Sudan Revolutionary Front, Dialogue Committee condemn detentions

The chairman of the Sudan Revolutionary Front, Malik Agar, strongly denounced the detention of Faroug Abu Eisa, head of the National Consensus Forces, and Dr Amin Mekki Madani, chairman of the Sudanese Civil Society Initiative, by security forces on Saturday evening. The National Dialogue 7+7 Steering Committee demanded their immediate release, “as well as all other political detainees”. Abu Eisa and Madani were detained for signing the Sudan Appeal document in Addis Ababa on 3 December. The political communiqué, co-signed by the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, an alliance of the main rebel movements) and El Sadig El Mahdi, president of the National Umma Party. In an interview with Radio Dabanga today, Malik Agar called on “all Sudanese, in the country and abroad, to adopt the principles of the Sudan Appeal, and convert the detention of two of its signatories into a mass action to demand their rights and freedoms, and put an end to the wars”. He stated that the Sudan Appeal “aims at establishing a democratic Sudan and the preservation of the unity of Sudan on new foundations that recognise the right of people to be different from others”. Agar, who is also chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, stressed that the rebel movements of the SRF will never agree on any partial peace agreement. “The only document we will sign with the government is an agreement about the elimination of the one-party system, and the formation of a nation built on equal citizenship.” Violation The National Dialogue 7+7 Steering Committee, composed of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and six allied parties on one hand, and seven opposition parties on the other, called the detention of the two opposition leaders a violation of the National Dialogue roadmap agreement and the Addis Ababa Declaration, signed by members of the 7+7 Committee. 7+7 Committee member Hassan Osman Rizig told Radio Dabanga that the detention of the opposition leaders “abuses and hinders the National Dialogue process”. The 7+7 Committee demands all the political detainees’ immediate release, he stated. Rizig, a senior member of the Reform Now Movement, a political party formed in November last year by NCP dissidents, stressed that the Committee condemns “any detention without charges, and keeping the detainees at an unknown destination”. File photo: Malik Agar, chairman of the Sudan Revolutionary Front, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (archive) Related:Sudan’s opposition forces condemn detention of their leaders (7 December 2014) ‘Sudan Appeal fait accompli for Khartoum regime’: rebel leader (4 December 2014) Opposition forces sign ‘Sudan Appeal’ in Addis Ababa (3 December 2014)