Opposition groups uphold rejection of Sudan’s Roadmap Agreement

June 18, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan Call forces that are meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa Saturday have renewed their refusal to join the African Union brokered Roadmap Agreement for peace in Sudan.

In a statement released from Addis Ababa, the opposition Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) said the Sudan Call forces reiterated Saturday their rejection to sign the roadmap unless its position on the dialogue requirements is taken into account.

The meeting has stressed that “No new elements had been introduced in the Roadmap Agreement and that, therefore, it was not necessary to reconsider its earlier decision,” said the SCoP spokesperson Mohamed Hassan Arabi.

Sources close to the meetings in Addis Ababa say the opposition groups are working on a position paper to be filed to the African Union chief mediator Thabo Mbeki.

“If Mbeki accepts their proposal and accepted to add it to the Roadmap Agreement, then they will ink the peace plan afterword,” the sources told Sudan Tribune.

The Sudan call forces say the roadmap ignored other confidence building measures needed to create a conducive environment for the national dialogue conference, such as ensuring political freedoms, release of political detainees and prisoners.

They further blast the peace plan for acknowledging the government controlled dialogue process as basis for the national constitutional dialogue, adding that it also excludes important political and civil society groups.

Arabi further said that the opposition leaders on Saturday reiterated their rejection in a meeting with the U.S Special Envoy Ambassador Donald Booth who discussed with them the peace process and the Roadmap Agreement.

Following a meeting held in Paris last April, the opposition groups said that Booth threatened them with international sanctions if they continue to reject the African Union and United Nations supported roadmap.

The statement said that the SCoP leader Omer al-Digair met with the U.S. special envoy and discussed in details their position on the roadmap.

Al-Digair told the U.S. envoy that “this roadmap established a new path for the political process different from the (African Union ) decisions 456 and 539. Also it disregarded the conditions set out by the opposition for a viable dialogue, ” Arabi said.

In addition, he said the meeting discussed the increasing air strikes on civilians in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile, the issue of political prisoners, particularly the university students.

The SCoP is the only member of the National Consensus Forces coalition to take part in Addis Ababa meeting of the Sudan Call forces.

The Sudanese Communist Party issued a statement against the meeting and called to form ‘Resistance Committees’ in the neighbourhoods, villages and work areas, and to intensify peaceful struggle ‘until the overthrow of the regime”.

(ST)