Research Assistance Request

[Ellis Amdur]

Back in the early eighties, I spent a few years training Muay
Thai at Koei Gym in Tokyo. I used to attend matches, and would frequently see a young guy from Southern Sudan in the audience. He was about 6'6", probably 230, and he was training at the Meguro Gym (run by former Kyokushinkai fighter Kurosaki). Being close to the same size, and both outsiders, we'd nod hello.

I have read an interview with the recently "deposed" fundamentalist religious leader of Sudan, Turabi, that, in a trip to Canada some years ago, he was attacked at the airport by a "Sudanese karate champion," a giant of a man, who tried to beat him to death. He managed to inflict serious injury on Turabi, who has been responsible for the slaughter of 10's of thousands of African Sudanese, but was subdued. I believe that he is still in prison in Canada.

I am trying to find out if he is my acquaintance (I would recognize his picture), and his current location - if he is still in prison.

Any assistance would be welcome.

Ellis Amdur

[Joseph Svinth]

"After cancelling licenses of the American Chevron Oil Company, which discovered the oil in South Sudan in late 1970s, Sudan moved to entice the Arab oil rich nations to come and drill the oil in Bentiu. But the Bentiu oil, estimated at 540 Million Barrels of crude oil, has a special wax which must be extracted, but the Arab World does not have the technology to do so. The main purpose of Hassan el-Turabi's trip to Canada, where he was assaulted by a Karate Champion two years ago [e.g., 1992], was to find some Canadian contractors for this purpose. "

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Newsletters/Sudan_4_3.html

The Canadian contractors evidently included Calgary's Talisman Energy Inc. Major shareholders of Talisman Energy include the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan board. http://www.vitrade.com/talisman/991214_talisman_falls_amid_turmoil_in_s.htm

Ah, here we go:

"One problem they did not know how to deal with was Hasan Abdullah al-Turabi whom they saw as the intellectual force behind the `terrorist' regime Sorbonne and London-educated, polite and articulate and suave and urbane, Turabi did not photofit the `fundamentalist' stereotype. He wasn't the hollow demagogue who is ever so ready to play the surrogate. In 1992, Turabi was invited to speak to a Congressional African affairs subcommittee in Washington. He was rudely questioned.

From the US, Turabi went on a short visit to Canada, met external affairs officials in Ottawa and as he arrived at the airport to fly to Montreal, he was set upon by a ready and waiting Karate black belt. The man battered him for close to half an hour, within the sight of the policemen on duty, before they could travel a distance of 10 meters to arrive at the scene. The ambulance took another 40 minutes to take an unconscious and bleeding Turabi to hospital. Everyone was surprised when after weeks of unconsciousness, he `suddenly' recovered his faculties and returned home to face the `bigger' jihad.

The would-be assassin, Hashim Badr Eldin, had been a twice dismissed Sudanese teacher who had come to the US in 1988, one year before the present regime had assumed power. But he had been given political asylum in Canada. He said he was 'a communist, a Ba'athist, an Umma and a supporter of John Garang', and that he had attacked al-Turabi because he was responsible for what had happened in Kuwait - the Iraqi occupation etc. Hashim Badr Eldin was let off after a nominal prosecution. But presumably someone seems to have had come to conclusion there was no point arguing with this intellectual 'terrorist', Hasan Abdullah al-Turabi.

Source: http://www.muslimedia.com/archives/special98/sudan.htm

No picture, though.

I'm sure Bluming could get you an address for Kurosaki, if you wanted to see if Kurosaki remembered the name of the student.

[Ellis Amdur]

Joe -

Thank you very much for the research/reply. The man in question is very definitely not my acquaintance. The dates don't jibe (I thought the assault was much later). Also, even if we put aside hyperbole, and cut the time to a five minute assault, this guy was skilled enough and huge enough that he would have killed Turabi - I imagined he got in a strike or two before being subdued, not a prolonged assault.

Finally, as this guy, whoever he was, has already been released from prison, my inquiry is dead-ended.

Again, I very much appreciate the research.

Thank you

Ellis Amdur