Sudan dialogue process to start 25 November: spokesperson

October 17, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The co-spokesperson of the national dialogue committee, Fadel Alsid Shuaib, disclosed on Friday that the internal process will be launched on 25 November.

Speaking on TV talk show Shuaib, he said the national dialogue higher committee reached an agreement on Thursday in a meeting chaired by president Omer Hassan al-Bashir and attended by Hassan al-Turabi, leader of the Popular Congress Party, and Ghazi Salah Addin al-Attabani, chairman of the Reform Now Movement (RNM).

Opposition parties accused the ruling national Congress Party of deliberately delaying the national dialogue in order to hold the general elections of April 2015 and then resuming it. But the government dismissed the accusations and renewed its commitment to the process saying it should not exceed a three-month period.

Thursday’s meeting discussed the agenda of general assembly of the national dialogue which include 83 political parties. The participants also discussed a deal reached with the African Union High level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) on the dialogue and the constitutional process.

In his statements to Ashorooq TV Shuaid hinted that the members of the 7+7 committee endorsed the agreement signed with the AUHIP which is also inked by the rebels, saying that roadmap of the national dialogue forces is not much different from Addis Ababa agreement of 4 September.

“We and arms bearers are not far from the guidelines of the national dialogue,” he stressed.

He said that the president pledged to release the political detainees, pointing this step is designed to create a suitable atmosphere to convince opposition parties that refuse the process and rebels to join it.

“When the dialogue starts, we want to say there is no political prisoners in jails, but the dialogue committee is not concerned by the non-political detainees,” he said.

Bashir issued several decrees in April to ensure political and press freedoms, but the security service arrested the leader of the National Umma Party (NUP), Sadiq al-Mahdi, the chairman of the Sudanese Congress Party, Ibrahim al-Sheikh, and several political and human rights activists.

The 7+7 committee co-spokesperson also said that when the AUHIP chief, Thabo Mbeki, comes to Khartoum soon the national dialogue mechanism “will provide him with all the guarantees required by the rebel groups”.

Delegations from the government and rebel groups in the Two Areas and Darfur had to meet on 12 and 16 October to discuss a cessation of hostilities agreement. But the parallel meetings were cancelled as Khartoum demanded to postpone it due to the national convention of the ruling party.

(ST)