Sudan’s al-Bashir threatens to punish political parties allied with rebel movements

April 2, 2018 (KHARTOUM) The Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir on Monday said the opposition parties within the Sudan Call must choose between their alliance with the armed movements or the civic action.

In a four-day meeting held in the French capital Paris, the Sudan Call picked Sadiq al-Mahdi, the leader of the National Umma Party as the chairman of the opposition umbrella. The meeting also chose Sudan Liberation Movement leader, Minni Minnawi, as a secretary general of the coalition which encompasses political and armed groups.

Last Friday, al-Mahdi rejected al-Bashir’s veiled threats to punish the opposition parties allied with the rebel groups and vowed to return to Sudan as soon as he finishes his political tasks abroad.

Addressing the Sudanese parliament on Monday, al-Bashir warned he would never allow combining the armed action against the state and the political action under any name.

He pointed out that his warning isn’t meant to “intimidate” the opposition parties but rather to state “a constitutional obligation to fulfil the requirements of the law”.

“A state that has the responsibility before Allah [God] and its constitution can’t allow forces that terrorise, loot and kill its citizens to have political arms inside the country and participate in the political action,” he said.

The Sudanese president underscored that the political forces allied with the armed movements have either to bear arms or engage in political action.

“If they choose to bear arms, we will meet them with the necessary decisiveness and if they choose the political action, they must clearly state that they renounce violence and abandon arms to engage in the political process,” he said.

Al-Bashir also said the government wouldn’t allow the student organizations at the universities to become political arms for the armed movements, vowing to impose security within the universities by the force of law.

The Sudan Call, which was established in Addis Ababa on 3 December 2014, includes the NUP and rebel umbrella of 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).

(ST)