Sudan’s PCP denies reports of imminent meeting between Bashir & Turabi

August 20, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) has dismissed reports on an imminent summit between its leader Hassan Al-Turabi and president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, accusing circles within the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of bringing up the issue of uniting Islamists in order to abort the opposition plans to topple the regime.

On Friday, the PCP Deputy Secretary General Ibrahim al-Sanoosi took part in a demonstration organized by various Islamic groups to denounce last week’s crackdown by the Egyptian government on supporters of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi that led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries and drew strong condemnation by the west

Al-Sanoosi appeared alongside the Islamic Movement (IM) Secretary General and NCP’s leading figure Al-Zubair Ahmed Al-Hassan and they both called for the unity of the Sudanese Islamists in order to confront what they called the “secularists and the infiltrators”.

However, the PCP’s Secretary General Kamal Omer at a press conference on Saturday described Al-Sanoosi remarks as personal that do not represent the official stance of the party’s institutions.

On Tuesday, Turabi held an emergency meeting with the PCP political secretariat and entrusted them with sending assurances to their allies in the opposition, saying that rapprochement with the NCP is impossible because the gap between the two parties is too wide.

Omer said that he discussed with Turabi the speculations on the unity of the Islamists being within reach and a possible meeting with Bashir. He described these reports as an attempt to create political confusion underscoring the “huge differences” the PCP has with the ruling party.

The MP from the NCP, Abbas Al-Khidir, asserted in press statements on Monday that Turabi and Bashir will meet soon to discuss the practical steps towards Islamists unity.

Al-Khidir, who heads the Islamists unification initiative, predicted that reconciliation could take place anytime and disclosed that he met with Turabi for 3 hours without revealing the meeting details.

He further pointed that the two parties are currently consulting on the basis for unification and whether they should integrate both parties or remain separate and cooperate, saying that things are going in the right direction.

The NCP figure went on to say that unification of the Islamists has become imperative in order to confront the secular scheme which aims to eliminate them and recalled recent events in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya emphasizing that Sudan is not immune from the secular threat.

Al-Khidir said that reunification of the two parties is not “daydreaming” and cited the PCP’s leading figure, Abu-Bakr Abdel-Razig, who said that their alliance with the opposition is not strategic, pointing to the speech of Al-Sanoosi in which he called for the unity of the Islamists.

In contrast, Omer stressed that the PCP is committed to its alliance with opposition parties which calls for an interim government in order to bypass the country’s current crises.

He accused the NCP of fabricating reports in daily newspapers and disclosed that the PCP has questioned him for holding the press conference without consulting with the general secretariat.

The PCP official stressed that integrating with the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) is more likely than with the NCP, saying “a believer is not bitten from the same hole twice”.

Meanwhile, the NCP welcomed the call for uniting the Islamists and described those people who are standing behind it as “historical and influential leaders within the PCP”, underscoring that both parties should engage in dialogue without preconditions.

The NCP’s organizational secretary, Hamid Sideeg, said in press statements on Tuesday that the call for Islamist unity was initiated by al-Sanoosi and endorsed by the IM Secretary General.

He pointed to the conditions put forward by the PCP, expressing hope that the dialogue between the two parties could progress without preconditions in order for the unity initiative to succeed.

The PCP split from the NCP following 1999’s bitter power struggle between president Bashir and Turabi. The latter was ousted from his post as parliament speaker he was holding at the time.

Turabi afterwards established the PCP and has since been a vociferous critic of the very regime whose army-backed seizure of power in 1989 he orchestrated.

(ST)