Opposition and civil groups to coordinate action to overthrow Bashir regime
September 28, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Five days after the start of anti-austerity protests in Sudan, opposition forces, youth organisations and trade unions announced the formation of a joint body to coordinate their peaceful activities to bring down the government of president Omer Al-Bashir.
The Coordination of Sudanese Change Forces, according to a communiqué released in Khartoum on Saturday includes the opposition parties members of National Consensus Forces, trade unions of doctors, teachers, democratic lawyers, Khartoum University and the Alliance of Civil Society Organisations.
The communiqué demanded the regime to dissolve its executive and legislative bodies and to hand over the power to a transitional and inclusive government to administrate the country during an interim period.
The signatories said the death toll during the past five days reached 116 victims, adding that this bloody crackdown is consistent with the regime’s repressive policy practiced in Darfur, Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains, but also eastern and northern parts of the country since 1989.
The coordination further demanded to stop the armed conflicts in the different regions, and to lay out the basis of sustainable peace through a comprehensive reconciliation process addressing the root causes of the Sudanese crisis.
The opposition political parties demand since last year to form a national government and a transitional parliament to govern the country during an interim period where an inclusive conference is held to settle the regional conflicts and to agree on principles of a democratic government.
The government of president Omer Al-Bashir failed since the secession of South Sudan in July 2011 to hold a national conference to prepare a new constitution, as the opposition forces say no democratic regime can be founded under the rule of the National Congress Party which controls all the country’s institutions.
The Popular Congress Party of Hassan Al-Turabi disagrees with the other opposition forces on the role of religion in politics as its leader insists that an Islamic constitution should be adopted after the fall of the current regime.
A group of hard-line Islamists existing in parallel to the state’s official clerical authority called the Legitimate League of [Muslim] Clerics and Preachers in Sudan on Saturday issued a statement urging the government to remove the recent austerity measures.
The group of the rigorist Muslim scholars also called to form a new government excluding all those who reject the rule of the Islamic legislation.
(ST)