Opposition alliance renews calls on AUHIP for meeting on Sudan peace process
April 18, 2017 (KHARTOUM) – The opposition alliance Sudan Call Tuesday has called on the African Union mediators to meet them to discuss the way forward on the peace process.
The call comes after a visit of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) chief Thabo Mbeki to Khartoum from 7 to 9 April where he met with the Sudanese government officials and National Umma Party (NUD) leader Sadiq al-Mahdi.
“As President Mbeki has been to Khartoum twice in recent months for meetings with the Government of Sudan, it is only fair that he should also meet the Sudan Call so that he is fully informed of its joint position before he briefs the African Union Peace and Security Council,” said the statement.
While in Khartoum, Mbeki said the government is committed to the roadmap and the comprehensive implementation of the roadmap, adding he would convene a meeting with the opposition in Addis Ababa to discuss the matter before to convene a meeting between them and the Sudanese government led dialogue mechanism.
However, in a statement issued after his visit on 10 April, he indicated that the AUHIP has proposed to hold a meeting between the National Dialogue High Implementation Committee and the Sudan Call forces “to discuss the implementation of the dialogue outcomes, including the composition of the committee”.
“The Sudan Call does not concur with some of the points mentioned in the AU’s statement on 10 April 2017 and would welcome the chance to discuss these with the Panel,” said a statement signed by the two factions of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), NUP, Civil Society Initiative and the Sudan Call Parties inside Sudan.
“Sudan Call leaders, therefore, renew their request to meet the AUHIP as soon as possible so that the views of all parties are taken into account in the Panel’s deliberations on the way forward,” stressed the statement.
On 11 April, the Sudan Call Parties criticised the AUHIP statement saying it only expressed “the desire of the regime to hold a distorted dialogue on the basis of internal dialogue which we had rejected”.
The joint statement says the opposition groups are committed to the Road Map Agreement, adding they are ready to implement it on the basis of the understandings it sought from the Panel in its letter to President Mbeki of 22 July 2016.
“The Sudan Call made clear in this letter and in its subsequent press statement of 8 August 2016 that it would only be willing to take part in a national constitutional dialogue if a satisfactory agreement could be reached with the Government of Sudan on how to end the war, deliver humanitarian relief to the war affected populations, establish a framework for conducting a genuine dialogue and create a conducive environment, including basic freedoms” said the opposition groups.
(ST)