SUDAN (Islam Online) - Sudanese President Omar Bashir ordered the release of political prisoners, return of property confiscated from opposition leaders and permission for opposition leaders to travel in a bid to breathe life into the national reconciliation process.
Sudanese dissidents inside and outside the country - some of whom expressed skepticism on whether the measures will go into effect - would benefit from the new orders.
"The political prohibition is totally over," announced Sudanese Justice Minister Ali Yis after the meeting of the National Reconciliation Committee in Khartoum. "There are no more lists of people who are prohibited from carrying out [political] activities, and there will be no confiscation of citizens' property," he said. But he added that political expression could be curbed "with court orders and through the law."
He asked anyone who was affected by the ban on political opposition to seek the Legal Assistance Department of the Justice Ministry to reclaim their constitutional rights.
Bashir said that reconciliation with the opposition, part of which has been fighting Khartoum for 16 years, was contingent on acceptance of Islamic values, according to local press reports.
Government officials gave different estimates of how many political prisoners are held in Sudanese jails. They ranged form eight to 20, although opposition leaders put the number at 40.
One top opposition leader who will benefit from the measures was Sadeq Mahdi, an exiled former prime minister and head of the Umma Party who has joined the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition. Bashir is trying to break the coalition by wooing Mahdi into direct talks with Khartoum.
Bashir is also engaged in a power struggle with Parliament speaker Hasan Turabi, the brains behind the Sudanese government. Turabi wants to curtail Bashir's overarching powers.
Other major opposition figures to benefit from the measures are: NDA president Mohammad Osman Mirghani, Omar Nour Da'em, Mansour Khaled, Amin Mekki Madani, Farouq Abu Ees, all of whom had their property confiscated in recent years.
Opposition leaders welcomed the step cautiously. "They are positive decisions, fulfilling some of the opposition's demands to prepare the political atmosphere for reconciliation. We want to see the decisions implemented," said Adam Musa, the spokesman of the opposition National Party.
"The decisions fill a gap and will allow for the highest degrees of national reconciliation, which is everybody's goal," said Sharif Zein Al-Abdeen Hindi, the secretary general of the NDA.
Sadeq Abdul Majed, head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan, which supports the government, said: "Now the government has proved its good intentions and the opposition must prove its good intentions by achieving reconciliation."
For 16 years, Sudanese forces have been fighting rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in the animist and Christian oil-rich south. The SPLA, which is now part of the NDA coalition, has been trying to break away from the northern Muslim part of the country.
