A comprehensive peace Khartoum: Hussein Saad

A comprehensive peace

Khartoum: Hussein Saad

A number of specialists and observers expected the failure of the fourth round of talks between the government and the SPLM-North before the 10 days suspension, which was due to the distance in positions of both parties. They pointed to wide gap in understanding the references of dialogue and the demands of each party. Strangely, this rejection by the government’s delegation of the comprehensive dialogue to resolve the country crises put forward for negotiation by the SPLM-North with the participation of everyone comes within the same period in which president Omar Al-Bashir called for the “Wathba” dialogue that included everybody. To me, this is a clear contradiction in the behaviour of the ruling party. This also has been referenced by the head of the National Consensus Forces, Farouk Abu Eissa. It was as well referenced by the Eng. Siddig Yousif, a leader of the Communist Party and a member of its Central Committee who said: “The National Congress Party is unwilling to negotiate neither in Khartoum nor in Addis Ababa”.

Alright, let us stand on the SPLM negotiating vision where the head of the delegation and Secretary General Yasir Arman said: “We, of course, are going for negotiation, according to UN Security Council Resolution number 2046. We will test this invite to see if the National Congress Party is serious about the negotiation process or this is one of their tactics to buy time”. Arman also added: “According to our analyses and our history in dealing with the National Congress, they are not serious in any dialogue altering the shape of the current state. They are only looking for means to get more control over the state”. He said we are convinced that the bilateral dialogues do not solve the problem and that the problem of the two regions needs to be solved through a comprehensive solution to the problems of Sudan. Therefore, we continue to call on an all-encompassing Conference attended by all political forces to solve all the problems of Sudan. As for the segmentation of issues and bilateral dialogues, they are temporary analgesia to the problems.

This talk by Yasir Arman explains the strategy which the SPLM entered the negotiation in Addis Ababa with. It is a strategy completely divorced from the National Congress strategy that is based on subdivision of problems and the multiplicity of dialogue tables, so it is able to seize all strings and control the direction of the national dialogue. This is a strategy the National Congress Party has been using for a quarter century and it did not procure anything but failure, more wars and conflicts but it is still insisting to use it. As the former U.S. envoy said in his paper, the National Congress is suffering from an International Criminal Court knot, where the majority of its leaders are wanted for war crimes and genocide of a section of the people of Sudan, especially in Darfur. This problem is why they do not enter into a serious dialogue that might cause them to lose their control over the state. Therefore, they are looking for reassurance, and I do not think there is a political force that can provide this reassurance individually. It is a problem of the whole society, because the damage occurred on the whole society. It can only be discussed in a general constitutional conference.

The clasping of the People’s Movement to the United Nations resolution and their understanding of its nature and authority was supported by the politician Abdul Rasul Alnur, the former governor of Kordofan province, in an article published in “Alray Alaam” newspaper last Thursday titled “Manufacturing compatibility, what happened in Addis Ababa”. The UN resolution 2046 is the reference. It determines the negotiations between the government and the SPLM-North and this is important and significant for SPLM-North, and the SPLM has the right to discuss any issue because it consider itself present in every region of North Kordofan, Nile River, Darfur and other places, thus, talks about the issues of Sudan and not only the two areas. This is evident by the fact that the head of the negotiating delegation, Yasir Arman, is not from either of the two areas. Alnur continued, saying: “The difference of reference to negotiate between the two parties is what contributed to the creation of this vast gap”. This imposes on Khartoum to define, will it agree on the basis of reference to decision 2046 as announced or with only people of the two areas. The SPLM-North is discussing a national angle and the government must have the same approach.

In turn, if we go back to the positions of all political forces regarding the comprehensive solution we find they are in full agreement with this proposal, with a clear stand. Beside, this vision has been the calling of the Revolutionary Front in all its factions and all political opposition forces, especially the National Consensus Forces, which is headed by the lawyer Farouk Abu Eissa, who still clearly calls for a productive dialogue with the participation of all Sudanese to save our country. The same vision, which the SPLM-N called for in Addis Ababa, was confirmed by Dr Al-Turabi after his meeting with the ambassadors of the European Union last week where he told the ambassadors that the problem in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan can only be solved in a comprehensive national framework. Likewise, in the National Umma Party circles, Saddiq Al-Mahadi is still repeating in all his speeches, the call to dismantle the Party State for the benefit of a State of Pluralism, through a conference that is inclusive of all the people of Sudan.

Zain Al-Albideen Salih Abdul Rahman, the political analyst and journalist, described in one of his articles titled “The SPLM is testing the National Congress Party dialogue”, the insistence of the SPLM-N on the solution of the 2 regions being a part of the solution to all the problems of Sudan, as the correct vision given the NCP’s history of trying to solve problems bilaterally has shown failure. That was the strategy that led to the secession of the South and could lead to the tearing of Sudan. In addition, the political analyst, Salih Abdul Rahman is wondering what will be the problem of the SPLM-N, if it insisted on a national conference to solve the issues of Sudan, which is a view agreed upon by all the opposition parties and all who seeks honestly to search for a solution.

Generally, there is a week left for the planned resumption of talks between the two parties. Until that time, there remains the fact that the NCP is the first causer of this all-inclusive crisis that hit the country from extremity to the other, for a quarter of a century. So, this wide-ranging crisis will not be solved by (Piecemeal) nor by adding more ministers and distributing the seats of the government. It needs to be a comprehensive solution.

The answer to the question “How to govern Sudan?” and our guide that we are carrying in our hand and waving it at everybody, about the validity of our position, is the overturning and evasion of the National Congress Party of all the agreements it signed with other parties before the ink used for writing it dries. With many examples such as the ones in Naivasha, Abuja, Doha, Jeddah, Cairo and Asmara, showing that all that happens from the NCP is a way to gain time in order to stay in power longer.

Arabic Forum