Sudan communist party willing to meet with Bashir: official
September 4, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) has expressed willingness to meet with president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir despite not receiving an official invitation from the government.
Bashir has so far met with the leader of the National Umma Party (NUP) al-Sadiq al-Mahdi and will reportedly hold talks with his longtime foe Hassan al-Turabi who heads the Popular Congress Party (PCP).
The Sudanese leader is reportedly mulling a major political initiative but little details have emerged.
The SCP’s spokesperson, Youssef Hussein, said in press statements on Wednesday that his party enjoys the freedom of holding discussions with all political forces without prejudice to its obligations with the opposition alliance.
Hussein said that his party seeks a dialogue outside the closed-doors and with absolute transparency in order to engage the Sudanese people in national issues without exclusion.
He added that the SCP previously held meetings with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) but it had stopped following the assassination of the University of Gezira’s student, Abu Alaas who he described as a martyr.
The SCP official pointed that their meeting with Bashir differs from their meetings with other officials within the NCP, adding “if an invitation is extended to us, we would accept it and present all opposition demands to the president beginning with the immediate demand to stop the ongoing wars in several states and their disastrous consequences”.
He added that the SCP wouldn’t engage in closed-doors dialogue but rather a transparent one in the open air and said that dialogue requires freedoms and inclusion of all Sudanese people, pointing that the overall atmosphere is not conducive to dialogue.
Hussein further said that the opposition put forward an initiative to the government to hold an inclusive conference leading to a transitional government with specific tasks including drafting the permanent constitution and improving relations with South Sudan.
He pointed that the SCP secretary general, who met with South Sudan’s president, Silva Kiir Mayardit during his recent visit to Khartoum, furnished him with the oppositions’ vision for improving relations between the two countries, adding that the meeting discussed the upcoming political convention of South Sudan’s ruling Sudanese People Liberation Movement (SPLM) which will be attended by representatives from the Sudanese political forces.
(ST)