Sudanese opposition talks continue in Cairo as two groups pull out
CAIRO, Oct 23 (AFP) — Reconciliation talks between Khartoum and opposition groups continued Saturday as the Sudanese government, threatened with UN sanctions over Darfur, sought to garner more domestic support.
The Egyptian-sponsored talks between the government and the National Democratic Alliance, which had broken off in August, resumed on Friday with the aim of reaching a comprehensive nationwide peace deal.
“It’s going well so far, both sides are working hard,” said Abdul Rahman Saeed, vice chairman of the 14-strong NDA umbrella group, which groups opposition movements from around Sudan.
The NDA includes some of the most important players on the Sudanese political scene such as the Democratic Unionist Party, the second largest of Sudan’s traditional political parties, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.
An agreement with the NDA — which represents the main challenge to the regime of President Omar al-Beshir — and the SPLM would end Africa’s longest-running civil war in the south of the country and strengthen Beshir’s position.
Beshir has come under unprecedented international pressure recently over his government’s involvement in massacres of civilians in the strife-torn western Darfur region, home to what the United Nations calls the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crisis.
According to commentators, the government is trying to break its domestic isolation by fostering alliances with its old rivals, who in turn see the international context as favourable for forwarding their agenda.
One of the two main Darfur rebel movements is represented in the Cairo talks, which are held under the patronage of Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, separately from negotiations in the Nigerian capital Abuja between Khartoum and both main rebel factions.
Saeed told AFP the government and the NDA had formed four joint committees which are negotiating constitutional, political, economic issues and matters such as security arrangements and elections.
Two small groups based in eastern Sudan, the Beja Congress and the Free Lions’ Movement, withdrew from the discussions Saturday after the NDA rejected their demand for separate talks with the government, he said.
“Unfortunately the Beja Congress and the Free Lions have pulled out,” said Saeed. “They wanted a different forum, we did not agree with them,” he added.
They insisted they had different grievances from those of other NDA members and preferred to table them at a forum similar to the ongoing African Union-sponsored negotiations between the government and Darfur rebels in Abuja.
They maintain that their region has suffered the same problems as in Darfur, including political and economic marginalization by the north.