“Sudan Call” to discuss joint position on African peace roadmap: SPLM-N
June 10, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N) Friday said the “Sudan Call” forces would hold a mini meeting to arrive at a unified stance towards the Roadmap Agreement proposed by the African mediation.
However, the opposition groups, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), National Umma Party (NUP), SPLM-N and Sudan Liberation Movement-Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) refused to sign the roadmap saying it excludes other opposition groups and acknowledges the government controlled process as a basis for the constitutional reform process.
Following a meeting held last week to discuss the opposition refusal of the Roadmap, NUP leader al-Sadiq al-Mahdi said he agreed with the AUHIP chairman Thabo Mbeki to hold a meeting with the Sudan Call forces to discuss the matter.
In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune Friday, SPLM-N pledged to ensure the success of the upcoming meeting and to seek to reach a positive stance that promotes the unity of the Sudan Call and achieves its demand for holding an equal national dialogue.
“Change is inextricably linked to the unity of the opposition parties and the pursuit of change wouldn’t be achieved without seeking to unify the political and civil society forces” read the statement.
The statement stressed the need for making a joint decision and holding joint consultations among the opposition alliance to reach a collective position, adding that “no party within the Sudan Call could act on behalf of the rest of the alliance forces”.
The opposition National Consensus Forces (NCF) Wednesday distanced itself from al-Mahdi’s meeting with Mbeki, saying such meetings seek “a way out for the regime and not for the people who are suffering under its rule,”
The NCF is a member of the Sudan Call coalition but says the regime is not credible and points that the popular uprising is the best way to achieve regime change.
The chief mediator form his side, deals in his peace initiative with the forces that signed an agreement with his panel on the national dialogue on 5 September 2014 including the JEM, NUP, SLM-MM and the SPLM-N.
The statement further said that the meeting would discuss ways for handling the Roadmap, stressing the outcome of the meeting will serve the Sudanese issue and the equal national dialogue besides putting the relationship with the mediators on the right path.
It added that meeting would include the Sudan Call’s presidential coordination council besides delegates from the alliance parties, saying the meeting comes following “attempts to break the stalemate in the peace process and the Sudan Call refusal to sign the Roadmap for objective reasons that are consistent with our people’s desire for change”.
The SPLM-N stressed that its leadership has held consultations with their allies in the Sudan Revolutionary Forces (SRF) and the Sudan Call besides influential regional leaders and international parties and concluded that the upcoming meeting is crucial in order to arrive at a joint and binding stance particularly after the developments that followed the recent Paris meeting of the Sudan Call.
It further pointed that Sudan Call real battle is against the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) which “requires us to make diligent and patient efforts with the regional and international community to put the record straight and force the NCP regime to bear its responsibility for refusing to execute the AU and the international legitimacy resolutions and for conquering the Sudanese people and destabilizing the regional and international stability”.
The statement pointed to the need to bring the issue of the humanitarian situation and human rights violations including the aerial bombing of civilians and arbitrary detention and dismissal of university students to the regional and international forums to put more pressures on the regime.
Since 2011, the SPLM-N has been fighting the Sudanese army and its allied militia in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
(ST)