Al Bashir to ‘rip up’ any foreign resolution on Sudan’s dialogue

The President of Sudan, Omar Al Bashir, currently on a visit to China, told the Sudanese community in Beijing that he will personally supervise the national dialogue process and will not tolerate any interventions from outside the country, be it the African Union or the United Nations.

Al Bashir said that Sudan will “rip up” any external resolution that seeks intervention in the country's national dialogue, during his address to the Sudanese community on Friday. “Just as we did with earlier resolutions on intervention in Sudan's domestic affairs.”

“We will hold no dialogue outside the country. Those seeking dialogue outside the country, we tell them it will not happen. [But] we are ready to provide any guarantees they wish for them to take part in the process [inside the country]),” the official Sudanese news agency (Suna) quoted the president.

The African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) released a communiqué on its 539th AUPSC meeting on 26 August, in which it reiterated its call for “an urgent pre-National Dialogue meeting of all relevant parties, at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, to discuss and agree on procedural matters relating to the Dialogue”.

The Sudanese president, however, repeated his stance last Sunday that his initiative for a large dialogue with political and civil parties to discuss all pressing issues in the country, will be held nowhere but in Sudan. He defied the AU proposal saying he “will not hand the interests of the country to anyone”.

Peace in Sudan

Al Bashir added that whoever rejects peace will regret such a position, and that those will be “taught lessons they would never forget”. The year 2016, he claimed, will be the year of peace in Sudan.

The president said that his government's programme will focus on regulating the possession of firearms and collection of firearms from the hands of civilians in Sudan.

He added that Darfur was now witnessing security and great stability and is free of any genuine rebellion. The latest report of fighting between the rebel movements and the Sudanese army was in July, in East Jebel Marra. Al Bashir said that the government will collect unauthorised arms in Darfur after the end of the rainy season.

The president further praised the Sudanse community in China and promised to tackle their problems, and establish a Sudanese school.

On Friday evening, Al Bashir arrived in Zhejiang Province for a two-day visit. He was invited by China's President Xi Jinping for the celebrations this week that mark the end of World War II and traveled to Bejing, in spite of the International Criminal Court's outstanding arrest warrant for Al Bashir.