Sudan Call suspends all dialogue with Al Bashir regime

The Sudan Call alliance of opposition parties and armed movements has confirmed its withdrawal from all dialogue initiatives offered by the Sudanese government, as well as the Roadmap brokered by the African Union High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP).

The announcement was made after two days of meetings in Paris. The alliance stressed that “there is no dialogue nor negotiations with the regime except on the process of [the Al Bashir regime] stepping down and handing over power to the representatives of the people who will lead the transition.

The alliance is part of the signatories to the Declaration of Freedom and Change, which has been a major mover in calling-out the protests. that have spread to towns and cities across Sudan since mid-December last year.

SAUHIP roadmap is ‘Document of the past’

The statement stressed that the Sudan Call signatories to the Roadmap in Addis Ababa in August 2016, decided to withdraw from the roadmap as “a document of the past and not fully binding” for the alliance.

The armed force members of the Sudan Call also decided to suspend all forms of negotiations with “the genocidal regime”, stressing that “the issues of stopping the war and building peace occupy an advanced position in the priorities of the transitional period”, and that “solutions to their root causes and their effects will be included in the charters of the Declaration of Freedom and Change through clear and detailed formulae that link the cause of peace with democracy and social justice.”

Strengthening cooperation

The alliance pledged to strengthen its cooperation with other signatories of the Declaration of Freedom and Change, in which they would be active alongside their allies in the Sudanese Professionals Association, the National Consensus Forces, the Unionists’ gathering and all other forces signatory to the declaration.

The meeting decided to push in the direction of developing this coordination and expanding it in accordance with an initiative that aims to transform it into a front that will “bring down the regime, dissolve the state of totalitarianism and empowerment and rebuild the country on a just basis”.

Regarding the position of Islamists who want change, democracy, accountability and are dissidents of the regime, the members of Sudan Call stressed in their statement that “the Sudanese revolution does not carry an exclusionary agenda but is against exclusion and for inclusiveness in the first place, and that building the nation in the future requires the concerted efforts of all its sons and daughters”.

The Sudan Call stressed that “the revolution will not act to exclude any person or group, but shall not grant immunity from accountability for any of the criminal and corrupt against the right of the people”.

Sudan Armed Forces

The statement asserts that the Sudan Armed Forces have been subjected to the process of systematic structural destruction for the purpose of the adoption of partisan and ideological during the years of this regime. “Despite this systematic destruction, the army and other regular bodies must be professional institutions and represent all Sudanese. The army and the other regular bodies are now duty-bound to stand up to the choices of the masses to protect the revolutionaries rather than to be involved in protecting a corrupt minority regime and to carry out their constitutional duties to protect the country within a democratic system that reflects the will of the Sudanese people.”

International community

The meetings, which began in Paris on Monday, were attended by representatives of the governments of France, Britain, Norway, the EU and the USA.

Sudan Call leadership conveyed to them the messages of the Sudanese revolution and the demands of the Sudanese people, calling on them to stop dialogue with the ruling Sudanese regime, not to remove the Sudanese regime from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, and to support the Sudanese people in establishing transitional democratic arrangements.

They assured them that change would inevitably occur in Sudan to address priority issues for the Sudanese and provide a healthy relationship between Sudan and the regional and international community.