‘Khartoum does not want peace’: public opinion Darfur

Internally displaced people in Darfur and the Sudanese opposition movements have continued their critiques of President Omar Al Bashir’s national address on Monday. They were “expecting more commitments” and found the speech “politically empty”. All opposition parties were invited to attend the speech in Khartoum. It was generally expected that the President would announce major reforms, but the speech was received as “more than disappointing”. A leading activist of camp Zamzam near El Fasher, North Darfur, told Radio Dabanga that they expected Bashir to at least talk about “stopping the aerial bombardments, allowing delivery of humanitarian aid in the conflict areas, and negotiating with the armed movements and the opposition forces to find a lasting peace for Sudan”.He added that the displaced people, the refugees and the war-affected people in Darfur, Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile “are in a bad need for peace” and demanded parties to unite and topple the regime in Khartoum, whom be believes “does not want peace”. Mohamed Bilail Issa Zayid, the deputy head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Secretary of the Kordofan region for the movement, said that the speech of Bashir was free of content and did not address the West and North Kordofan where the Sudan Revolutionary Front is found. Zayid revealed that after President Bashir had miserably failed with the militia leader Himaidtai in Kordofan, he began gathering militias once again in El Obeid under the leadership of El Haj Dodo from Umm Badr in North Kordofan. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the Nuba Mountains said “there is nothing new in Bashir’s speech other than acknowledging that there is an economic failure”. The spokesman said: “Like his previous ones, his speech was rhetorical, politically worthless and did not answer any of the political issues.” He added that Bashir’s handling of the issue of the ‘Arab-African identity’ was naive and “confirming the intellectual crisis” of the National Congress Party. He affirmed the SPLA and the Revolutionary Front’s insistence to topple the regime and restructure the state of Sudan on a new basis that accommodates diversity.File photo: President of Sudan Omar Al BashirRelated: ‘Question is how to govern Sudan’: Malik Agar (29 January 2014) Al Bashir speech disappoints Sudanese (28 January 2014)

Internally displaced people in Darfur and the Sudanese opposition movements have continued their critiques of President Omar Al Bashir’s national address on Monday. They were “expecting more commitments” and found the speech “politically empty”.

All opposition parties were invited to attend the speech in Khartoum. It was generally expected that the President would announce major reforms, but the speech was received as “more than disappointing”. A leading activist of camp Zamzam near El Fasher, North Darfur, told Radio Dabanga that they expected Bashir to at least talk about “stopping the aerial bombardments, allowing delivery of humanitarian aid in the conflict areas, and negotiating with the armed movements and the opposition forces to find a lasting peace for Sudan”.

He added that the displaced people, the refugees and the war-affected people in Darfur, Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile “are in a bad need for peace” and demanded parties to unite and topple the regime in Khartoum, whom be believes “does not want peace”.

Mohamed Bilail Issa Zayid, the deputy head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Secretary of the Kordofan region for the movement, said that the speech of Bashir was free of content and did not address the West and North Kordofan where the Sudan Revolutionary Front is found.

Zayid revealed that after President Bashir had miserably failed with the militia leader Himaidtai in Kordofan, he began gathering militias once again in El Obeid under the leadership of El Haj Dodo from Umm Badr in North Kordofan.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the Nuba Mountains said “there is nothing new in Bashir’s speech other than acknowledging that there is an economic failure”. The spokesman said: “Like his previous ones, his speech was rhetorical, politically worthless and did not answer any of the political issues.”

He added that Bashir’s handling of the issue of the ‘Arab-African identity’ was naive and “confirming the intellectual crisis” of the National Congress Party. He affirmed the SPLA and the Revolutionary Front’s insistence to topple the regime and restructure the state of Sudan on a new basis that accommodates diversity.

File photo: President of Sudan Omar Al Bashir

Related:

‘Question is how to govern Sudan’: Malik Agar (29 January 2014)

Al Bashir speech disappoints Sudanese (28 January 2014)