The Sudan National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) on Wednesday announced the release of all political detainees, who have not been involved in criminal acts, following a decree by President Omar Al Bashir.
Opposition parties seriously question the measures. The Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) announced that they will continue with “the struggle to overthrow the regime”.
The opposition parties, united in the National Consensus Forces (NCF), confirmed that the NISS has released five detainees so far. “Tens of political detainees are still being imprisoned in Khartoum, Nyala, and Port Sudan.”
“Apart from those detainees, the Khartoum regime is still holding 20 people in Khartoum prisons because of their participation in the September demonstrations of last year,” NCF spokesman Siddig Yusif told Radio Dabanga. “These protesters are not included in the decision of the President that stipulates the release of political detainees not subjected to criminal proceedings. Yet most of the demonstrators were arrested on the basis of a law criminalising participants to demonstrations.”
The spokesman reiterated the NCF’s demand for the abolishment of “all freedoms-restricting laws”, and the release of all the political prisoners.
National Dialogue
The SCP announced its determination not to enter the national dialogue, as called for by President Al Bashir, but to continue with “the struggle to overthrow the regime if the Sudanese government refuses to respond to the voice of reason”.
In a press statement on Wednesday, the party said that it would not participate in a “one-man show”. It does not accept to be “a tool to prolong the life of this regime by implementing its plans, backed by various foreign powers, led by the USA”.
The SCP stressed the impossibility of a national dialogue while wars are raging in Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile. “One third of the population of Sudan would be blocked from participating in the dialogue.”
“A prerequisite is the stoppage of the wars, and the military campaigns aimed at the final annihilation of the people of Darfur, meant by the Sudanese authorities and the Minister of Defence, when they announced the ‘dry season offensives’ last year.” andnbsp;
The party also pointed to the importance of the participation of the Darfur armed movements, and the Sudan Revolutionary Front in the national dialogue. It intends to raise a broad campaign to “unite all Sudanese into one front to realise the toppling of the Khartoum regime”.
Photo: 7 April 2014. More than 2,000 people have arrived at the Unamid team site of Mellit in North Darfur. They had fled from Rapid Support Forces attacks on Bowa and other villages, located about 50km northeast of Mellit town. (Hamid Abdulsalam/Unamid)