President Bashir to meet Sudan’s dialogue mechanism

July 3, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The national dialogue mechanism known as”7 +7″, announced Friday that a meeting with Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, will be held before the end of the month of Ramadan to discuss the launch of the dialogue process.

On Thursday al-Bashir who is also the chairman of the National Congress Party (NCP) directed his party to prepare in cooperation with the 7+7 to convene the national dialogue following Eid al-Fitr holiday within two weeks.

7+7 member and head of the Liaison Committee with the rebel movements Ahmed Saad Omer told the pro-government SMC that they would meet president al-Bashir before the end of Ramadan. He further pointed that the dialogue mechanism will meet before to assess the efforts done to resume the internal process.

“The Coordinating Committee will immediately contact political forces participating in the dialogue, to resume its works in preparation for the comprehensive dialogue,” Omer further said.

He called on the rebels and the holdout political forces, to listen to the voice of reason and to join the national dialogue process, renewing pledges to provide all the guarantees for their safety.

The Sudanese president said the dialogue process should be held inside the country without foreign participation and pledged to ensure the safety of the rebel delegations during the national conference and to allow them to leave the country if no agreement is reached.

Sudanese armed groups and political parties issued last February Berlin Declaration where they accepted to meet the ruling party in a preparatory meeting in Addis Ababa brokered by the African Union to discuss the procedures and issues related to the national dialogue.

However, one month later, the ruling party rejected an invitation by the African Union facilitators to participate in the pre-dialogue meeting, and vowed to consider it after the general elections.

In April, the holdout forces, including rebel and opposition groups, called for a new process mediated by the African Union and involving the international community. The “Sudan Call” forces questioned the seriousness of the government initiated national dialogue process.

While the international community is divided over the way forward in order to bring peace in Sudan, the head of African Union mediation team which is tasked with the facilitation of the internal process Thabo Mbeki didn’t show up or indicate his plans to bring the Sudanese parties to the negotiating table.

(ST)