Sudan’s dialogue body reiterates readiness to kick off dialogue next week
September 2, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s dialogue coordination mechanism known as 7+7 has confirmed its readiness to launch the dialogue conference on October 10th, stressing that holdout opponents and rebels would take part in the conference.
He pointed that holdout opposition and rebel groups are welcome to take part in the conference at any time provided that their participation comes before producing the final document of the dialogue.
Hamid said the dialogue conference would convene on October 10 th and will discuss six major issues, pointing it is expected to produce a document addressing Sudan’s entire issues.
He described the domestic and external environment in which the conference would be held as “favourable”, saying the presidency is committed to implement the outcome of the conference.
The presidential aide pointed out that a limited number of foreign bodies have been invited to attend the conference including the African Union, Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
He praised the role of the Chadian president Idris Deby in achieving peace in Sudan, demanding him to make more efforts to convince the Darfur rebels to join the dialogue conference.
The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir launched the national dialogue initiative in January 2014 but the process suffered major setbacks after the withdrawal of the NUP and the RNM and non-participation of the rebels as well as leftist forces.
For his part, the leading figure at the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and member of the 7+7 committee, Ahmed Saad Omer, disclosed that his party’s leader Mohamed Osman al-Merghani will participate in the conference, saying the latter is very keen on the success of the dialogue.
He said that DUP delegates to the dialogue conference include Mohamed al-Hassan al-Merghani, Abdel-Rahman Saeed and himself, pointing that an internal committee was formed to develop their party’s views on the conference issues.
Meanwhile, the political secretary of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) and member of the 7+7 mechanism, Kamal Omer, said the government has opened its arms to confront Sudan’s issues in an unprecedented manner.
He praised the presidential decrees to pardon rebel leaders and to declare a unilateral ceasefire, saying those decrees offer more guarantees for the success of the dialogue.
“The head of the 7+7 mechanism is also the president of the Sudan and he is the guarantor and executor of the dialogue’s outcome,” he added.
Omer criticized the holdout forces describing their demands as “not objective”.
“Dialogue has silenced many tongues and many [opposition] parties who thought that dialogue is nothing but a futile [process] and waste of time … arguments put forward by those forces [to reject the dialogue] are now over and I expect that many of them would sit [participate] in the dialogue,” he added.
He expected that the leader of the opposition National Umma Party (NUP) al-Sadig al-Mahdi will participate in the dialogue conference, saying the latter is the closest person to the dialogue process.
The PCP official criticized the stance of the Reform Now Movement (RNM) led by Ghazi Salah al-Din towards the dialogue, saying it refused to participate in the dialogue for non-objective reasons.
Omer who travelled with Hamid two days ago to Ndjamena praised the efforts of the Chadian president, saying Deby would travel to France to promote the dialogue internationally and to convince the rebel groups to participate in the conference.
Deby who arrived Thursday in Paris, may meet with the leaders of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM).
The Chadian presidency in a statement released on Friday said that Deby will discuss with his French counterpart security issues in the region and matters of common interests for the two countries.
Omer revealed that the dialogue coordination body will send invitations to political forces to participate in the dialogue conference, saying all holdout forces including the Sudanese Communist Party, the Sudanese Congress Party and the armed movements will receive the invitation.
Political and armed holdout groups refuse to join the dialogue process under the current conditions, asking first to stop war, allow humanitarian access to civilians in the rebel held areas, hold a pre-dialogue meeting abroad and to ensure political freedoms.
(ST)