Sudan’s SRF welcomes visit of Islamist figure

January 27, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) announced that an Islamist figure has arrived in Uganda to meet with its officials for discussions on the recently signed “New Dawn” charter.

The SRF is a coalition between the armed rebel groups fighting the Sudanese army in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

The umbrella group signed the new charter, along with most Sudanese opposition parties, which calls for the overthrow of the government, restructuring state institutions and preventing exploitation of religion in politics.

The Sudanese government fiercely criticised the deal calling it an attempt to change Sudan’s Islamic identity.

Yousif al-Koda, leader of the Islamic Wasat Party, has publicly announced earlier this month that he is joining the ranks of the opposition which calls for toppling the regime led by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

SRF’s media officer Abu al-Gasim Imam said that al-Koda’s arrival in Kampala is a clear response to the “fabrications” of the NCP and Sudanese clerics who denounced the “New Dawn” charter as blasphemy that is backed by the west and Zionist forces.

“We are people with a cause and a goal not people with an obscene tongue,” Imam said.

The SRF official praised al-Koda’s stance, which the Islamist opposition leader says is aimed at restoring peace, democracy and freedom, adding that his ideas will improve the charter.

In announcing that he is moving to the opposition, al-Koda slammed the NCP headed by president Omer Hassan al-Bashir, accusing it of exercising repression.

His decision drew a strong rebuke from the NCP which said the Islamist figure is now on the side of secularists who want to separate religion and the state.

But al-Koda brushed aside the government’s criticism, saying that he didn’t join the opposition to transform their views on religion but to rid the country from the NCP’s oppression.

(ST)