Sudan’s Umma Party may boycott Addis AUHIP meeting

The Sudan Appeal signatories have informed the envoy of the AU High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) about the conditions for their participation in the Addis Ababa preparatory meeting for the National Dialogue. The National Umma Party (NUP) has threatened to boycott the meeting if their demands are not met.

In a meeting with AUHIP Envoy Haile Menkerios in Khartoum, representatives of the NUP and the National Consensus Forces (NCF, a coalition of opposition parties) handed him a copy of the Berlin Declaration, and explained their conditions for the preparatory meeting.

Tarig Abdel Majeed, one of the NCF leaders told Radio Dabanga that they informed Menkerios that they had tasked the NUP and the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance to represent them in the proposed Addis Ababa meeting. The NCF refuses to join the talks, as long as their leader, Faroug Abu Eisa, remains in detention.

In the last week of February, the Sudan Appeal signatories met in the German capital to discuss their positions concerning the National Dialogue, proposed by President Al Bashir in January last year. On 27 February, they signed a joint position document, which became known as the Berlin Declaration.

In Berlin, the allied opposition forces agreed to take part in an AU brokered preparatory meeting in Addis Ababa, on the condition that the national election is postponed and all political detainees are released. The ruling National Congress Party should also agree on the establishment of a national transitional government.

The signatories further demand the abrogation of laws restricting basic freedoms, the abolishment of the recent constitutional amendments, and investigations into the Tabit mass rape of last October and the killing of protesters during the 2013 September demonstrations.

“How can elections be held in a country, where half of its territory is torn by war, and millions of people are impoverished and homeless?”

At a press conference, held at the NUP headquarters in Omdurman on Wednesday, Acting President Fadlallah Burma Nasir, stressed that his party will not participate in the National Dialogue, if the Sudanese government proceeds with the general election, scheduled to commence on 13 April.

“The election will not solve the crises in Sudan. They will rather complicate them,” he stated.

“Before any election can take place, the wars in the countries have to be ended, aid has to be delivered to the victims, and all political detainees are to be released,” he said, wondering “how can elections be held in a country, where half of its territory is torn by war, and millions of people are impoverished and homeless?”

Nasir warned that if the election is not postponed, “we will turn to the option of a peaceful uprising to topple the regime”.