Mbeki to propose all parties meeting in Addis Ababa over Sudan dialogue
September 9, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The head of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), Thabo Mbeki, will meet with Sudanese president Omer al-Bashir on Wednesday to discuss the organisation of an all parties conference on the national dialogue.
The 4 September declaration of principles provides that the national dialogue “shall start upon agreeing on rules and procedures on which dialogue will be conducted”.
African and Western diplomats confirmed to Sudan Tribune that Mbeki’s meeting with Bashir aims to hold an all parties conference in Addis Ababa next month to reach a framework agreement for the internal political process.
The meeting should include rebel groups of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and opposition forces of the National Consensus Front (NCF), including the National Umma Party (NUP).
President Bashir and different officials in the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) previously rejected any attempt to hold the process outside the country. They also showed fierce opposition to any foreign intervention in the dialogue, saying it should be a “100% Sudanese” operation.
However, a source close to the file expected that president Bashir would accept the idea, stressing that its purpose is to facilitate the internal process and not to replace it. He further alluded that the former South African president would not embark on such an enterprise without encouragement from Khartoum.
The SRF forces demand that a comprehensive humanitarian cessation of hostilities agreement should be reached before the dialogue process. The rebel groups also want to finalise an agreements on the security arrangements and administrative and political situation in conflict-affected areas.
But Khartoum says it’s only ready for a ceasefire agreement to be negotiated in the context of security arrangements.
Opposition forces also demand to be involved throughout the entire process, saying they refuse to be excluded from peace talks as was the case in the Naivasha process with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement on South Sudan.
MBEKI IN DOHA BEFORE KHARTOUM
On Tuesday, the AUHIP chief met with the Qatari deputy prime minister Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud in Doha to brief him on the 4 September agreement on national dialogue with the rebel groups, and the all parties gathering he wants to propose to president Bashir.
The meeting discussed the ongoing efforts of the African mediation to involve Darfur armed groups that have not signed the Doha Document for Peace (DDPD) in the national dialogue, said the Qatari news agency (QNA).
The agency said that the meeting, which was attended by Darfur peace mediator Mohamed Ibn Chambas, further examined ways to involve the non-signatories in the comprehensive process on the basis of the DDPD.
QNA underscored that Al Mahmoud held a separate meeting with Chambas to discuss the DDPD implementation and the recent integration of 1300 combatants from the former rebel Justice and Equality Movement-Sudan in the Sudanese army (SAF).
(ST)