Sudan's Ncp To Shun Au-Sponsored Talks With Opposition

Sudan's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) announced that it will not participate in a preparatory meeting of the African Union-sponsored dialogue talks with opposition parties, scheduled to take place Sunday in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.



"We will not participate in the preparatory forum for talks with the opposition in Addis Ababa," NCP Political Secretary Mustafa Osman said at a Sunday press conference in Sudanese capital Khartoum.



Osman cited short notice and ambiguity with regards to which opposition and civil society figures have been invited to the talks as the reason for refusing to attend the talks.



"We called on the African Union (AU) mediation to postpone to forum," Osman said, adding that the NCP will not "accept any invitation to meet with the opposition abroad before the country's general elections next month."



Last December, Sudanese authorities arrested opposition leader Farouk Abu Issa one day after his return from Addis Ababa, where he had signed an agreement with the Revolutionary Front, a coalition of four armed groups fighting Khartoum in eight of Sudan's 18 provinces.



Police also arrested Amin Mekki Medani, one of the leaders of the Civil Society Initiative, a coalition of civil society organizations. Medani is also a signatory to the "Call for Sudan" agreement signed with the Revolutionary Front in Addis Ababa.



The agreement calls for "dismantling" the Sudanese regime and stepping up coordination between various factions with a view to promoting a popular uprising against the government.



The agreement was signed after efforts failed to reach a cease-fire between the government and armed movements.



Khartoum, for its part, has slammed the agreement as "a betrayal of the nation."



Since 2011, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) has waged an active insurgency against the Sudanese government in the southern Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.



Outlawed by Khartoum, the movement consists mainly of fighters who sided with the south during Sudan's decades-long civil war. That conflict ended with a 2005 peace treaty that paved the way for South Sudan's secession from Sudan six years later.



The SPLM-N has taken part in past rounds of Ethiopia-hosted peace talks with the Sudanese government, but the negotiations are yet to produce any breakthroughs.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Hartum