Junta, opposition poised to sign general features of Sudan agreement

The joint technical committee of Sudan’s ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the opposition Alliance for Freedom and Change (AFC), a committee that includes lawyers of both parties, reviewed the final agreement document between the two sides on Tuesday.

The negotiation teams of the TMC and AFC held a similar meeting yesterday to review the general features of the final document of the agreement.

Khalid Omar, Secretary-general of the Sudanese Congress Party and leading member of the AFC told Radio Dabanga that the meeting of the two parties was to review the general features of the agreement document to be signed within the next two days. After that they will start the implementation of what was agreed upon after the completion of consultations on the terms of the document within various blocks of the AFC, especially the armed movements who are currently meeting with AFC leaders in Addis Ababa.

Armed movements

Meetings have started in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa between representatives of the AFC and the armed movements signatory to the Declaration for Freedom and Change (Sudan Liberation Movement headed by Minni Minawi, the Justice and Equality Movement, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North under the leadership of Malik Agar) in an attempt to control the differences after the media controversy between members of the AFC on the agreement with the TMC, in which the rebel groups accused the AFC of marginalisation and exclusion of the role of the armed movements.

Minawi, who is also chairman of the Sudan Revolutionary Front coalition of armed movements, said in a statement on Friday that the agreement “does not reflect the country’s pressing issues nor respects its sacrifices”, stressing that “any agreement not based on peace-making is an extension of the old regime”.

Therefore, the SPLM-N Agar proposed holding this meeting under auspices of the African Union in the Ethiopian capital “to formulate a clear political vision and map the answers to the historical questions of governance issues” and “to link the democratic transition to a just peace”.

According to SPLM-N deputy chairman Yasir Arman, the AFC reflected once again the dilemma of the Sudanese leaders in 1956, when the country became independent without involving the southern Sudanese and the marginalised majority of the people outside the capital and gave them multiple promises to consider their demand for federalism.

“Now we go the same way with a vision that sets aside the issues of marginalisation, just peace, and restructuring of the state,” Arman stated.

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