Sudan pardons opposition figure, to offer amnesty to exiled opponents
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec 18, 2004 (AP) — Sudan pardoned a jailed opposition figure Saturday and would offer amnesty to many Sudanese exiles living in Egypt, Eritrea and Britain, a human rights activist said after meeting with President Omar el-Bashir.
Government officials could not be reached to confirm the account of Ghazi Suleiman, head of the private Sudanese Organization for Human Rights. However, part of Suleiman’s account was carried by the official state-run news agency.
Suleiman, in remarks to the Sudan News Agency, said el-Bashir had taken a “constructive step” by ordering the release of Ret. Brig. Gen. Abdel-Aziz Khaled, who leads a small rebel group called the Sudan Alliance Forces.
Khaled, who had been living in Egypt, was arrested in September on arriving in the United Arab Emirates and later was deported to Sudan. He was accused of leading armed opposition and masterminding pipeline bombings in eastern Sudan.
Suleiman, SUNA reported, called on opposition leaders to return home and participate in a dialogue with the government.
“After this pardon, there is no reason why anybody should stay outside Sudan,” he was quoted as saying.
Separately, Suleiman told The Associated Press he had asked el-Bashir on Saturday to offer amnesty to all members of opposition groups originally from northern Sudan, many of whose members live in exile in Egypt, Eritrea and Britain.
“He approved our request and also ordered the immediate release of detained armed opposition leader Ret. Brig. Abdel-Aziz Khaled,” Suleiman told the AP.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many people would be affected if such an amnesty were to materialize.
Farouq Abu Essa, a Cairo-based leader of the National Democratic Alliance umbrella group largely of northern Sudanese parties, was unaware of any amnesty.
Abu Essa, assistant secretary-general of the NDA, said the group hadn’t sought any sort of pardons in talks three months ago in Cairo with Sudanese government officials that were aimed at reaching a power-sharing formula.
“We were asking for democracy during our meetings with them. We didn’t do more than that,” Abu Essa said.
The National Democratic Alliance, which has its headquarters in Eritrea, is a largely northern grouping of 14 political parties, trade union representatives and rebel armies. It includes the main southern rebel group, the Sudan’s People Liberation Army, but the amnesty reportedly only included northern groups.
The NDA also includes the Sudanese Communist Party, the Democratic Unionist Party and Arab Baath party, all of whom opposed attempts to impose Islamic rule and fled Sudan after the 1989 coup that brought el-Bashir to power.
El-Bashir long has accused the opposition of sabotage attacks in Sudan.