National interest imposes meeting with rebel groups outside Sudan: Spokesperson

September 12, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s National Dialogue Committee, known as (7+7), said its planned meeting with armed groups outside Sudan was ‘a necessity dictated by the national interest’, not an indication of weakness.

Last week, the Committee announced its readiness to hold a preparatory national dialogue meeting in Addis Ababa with the rebel groups, but stressed that such a meeting should only discuss procedural matters pertaining to the safety of the attendees, and should not delve into any of the dialogue agendas.

Last August, the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) called on the government and the opposition to a meeting at the AU headquarters in preparation for a comprehensive national dialogue but the government vehemently refused to the pre-dialogue meeting voicing its opposition to foreign involvement in the process.

Committee member and spokesperson Fadel-Alsid Shuaib told the semi-official Sudan Media Center on Saturday that the current activities and meetings of the armed groups in France might drive things in directions that would not serve the interest of the dialogue, due to what he called ‘external agendas’

The political official was alluding to a meeting the rebel umbrella Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SFR), held, last Wednesday in Paris with foreign diplomat and special envoys to discuss ways to bring peace in Sudan.

Shuaib further said the Committee “is driving the national dialogue process ‘prudently, without any bargains or personal agenda’ so as to cruise our country to safety.”

He underscored that the rebel groups who were previously calling to the toppling of the regime militarily, and sometimes through a popular uprising, have changed their approach after the Committee was created, and became more open to dialogue.

The dialogue spokesperson added they tend to make some comments that ‘might be read by some as preconditions’.

He stressed that the Committee’s agreement to meet with the rebel groups must not be read as a sign of weakness, insisting that it had been dictated by the national interest in the present circumstances.

President al-Bashir had made a call for national dialogue in January 2014. But the government refusal to create conducive environment for the dialogue pushed political forces that supported the process initially to walk out and discouraged those who have some reserves to keep themselves far from the process.

(ST)