We understand al-Hilu’s demand but self-determination is not solution for Sudanese crisis: al-Nur

November 11, 2017 (PARIS) – Abdel al-Wahid al-Nur, the leader of Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) expressed his understanding for the demand of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) led Abdel Aziz for self-determination but stressed that it is not a solution for the Sudanese crisis.

Al-Nur made his remarks in a meeting organized in the French capital Paris organised by his movement with the participation of representatives of several opposition groups and civil society activists. Also, the rally was attended by hundreds of his supporters among the Sudanese refugees in France.

“Self-determination is not a gift, but a cardinal principle of the United Nations charter. Anyone who feels persecuted in his own country has the right to decide his own destiny,” said al-Nur on Saturday.

He further said that neither al-Hilu nor the South Sudanese who chose to secede from Sudan were responsible for this situation but the Sudanese state, which treats its citizens unequally.”

“We give those who demand self-determination their right, and we stand with them in one trench to establish the State of which we dream,” he further stressed to express his support and understanding for the SPLM-N al-Hilu.

Last October, the SPLM-N al-Hilu put the right for self-determination at the top of the resolutions of an extraordinary general conference held after a split in the group that fights the government in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.

The opposition forces sought to convince the rebel group to abandon this demand because Sudanese people, in general, reject it and it will question the whole the African Union-led political process to end the war and achieve democratic reforms.

The SLM-AW is not part of the peace process, as it calls for a regime change in the country considering the regime of President Omer al-Bashir would not concede on the Islamic state to establish a secular and multicultural state where the religion is a private matter.

However, he made it clear that the self-determination is not a solution to the Sudanese crisis.

“If it represents a solution I am the most demanding person, but it is not a solution We should not impose solutions people do not consent, but let us sit with each other to find a solution,” he further emphasized.

The SLM-AW dispatched a big delegation to participate in the SPLM-N extraordinary general conference last month. Many saw it as a prelude to a new alliance between the two groups, while the other opposition groups keep seeking to integrate the two factions of the SPLM-N in the broader alliance of the Sudan Call.

When asked by the Sudan Tribune about the SLM-AW position from the unity of the opposition forces in the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and the Sudan Call, al-Nur pointed they are a founding member of the SRF stressing it was established on the principles and goals of his movement.

He further criticized the opposition leaders’ lack of commitment to the signed charters and adherence to their principles.

He pointed that in 2011 his movement launched the New Binging programme and “called all those who believe in the SLM project to join us and we started the SRF based on the SLM principles of secularism, federalism and democracy. Also, one of its important conditions is to change the regime through mass uprising and armed action”.

He added that the SRF leaders had left the founding document and went to Addis Ababa to negotiate with the government.

“We do not want negotiations that would make us employees in the government. We have the right to work on a change project because the regime is corrupt and we have the right to change our country by all the means available to us,” he stressed.
On the Sudan Call alliance, al-Nur said that its groups signed the African Union roadmap agreement after rejecting it, adding that the government itself now does not want this roadmap.

“You have to know that there is a crisis of disrespect for the Sudanese citizen. The leaders of the SRF coalition were talking about change and overthrowing the regime and now they have given up.”

(ST)