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{{An opposition party revealed that president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir agreed to form a transitional government to implement a national political program saying it must not last for more than two years.}}

Sudan’s opposition Popular Congress Party’s (PCP) secretary of foreign relations, Bashir Adam Rahma said, in an interview with the Qatari Al-Watan newspaper on Sunday, that Bashir accepted this transitional government which will administrate the country during the national dialogue process.

Rahma said the recent political roundtable meeting Bashir organised with political forces was meant to discuss formation of the Higher Commission for the National Dialogue (HCND) which will manage the process.

However several political forces brought up the issue of the transitional government although it was not part of the meeting’s agenda, he underscored.

“The transitional government will be discussed when presenting the paper regarding the interim period. The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) agreed to form a transitional government after it is being approved by the dialogue’s general conference”.

The PCP official added the transitional government would last for a maximum of two years, noting it would adopt a program to stop the war, address the issue of refugee return, and reform the civil service and foreign relations.

The interim government will hold the general elections and form a constituent assembly to draft the constitution and prepare the country for a new democratic era, the said in order to explain what was outlined in the meeting.

Earlier this month, the Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, held a political roundtable in Khartoum with the participation of 83 political parties. The move came within the framework of a call he made last January for a comprehensive national dialogue.

The opposition official was keen to explain that besides the HCND, there will be different commissions to prepare draft papers but only the General Conference will approve it.

The HCND, which is headed by president Omer Al-Bashir, is composed of 14 members 7 from the opposition and 7 representing the government parties. Its membership would be increased to 21 if the other opposition parties and rebel groups join the process.

Rahma further said the political parties which took part in the meeting agreed to Bashir’s chairing of the higher commission, indicating that the general conference can be rotated between the political forces participation in the process.

“It is preferable that Bashir chairs the higher commission (HCND) in order to be legally bound to implement the outcome of the dialogue because he is the person who controls power and the state,” he added.

The PCP official said differences which may arise among political parties will be referred to an expert committee comprised of neutral and independent persons.

He said they received information that Bashir and several senior government officials believe that dialogue is the only option for solving Sudan’s problems, pointing that “angry” factions within the NCP stand against dialogue and democratic transformation.

Rahma didn’t rule out that rebel groups could agree to take part in the dialogue inside Sudan if the government takes several measures including creating an environment conducive for dialogue, declaring ceasefire, issuing general amnesty for convicts, and allowing humanitarian aid to affected population in the war areas.

He added such measures must be guaranteed by the African Union (AU) and the international community, saying they received positive signals that the European Union (EU), AU, and the United States will support the comprehensive national dialogue.

sudantribune

{{A Zanzibar minister yesterday said the Constituent Assembly (CA) will likely be a missed opportunity for the welfare of the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar.}}

Justice minister Aboubakar Khamis Bakary (CUF – House of Representatives), said the Union was bogged down with shortfalls which could be effectively rectified if a treaty-based model would be adopted.

“Much as the Constitution Review Commission has proposed a three-tier Union government structure, what we have to do is support it because all we want is development,” he said.

The Union foundation was not adhered to, as most of the decisions were made by only one latent side, namely Tanganyika, he said.

“There are about 30 Tanzanian embassies abroad, yet a mere three of the envoys are from Zanzibar…are we not clever enough to hold the posts?” the minister, who doubles as a member of the Constituent Assembly, queried.

“Not a portion of fertilizer worth Sh10 billion belonging to the Union government was sent to Zanzibar,” lamented the minister, stressing that such shortfalls have to be rectified.

“What does the Union government have to do with non-Union matters in the East African integration process when the Zanzibar government is present?” Mr Bakary queried.

Clauses 4 and 6 of the Articles of the Union implying that Tanzania comprised three separate authorities indicated the intent to have a three-tier merger right from the inception, he added.

“Remove the coat hiding Tanganyika to vividly show the existing three governments,” he said.

NMG

{{When not plotting military strategy to seize South Sudan’s crucial oil fields, sacked vice-president turned rebel chief Riek Machar spends time reading the economic and political history “Why Nations Fail”.}}

Cynics might argue he would do better to simply look around his basic bush camp, where mutinous soldiers and an allied ethnic militia crammed with child soldiers ready themselves to attack government forces, as a brutal 4-month-long civil war in which thousands of people have already been killed intensifies.

“I didn’t want to fight any more war again,” Machar told media in a recent interview at his rebel hideout, saying people had had enough of fighting during Sudan’s long civil war, in which he was a guerrilla commander.

It was that war, which lasted more two decades, that paved the way for South Sudan’s independence from the north.

But although less than three years old, the world’s youngest nation is spiralling towards collapse. With a ceasefire deal in tatters, the United Nations fear more than one million people are at risk of famine, and analysts warn the war is dragging in regional nations.

Over one million people have fled their homes, with violence worsening amid a renewed offensive by the rebel forces, as well as revenge attacks by multiple militia forces.

Women, children killed in attack

Peace talks in luxury hotels in Ethiopia have made little if any progress, while analysts warn that any solution will require major changes, not simply more promises inked only on paper.

“Propping up the government in Juba and polishing its legitimacy with a dose of political dialogue and a dash of power sharing will not end the conflict,” the International Crisis Group (ICG) wrote in a recent report.

On Thursday hundreds of gunmen stormed a UN peacekeeping base in the flashpoint town of Bor, killing at least 48 men, women and children sheltering there from a rival ethnic group before peacekeepers fought them off.

The UN Security Council called the attack an “outrage” that may constitute a war crime.

“Badly outgunned peacekeepers are no match for the thousands of heavily armed forces and militias,” the ICG added.

When fighting broke out on 15 December, it was sparked by “primarily political” arguments between Machar and President Salva Kiir, the ICG said, but the battles have since escalated, spreading to other states in the oil-rich but grossly impoverished nation.

Ethnic violence

“Ethnic targeting, communal mobilisation and spiralling violence quickly led to appalling levels of brutality against civilians,” according to the ICG.

Atrocities were also carried out further north in the oil-hub of Bentiu, which the army admitted on Wednesday it had lost to rebel forces.

The UN aid agency said it had reports of “targeted killings based on ethnicity”, with “several dozen” corpses rotting on the streets.

The violence is rooted in decades-old grievances between former rebels turned political leaders, combined with unhealed wounds left over from the long civil war that preceded South Sudan’s independence from Khartoum in 2011.

The fighting is between soldiers loyal to Kiir against mutinous troops who sided with Machar, but has also taken on an ethnic dimension, pitting Kiir’s Dinka tribe against militia forces from Machar’s Nuer people.

Many of the fragile gains made by the billions of dollars of international development aid that poured in after independence have been lost.

Regional conflict looms

“The war risks tearing the country further apart and is pulling in regional states,” the ICG said, pointing to a plan by regional nations to send in military forces in addition to UN peacekeepers.

Neighbouring Uganda has sent in troops and fighter jets to back the government, while Information Minister Michael Makuei has accused “forces from Sudan” of backing Machar, although he stopped short of actively accusing the government in Khartoum of interfering.

Back at the camp Machar predicts, gloomily, that “this will be a regional conflict”.

He says he is “looking for funding” but rejects accusations that he is seeking support from neighbouring Sudan, old friends who backed him during the 1983-2005 war.

Rival gunmen from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur are accused of fighting on both sides in South Sudan.

“Worse is yet to come,” Jonathan Veitch, the Unicef chief in South Sudan said last week, warning if the war is not stopped, there will be “child malnutrition on a scale never before experienced here.”

Absurdity of war

The United States, the key backer of South Sudan’s move to independence, has threatened targeted sanctions.

Experts say sanctions would be symbolic, but they fear they would have little positive impact.

“Many ordinary people seem to think that it is about time world powers spoke up against the absurdity of this war,” said Jok Madut Jok, a former top government official who is now head of the Sudd Institute think tank.

But he also said he fears sanctions would mean little to rebels stationed in the remote bush, while the government could be pushed “into further rogue behaviour, having nothing more to lose.”

– AFP