SPLM-N says opposition unification is crucial to overthrow Bashir’s regime

January 11, 2017 (KHARTOUM) – Yasir Arman, SPLM-N Secretary General, has called for a unified mechanism to coordinate the action of opposition and civil society groups to restore democracy in Sudan, terming the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) as “spent force”.

Arman made his remarks on Tuesday in a speech delivered at the Eldorado Book Center in Oslo where he met with Norwegian officials to brief them about the position of his movement on the stalled peace talks with the government. Norway is a member of the Troika countries (together with the UK and the U.S.) that support the African Union efforts to achieve peace in Sudan.

Despite the repression of political parties and disentitlement of trade union and civil society groups during the past 29 years, Sudanese people have shown they desire to get rid of Bashir’s regime, he said, pointing to the recent waves of civil disobedience protests organized in the country by youth and political activists .

“The youth are sending a clear message that the present regime, does not represent any future for them. Therefore, equally, the regime has no future,” he said. ” It is evident that the expectations are high, and the National Congress is a spent force with nothing to offer,” added the SPLM-N secretary general.

The rebel group which fights the government forces in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states announced its support to the civil disobedience and called on it supporters across the country to participate in the peaceful protests of 27 November and 19 December.

Recently, the Movement signed several political agreements with a number of opposition groups that are against any negotiated settlement with the government. The group also said they are seeking to reunite the rebel umbrella of Sudanese Revolutionary Forces (SRF) factions.

“What is missing, is the unified mechanism that can bring together the oppositions from different backgrounds with a minimal plan of action to remove the NCP government,” Arman said.

He went further to say that only overthrowing the regime can ”bring about a new socio-economic/political dispensation that is in favour of peace, democracy, equal citizenship without discrimination and social justice”.

The SPLM-N, which demands to establish a secular state with a system of government conferring a large autonomy to the regions, is negotiating with the government President Omer al-Bashir since June 2011 weeks after the eruption of war in South Kordofan.

Last March, the African Union mediators proposed the Roadmap Agreement which aims to create a conducive environment to stop war and to hold an inclusive process over the future constitution in Sudan.

However, the parties failed to reach a truce to allow aid workers to reach the needy civilians in the war affected areas. The SPLM-N said the humanitarian file should top the agenda of any initiative to end the conflict and blamed the government for refusing to make any concession, pointing they did a lot to reach an agreement.

“They are only interested in reproducing their old, ugly system. They are not interested in a new agenda of peace and democracy, and their old agenda can never bring national consensus,” he said to explain the government position.

Arman called on the international community to take into account the will of the Sudanese people for regime change, and to stop the normalisation process with Khartoum. He added that government policies toward the international community are “partial and tactical, and based on narrow interests, as they have never led to peace” in Sudan.

(ST)