‘Sudan’s National Dialogue proposal not serious’: Musa Hilal spokesman

The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) may withdraw its proposal to hold the National Dialogue. “There are indications that the NCP will not continue preparing for a national dialogue”, Ahmed Mohamed Abakar, the spokesman for El Sahwa Revolutionary Council, headed by militia leader Musa Hilal, told Radio Dabanga in an interview on Tuesday. “Recent conflicts within the NCP, the detention of political leaders, the gagging of the press, along with the absence of any possibility to reach a comprehensive solution, are all signs that the government is not serious about the National Dialogue.” Abakar said that the NCP had two goals in calling for the Dialogue, planned to include all opposition parties and armed revel forces. “The first aim was uniting the NCP and El Turabi’s Popular Congress Party into one party, and the second one concentrated on an early preparation for the elections scheduled for next year.” The spokesman for El Sahwa wondered if the government was sincere when it called for a national dialogue. “Key demands for the National Dialogue have not been put in place. These demands include a cease-fire across the country, the lifting of the state of emergency in Darfur, allowing humanitarian organisations to deliver relief to all those affected in the conflict zones, repealing all the laws restricting freedom, the release of all political detainees, along with the formation by the government and the opposition of a joint national dialogue mechanism, and of another, neutral mechanism established by the international community to oversee and monitor the dialogue, holding the dialogue outside Sudan, the determination of the dialogue’s agenda, and  decision whether to convene a constitutional conference that determines how to govern Sudan in the coming period.” National Dialogue Last January, President Al Bashir called on all Sudanese political parties and armed opposition groups to engage in the National Dialogue to discuss four issues, including “ending the civil wars, allowing political freedoms, fighting against poverty, and revitalising Sudan’s national identity”. Opposition parties and rebel movements have doubted the sincerity of El Bashir’s proposal, as since February the newly recruited paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by the security service, started their widespread attacks on villages in Darfur, causing the displacement of about 300,000 people. During the past months, the Sudanese security has also tightened its grip on the media. It detained many activists, as well as the heads of the National Umma Party, El Sadig El Mahdi, and the Sudanese Congress Party Ibrahim El Sheikh. Both party leaders had publicly criticised the RSF attacks against civilians, calling the RSF militia unconstitutional. Janjaweed Sheikh Musa Hilal comes from a family of leaders of the Arab Mahameed clan in North Darfur. In 2003, when the armed conflict in Darfur erupted, he was serving a jail sentence for the murder of 17 people of African descent. The then Vice-President Ali Osman Taha released Hilal to mobilise Arab herders’ tribesmen to fight the Darfuri rebels. With full backing of the government, Hilal’s Janjaweed targeted unarmed villagers and torched villages of “African Darfuris”, but rarely came near forces of the armed rebel movements. Early 2008, President Al Bashir offered him a post as a Presidential Assistant for Federal Affairs. Mid 2013 Hilal returned to North Darfur. Sources say that he covets the position of Governor of North Darfur State.The militia leader is subject to travel and financial sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council in 2006. File photo: Sheikh Musa Hilal (New York Times) Related:Musa Hilal ‘establishes administration’ in North Darfur (19 March 2014) Musa Hilal’s militias plunder, burn, take control of North Darfur’s Saraf Omra (9 March 2014)