Sudan Call leadership to meet to discuss support for civil disobedience: Arman
December 13, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – The rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N) said that consultations are underway to hold an urgent meeting for the leadership of the opposition umbrella Sudan Call to discuss support for the December 19th civil disobedience.
Sudanese opposition forces and armed groups expressed support for the general strike and called upon their affiliates to play an active role to ensure its success.
On Monday, Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir said the civil disobedience wouldn’t topple his government stressing he won’t hand over the country to those who hide behind the “keyboards”.
In a letter addressed to the Sudanese people seen by Sudan Tribune Tuesday, SPLM-N Secretary General Yasir Arman has urged his movement’s members and supporters to participate effectively in the civil disobedience and join the general strike’s committees in the various villages, towns and neighborhoods.
He pointed that the participation of the regions and peripheries would secure the success of the strike and the popular uprising, calling for the need to determine the timeframe of the civil disobedience carefully in order to ensure its success.
Arman also called for establishing a unified leadership centre for the forces of change, revealing that the SPLM-N is making external contacts in several countries to support the civil disobedience and release of political prisoners.
“SPLM-N is making contacts along with others to hold an urgent meeting for the Sudan Call leadership. The movement also proposed to hold consultations with other opposition alliances and professional groups and forces of 27 November,” he said.
The rebel leader added that “the battle against the regime is complex and requires patience, determination”, saying the discussion of a proposal to establish a shadow government is premature and will divide the opposition instead of unifying it.
“We must first agree on the programme and the unified centre of the forces of change,” he said.
He pointed that Sudanese security has prevented any visits to the political detainees, saying some of them have been transferred secretly to a prison in El-Fasher, North Darfur capital.
Sudanese authorities recently arrested over 40 opposition figures and activists following the increase of fuel, electricity and drugs price.
The Sudan Call, which was established in Addis Ababa on 3 December 2014, includes the National Umma Party (NUP), the two factions of the rebel umbrella Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF), and the Civil Society Initiative (CSI).
Sudan Call internal groups include the Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP), Sudanese Baath Party (SBP), Center Alliance Party (CAP), Sudanese National Party (SNP) and Sudanese National Alliance (SNA).
CARTER CENTER MEETING
Meanwhile, Arman said the SPLM-N boycotted the meeting organized by Carter Center in Nairobi to discuss Sudan’s peace, pointing they told them that “there would be no talks with the regime and al-Bashir should step down according to a new transitional arrangements and a new regime”.
He pointed that al-Bashir had dispatched a delegation to meet with former President Jimmy Carter in Georgia, Atlanta to ask him to mediate between Khartoum and Washington.
On 7 December, Carter Center said a delegation of experts would conduct meetings to explore ways to bring peace in Sudan, pointing the meetings “are not part of the official mediation that the African Union is conducting, but rather supplemental, exploratory gatherings designed to begin to identify points of common ground among all key Sudanese parties”.
However, SPLM-N apologized for not attending the proposed meeting with the Carter Center experts in Nairobi, saying the movement decided to stop all political contacts with the regime.
(ST)