Khartoum, Sudan - Khartoum has confessed it played a major role in the demise of slain Libyan leader Muammar Kaddafi, providing weapons for the revolutionaries under the National Transitional Council (NTC) who ousted him after 42 years in power. The reason was to avenge a similar action years ago when Libya supported Sudanese rebels against Khartoum. “We have (revenged) and the revolutionaries entered Tripoli using Sudanese arms,” Sudanese President Omar Bashir was quoted by Arabic daily newspapers as saying at a ceremony held in Kassala, capital of the region which shares a common border with Eritrea. Bashir was in the region to inaugurate a road linking Eritrea to the Sudan, in the presence of the Qatari Emir who funded the 26 kms road. Three years ago, a Sudanese rebel movement, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEMK) crossed thousands of kilometers from the borders with Libya to Khartoum, surprising many, killing and injuring hundreds inside Sudan’s national capital. Many people at the time doubted if JEM was acting on its own.

According to independent daily newspapers, al-sudani (the Sudanese) and al ahramal alyoum (the pyramid today), President Bashir had declared that his country sent not only humanitarian assistance to the Libyan revolutionaries but equally “100% manufactured Sudanese arms' that were part of the weaponry used by the NTC in their final drive against the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

President Bashir also accused Kahdafi of assistance not only to the rebels in Darfur but also to armed groups in south Sudan during the war against Khartoum in 1985-2005.

“Now, God almighty provided us with a chance to reply ...and to reply in kind,” Bashir was Thursday quoted by the independent daily al Sudani reporting from Kasala as saying.

The president did not say how these weapons were taken to Libya or who was involved in their transport.

The official media have, however, failed to report the news though it extensively covered the visit and the event attended by President Asias Afwerki of Eritrea and the powerful Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Pana 28/10/2011