|
Returning Exile Pushes For Democracy And Reconciliation In Sudan
by Mohamed Ali Saeed
KHARTOUM (AFP) - Former prime minister Sadeq al-Mahdi, who returned from exile on Thursday, vowed to pursue talks with the government that ousted him in 1989, saying he is pushing for democracy and national reconciliation.
"We started dialogue with the government" and concluded a deal with the government one year ago, Mahdi recalled in a speech at a gathering in his honor at his Umma Party headquarters in Omdurman late Thursday night.
He added the Umma "will carry on with this dialogue until the end because we are people of responsibility and sincerity and fear disintegration of our country and internationalization of its problems."
The Islamist and Arab government in Khartoum has waged a 17-year civil war against southern African opposition - mainly Christians and animists - who were joined in 1995 by northern opposition groups, including the Umma.
But Mahdi struck an agreement, called the Nation's Appeal, with the government of President Omar al-Beshir in Djibouti in November last year.
Four months later, he declared his party's withdrawal from the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and a ceasefire by his Eritrea-based armed militia, the Umma Army.
This was followed by the return of exiled Umma party officials and militiamen.
Mahdi, who was democratically elected in 1985 but overthrown four years later in a coup that brought Beshir to power, said there is "no alternative" to democracy in Sudan and nobody should be isolated because this "incites violence".
"We have come back for consultations with all forces," said Mahdi, who returned Thursday from four years of self-imposed exile in Cairo and Asmara.
"Nobody has the right to rule the people without a mandate from the people, there is no longer a room for ruling by inheritance or by the gun, but only through the free and fair willpower of the people," he said.
He has reiterated his opposition to totalitarianism and to internationalization of Sudanese political and armed conflicts.
Mahdi has called for addressing and fighting a belief among "some" southerners of the existance of "an Arab-Islamic hegemony that should be counteracted by an African hegemony."
"This belief should be defeated because it stirs conflict," he added.
Mahdi's dispute with the NDA was not over principles but was rather over the NDA leadership, perhaps regarding himself more entitled than Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani to chair the opposition body, according to observers here.
The observers also believe that the Umma party pullout of the NDA was due to the military predominance of the southern opposition, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), over the NDA.
Even after its withdrawal from the NDA, Mahdi's Umma party still asserts that it is committed to the opposition principles of restoration of democracy and freedoms, and says it will pursue these goals from within the country.
Observers regard the Umma pullout as a gain for the government and a loss for the NDA, strengthening the former and weakening the latter.
Commenting on Mahdi's return, DUP official Ali Ahmed al-Sayyed it was expected long ago since Mahdi's meeting with then in-power Hassan al-Turabi in Geneva and his reconciliation agreement with Beshir last year.
"He has actually delayed his return," Sayyed said, adding that it "will not affect the opposition."
|
