KHARTOUM, 27 February 2008 — Sudan has banned imports of Danish goods in retaliation for the reprint in Denmark of a blasphemous cartoon, the state-run news agency said yesterday. The move came as Sudan braced for large anti-Danish protest in the Sudanese capital today that appear to have the approval of the central government in Khartoum.
Sudanese President Omar Bashir announced earlier this week a plan to ban Danish imports, snub the country’s officials and expel its organizations from Sudan in response to the cartoon reprinted this month by 17 Danish newspapers.
“The Customs and Duty Authorities have promptly executed the ban on the import of Danish commodities,” police customs chief, Gen. Salah Ahmed Al-Sheikh, was quoted as saying by the official SUNA news agency. Sheikh said the ban was effective immediately and warned Sudanese importers “to avoid trying to circumvent it.”
Loudspeakers from Khartoum’s main mosques blared after midday prayers with calls saying “all people should come to the one-million march tomorrow in defense of the Prophet (peace be upon him).”
Sudanese officials did not specify whether the other measures threatened by Bashir would be enforced. “The decision of the president of the Republic has come after Danish authorities as well as Danish news media permitted the publication of cartoons and drawings that defame the Holy Prophet, peace and blessing of Allah be upon Him,” said Al-Simaih Al-Sidiq, Sudan’s state minister for foreign trade.
Danish diplomats in Khartoum said they were not notified of a trade boycott. “I don’t have any formal confirmation of this,” Denmark’s charge d’affaires in Khartoum, Karin Soerensen, said. She said she “can’t confirm” Bashir’s threats to expel Danish organizations because Sudanese authorities have not contacted Copenhagen about that either.
Several aid groups from Denmark operate in Sudan, including the Danish Refugee Council and the Danish Red Cross, which runs large projects to alleviate human suffering in the western Darfur region.
“We have decided to keep low profile for the time being,” Anders Ladekarl, head of the Danish Red Cross’ international department, told The Associated Press in Copenhagen. He said the organization hadn’t received any threats or any formal note from Sudan instructing it to leave the country.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen also declined to comment on the imports boycott. “The picture is a bit blurry right now,” Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Denmark.
