Al Bashir’s stance on Sudanese dialogue ‘unacceptable’: SCP head

Ibrahim El Sheikh Abdel Rahman, head of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP), has described Omar Al Bashir’s remarks on dialogue which he made upon addressing the Sudanese community in China as unacceptable.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga, Abdel Rahman said that the nature of dialogue requires that the parties to it should reach consensus on the dialogue’s agenda, and those who to lead it. However, “President Al Bashir wants to have a divine ruling right to manipulate it”.

He added that the opportunity has come to the regime for the second time “to change its skin by showing seriousness through participation in the preparatory conference, but has refused to do so. It has insisted on a dialogue to be held at home, where those requirements do not exist. This cannot lead to radical democratic change nor resolve the problems.”

El Sheikh pointed out that Sudan is the homeland of all the Sudanese, who have the right to reach consensus on where the dialogue can be held and who will chair it. He said that, in his opinion, in the light of the current circumstances the dialogue must be held abroad at the African Union headquarters under the auspices of the AU High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP). “It can then be moved home in the event of a conducive environment and guarantees to the armed movements via the international community.”

Delaration of position

The writer and the Islamist politician El Mahboub Abdelsalam, has termed that what President Omar Al Bashir stated in his speech in China on the rejection of any foreign interference in the National Dialogue, as “no more than a declaration of position” and that “the various parties should move towards the key issues and the necessary requirements to have a dialogue”.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga to be broadcast on Tuesday, Abdelsalam said that there is agreement between all on the need for dialogue to take place at home, and that the Addis Ababa meeting is just a preparatory procedural one.