Reduction in Sudan’s national dialogue sessions causes drop in attendance
November 17, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – A change in the format of the Sudanese national dialogue sessions has created confusion and led a decline in attendance of participants by almost 50%.
The national dialogue conference kicked off in Khartoum October 10th amid boycott of main opposition parties and armed movements.
But Ibrahim al-Radi, a member of the subcommittee on fundamental rights and freedoms from the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) told journalists on Tuesday that the participants were not consulted on this change.
Low attendance has ensued, he said and demanded the reinstatement of the old regime else parties will stop participating.
“Most rebels complain of lack of attention to them and have left due to logistical issues,” he said which makes it imperative to improve their living conditions.
Meanwhile, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM- Savannah) claimed that it had received threats from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) over demands for transitional government.
The official from the rebel group by the name of Saad Eddin al-Tayeb said the ruling party has threatened to strip their movement from their posts if it continues to propose a transitional government,
“These are provocative threats and we consider it a betrayal of national dialogue,” he said.
He called on the president to encourage interlocutors to continue the dialogue and to eliminate restrictive laws.
“We will continue to ask for the transitional period.. with a term of five years in which the country is run by technocrats to design a system of governance and achieve comprehensive national reconciliation,” al-Tayeb said.
Another participant, the National Democratic Forum (NDF) called for amending the National Security Act of 2010, and lifting the immunity of corrupt officials and abolishing censorship of newspapers and the media.
(ST)