 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 April 2000 Issue No. 477 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 April 2000 Issue No. 477
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Umma goes home -- alone
By Mohamed KhaledThe return to Sudan last week from exile of some of the leaders of the opposition Umma Party heightened speculation about the future of relations between government and opposition forces. Coming shortly after the Umma Party's withdrawal from the umbrella opposition group, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), this return is consistent with pronouncements made by the party's leader, Sadiq Al-Mahdi.
According to Umma estimates, at least one million Sudanese gathered to welcome the 40 Umma Party leaders upon their arrival at Khartoum's airport on 6 April. While the group included many of the party's top leaders, it is notable that Al-Mahdi himself remains in exile. Likewise a group of prominent figures in the party who oppose the return of any of the Umma leadership also remain abroad.
The return of 40 Umma leaders provoked speculation that Al-Mahdi is trying to steer his party towards alignment with the ruling Islamist regime headed by President Omar Al-Bashir. A former prime minister, Al-Mahdi was ousted from power in 1989 in a coup led by Al-Bashir who went on to ban political parties and trade unions.
Some reports in Sudanese newspapers indicated that the Umma Party might also be heading towards a major split due to the disapproval of several figures of Al-Mahdi's reconciliation policy.
However, Al-Mahdi, in statements to reporters, said that the return of Umma leaders does not mean that the party intends to seek to form a coalition government with Al-Bashir.
"Our participation in the government is conditional on the holding of clean and democratic elections," Al-Mahdi told a news conference on 6 April. "We returned to fight war-mongers in the south and dictatorship-mongers in the north," he added.
In a speech delivered upon his arrival in Khartoum, Secretary-General of the Umma Party Omar Nur Al-Dayem explained the reasons for the return of his party's top figures. "We returned to gradually drag the government to a peaceful settlement. Sudan's problem at the moment is not [lack of] democracy, but rather, it is the problem of preserving the unity of the country which is being seriously threatened," he said.
The return of a portion of Umma leadership to Sudan was preceded by the release of a statement by a number of Umma figures who remain in exile condemning the Al-Mahdi faction's decision to withdraw from the NDA. In response, Umma figures in Sudan said they intend to maintain their membership on NDA's leadership council and expressed hope that their party will resume working with the opposition umbrella group.
However, Mubarak Al-Fadel, responsible for Umma's external relations and one of the leaders who returned to Khartoum, confirmed that his party's differences with NDA are fundamental and relate to diverging long-term goals. "Our differences with NDA are strategic differences," he said in a television interview referring to the view held by the Al-Mahdi faction that some groups in the NDA are for the secession of southern Sudan. Al-Mahdi himself recently described the NDA as a "dead" organisation.
The majority of NDA leaders inside Sudan did not participate in welcoming the returning leaders. "We boycotted the celebration [because] the Umma Party is deviating from a major principle the opposition believes in by insisting that a satisfactory democratic atmosphere now exists in Sudan, while such an atmosphere does not exist," Ali Al-Sayed, representative of the Democratic Unionist Party to NDA leadership inside Sudan, told Al-Ahram Weekly in a telephone interview.
"The government has done nothing to foster an atmosphere conducive to conducting dialogue," Khartoum-based Farouk Zakareya, a leading figure in the Sudanese Communist Party, told the Weekly. He added "The government is actually aiming for the liquidation of the NDA rather than being serious about reaching a comprehensive political settlement."
That the government has intentions other than embracing the opposition is supported by sources in Sudan who claimed that Ibrahim Shams Al-Din, the state minister of defence and an influential National Islamic Front (NIF) figure, met last week with the editors-in-chief of Sudanese newspapers to warn them against publishing either news about the opposition or photographs of any opposition leaders abroad. "Publishing news [about the opposition] or photographs will be enough reason for taking the paper to an emergency military court," said Shams Al-Din.
Similarly, it was reported that Nafie Ali Nafie, the president's adviser on peace affairs said in a meeting with NIF members from western Sudan that the government has no intention of concluding a peace settlement with the opposition. He advised the organisation's members to devote more effort to strengthening the power of the ruling NIF.
The return of some Umma Party leaders, meanwhile, is likely to strengthen the position of President Al-Bashir in his current conflict with his former closest ally and NIF leader, Hassan Al-Turabi. Commenting on the return of the Umma leaders, Al-Turabi, who was parliament speaker before Al-Bashir decided last December to dissolve the parliament and declare a state of emergency, warned the opposition against thinking that their return would weaken the ruling Islamic government.
Related story:
