January 1, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The leader of the largest Northern opposition party in Sudan made an appeal figures who defected over the years to return in order to “reunite the ranks” and “open a new page in partisan reconciliation”.
“The national situation requires unity of the ranks in all aspects of life to face the internal and external crises of the country,” Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi said in the statement.
The former prime minister noted that that despite the Umma party did not annul the membership of those who defected in 2002 which is a clear reference to his cousin Mubarak Al-Fadil who now leads the Umma Renewal and Reform Party (URRP).
“For everyone [who defected] they can resume their membership as long as they recognize the historical legitimacy, struggle and intellect of the parent institution” the Umma Party chief said.
Al-Mahdi revealed the creation of a commission to “house” those dissidents “in fairness and justice”.
The statement appears to be a softening of stance on the part of Al-Mahdi who has insisted in the past that those seeking to rejoin the Umma Party must first apologize before they can be taken in. Several mediation efforts have failed to reverse the position of the Umma Party chief.
The URRP issued a response saying that it has convened an emergency meeting in which they welcomed the call by Al-Mahdi reiterating their willingness to cooperate “with the beloved national Umma party president”.
The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) is likely to be concerned by any steps towards reconciliation between the two figures ahead of the April 2010 elections. Al-Fadil has been instrumental in forging an informal alliance between the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) and several powerful Northern opposition parties in the Juba conference held last September.
Al-Fadil left the Umma Party after differing with Al-Mahdi on the issue of participating in the government dominated by the NCP but al-Mahdi rejected the idea of joining a “non-democratically elected government”.
Later both men traded bitter accusations publicly and in private circles for failures and mishaps within the Umma Party and even went as far as personal and family matters.
Al-Fadil was appointed by Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir as a presidential adviser for economic affairs in 2002 before being removed in October 2004. He has became one of the fiercest critics of the NCP ever since.
This week the URRP leader accused the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) of formulating a plot through several members of the dissolved Umma Liberation Army (ULA), the military arm of the mainstream Umma party, to incriminate him in a plot to overthrow the government.
A statement by Al-Fadil’s office said that the ex-fighters refused to cooperate with the NISS in their plan. He also said that an unnamed senior Sudanese official earned him that his work is conflicting with the interests of the ruling NCP making him a target of assassination.
“My blood will be a fuel to peace and freedom in Sudan” Al-Fadil was quoted as saying but the party warned the authorities of any attempts to physically harm the leadership.
Al-Fadil was detained for four months in 2007 along with a number of retired army generals, and accused of planning a coup attempt. He was released after it turned out that an intelligence informant supplied inaccurate information to the government.
(ST)
حركة العدل و المساواة السودانية
موقع متخصص بنقل آخر الأخبار و البيانات و القرارات لحركة العدل و المساواة السودانية