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July 15, 2014 (KHARTOUM) - The leader of the opposition National Umma Party (NUP) Sadiq al-Mahdi on Tuesday criticised the recent wave of restrictions imposed on political freedoms and announced that they would only resume participation in the national dialogue mechanism if government adopts two laws for the national concord and peace.

Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi (Reuters)

Al-Mahdi, in his first speech to the party’s members since his release on 15 June, expressed optimism about the national dialogue and regretted government statements and deeds seeking to restrict the purpose of national dialogue to fit with its own agenda.

The opposition leader further said under such conditions, the only choice left was to unify all the political and armed opposition forces to work peacefully to achieve peace and re-establish democratic transformation in Sudan.

He reiterated that all these forces should unite under the “National Construction Charter: United Diversity” and use all the means to establish the new regime “except the armed violence”.

However, “if the regime realise the reality of the situation and decided to seriously take proactive steps to achieve the popular and legitimate demands the way forwards is to adjust the national dialogue process", he said.

“The way to do that is to adhere to policies protected from twists and embodied in laws, particularly two laws: the law of the construction of national concord, and peace-building law” added al-Mahdi.

According to the former prime minister, the national concord law should focus on issues related to the democratic transition, with the participation of “the six historical parties” and any other important new political formation. Also said this process should be headed by a neutral chairmanship rejecting the current leadership by president Omer al-Bashir.

Regarding the peace building law, Mahdi pointed that political parties implicated in the national dialogue process should be participate in the peace talks with the rebels groups . he also said the talks with the rebels on Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan should be mediated by the African Union with observers from the international community.

The Sudanese government rejects a demand by rebel groups to unify the two existing tracks for peace in Darfur and the Two Areas.

The NUP suspended its participation in the national dialogue following the detention of its leader in May because he criticized the government militia saying they committed crimes in Darfur. After his release, Mahdi said there is a need to review the current process.

Last Thursday the national dialogue mechanism held a meeting without the NUP and the Reform Now Party (RNP) led by the former presidential adviser Ghazi Salah al-Deen al-Attabani.

The RNP, which is established by a splinter group from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), said Monday they decide on resuming their participation in the process after a meeting of its leadership council.

Another, Islamist party, the Popular Congress Party (PCP) of Hassan al-Turabi refused to suspend its participation in the national dialogue saying all the current difficulties can be resolved within the existing mechanisms.

Turabi’s party also said they would seek to persuade the NUP and RNP to rejoin the national dialogue.

RNP RESUMES ITS PARTICIPATION IN THE NATIONAL DIALOGUE

Following a meeting held on Tuesday, the RNP political bureau decided to end its boycott of the political process vowing to work for a large political consensus to end war and restore democracy in Sudan.

"In consideration of demands from our political partners in the mechanism of national dialogue, based developments occurring in the path of dialogue and in order to test the government’s seriousness towards dialogue and its outputs, the political bureau decided to activate the participation of the Movement in the 7 +7 Committee and evaluate the subsequent political positions to the Movement in accordance with the outputs of the upcoming meetings," said a statement released at the end of the meeting.

"The RNP political bureau decided to coordinate with all political forces to achieve political consensus through a national project that gathers all Sudanese on the minimum necessary to build a state of justice", further said the communiqué.
(ST)