
- a new Cabinet with his other partner, the Muslim fundamentalist
- National Islamic Front.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-