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KHARTOUM
HASSAN TURABI excels in wielding power while being accountable to nobody. This charismatic, Sorbonne-educated ideologue has steered Sudan into its unique, and apparently unshakable, form of Islamist-military rule, installed his people at every level of civilian and military authority, yet declines any responsibility for the casualties along the way.
His implausible claim to unimportance serves to distance him from the government's reputation for a ruthlessness that is foreign to the Sudanese character. He has no official position; his party, the National Islamic Front, was technically banned when the army seized power in 1989, after Sudan's three-year "democratic interlude". His only title is secretary-general of the Popular Arab and Islamic Conference, a body he created to give Muslims (and himself) a wider audience. It convened for its third annual meeting in Khartoum last month.
Under Mr Turabi's influence, a harsh form of political Islam has taken control of Sudanese society. Opposition has been...