{"id":27525,"date":"2018-12-31T09:23:02","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T09:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27525"},"modified":"2018-12-31T09:23:02","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T09:23:02","slug":"sudans-bashir-tells-police-not-to-use-excessive-force-against-demonstrators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27525","title":{"rendered":"Sudan\u2019s Bashir tells police not to use excessive force against demonstrators"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1427916\/middle-east\" readability=\"82\">\n<p>\nKHARTOUM: Sudan\u2019s President Omar Bashir on Sunday told police to abstain from using excessive force against anti-government demonstrators as the UN called for a probe into deaths during the violent protests.<\/p>\n<p>\nAt least 19 people have been killed since Dec. 19 during protests sparked by Khartoum\u2019s decision to hike the price of bread, according to the government.<\/p>\n<p>\nRights group Amnesty International says 37 people have died.<\/p>\n<p>\nOn Sunday, Bashir met top police officers in Khartoum and instructed them to refrain from using excessive force against demonstrators.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cWe want to maintain security and we want the police to do that by using less force,\u201d Bashir, dressed in a blue police uniform, said.<\/p>\n<p>\nProtesters have rallied after the government raised the price of a loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound to three (from about 2 to 6 US cents).<\/p>\n<p>\nSudan is facing an acute foreign exchange crisis and soaring inflation despite Washington lifting an economic embargo in October 2017.<\/p>\n<p>\nInflation is running at 70 percent and the Sudanese pound has plunged in value, while shortages of bread and fuel have regularly hit several cities.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cWe admit that we have economic problems&#8230; but they can\u2019t be solved by destructions, lootings, and thefts,\u201d Bashir said, referring to buildings and ruling offices torched by protesters in several cities during the demonstrations.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cWe don\u2019t want our country to go the way other countries in the region have gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cWe will not allow our people to be refugees. If this happens where can we go in this region?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nUN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed \u201cfor calm and restraint\u201d and called on \u201cthe authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the deaths and violence,\u201d a UN spokesman said in a statement on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe UN chief is \u201cfollowing with concern\u201d developments in Sudan and \u201cemphasizes the need to safeguard freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,\u201d the spokesman added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KHARTOUM: Sudan\u2019s President Omar Bashir on Sunday told police to abstain from using excessive force against anti-government demonstrators as the UN called for a probe into deaths during the violent protests. At least 19 people have been killed since Dec. 19 during protests sparked by Khartoum\u2019s decision to hike the price of bread, according to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}