Interview: Minawi lashes out at NCP, proposes new Sudan regime

Minni Arko Minawi, ex-rebel faction leader of the Sudan Liberation Army, lashed out at the National Congress Party and its leadership, describing them as corrupt and racist. The president of the Sudan Liberation Movement and the former chief aide to the president – a position he held as part of a peace deal – said the NCP wants to destroy Sudan and divide it into different states. Minawi called on all Sudanese to bring about the end of the National Congress Party and replace it with a new transitional government to save the Sudan. He proposed that the new government should consist of all parties and said that the task of this interim government would be to solve the problems of Sudan of development, form a new constitution for the country, and organize elections. Minawi also replied to a group of ex-rebels, claiming to be from his faction, who had announced his ouster earlier this month. Those who issued the statement of his dismissal had already been separated from the movement, he said. They were prompted by their handlers in the National Congress Party and security services, he suggested. In an effort to implement the security protocols of the Abuja Peace Agreement, SLM officials in El Fasher last month signed a deal with a government committee headed by Lieutenant General Mohamed Al Dabi. However, this week in an interview with the Al Sahafa daily, Minawi said he rejects the deal. He did not explain why his subordinates had signed it. He told Radio Dabanga yesterday that security arrangements should be the last items in the implementation of the Abuja Agreement, and not the reverse. He said the government and its forces did not stop fighting against the movement since the signing of the Abuja Agreement. He said that the movement will stand by idly if the government chooses to go in this direction [of force]. He also described the ‘model villages’ that the Arab League claimed to have set up in Darfur as mere lies. Minawi was speaking to Radio Dabanga from Juba where he has taken up residence.