Sudanese opposition leader calls for unity

In a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) held last week in Eritrea, John Garang, leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), called the NDA “the greatest achievement of the Sudanese people in their struggle for a just peace and a qualified unity”.

In his speech, made available to IRIN, Garang spoke in depth on the problems the country and his movement faced, saying: “Sudan must evolve a commonality that gives effective expression to all its diversities.”
Regarding the 17-year-old civil war that has ripped the nation apart, Garang said the main problem of Sudan was that there had never been a “national project” which included all the parameters of Sudan and could unite the different groups and nationalities. The successive governments only assumed unity and tried to base that unity on two parameters, Arabism and Islamism,” he said.

Highly critical of the National Islamic Front (NIF), Garang said there could never be a lasting peace, as: “NIF is based on a strange philosophy of self-destruction, of some Sudanese communites being mobilised to fight other Sudanese communities,” adding that “NIF is pulling the country apart, while the NDA is bringing the Sudanese together.”

Eritrean radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), reported on 9 September that some 350 NDA representatives and renowned individuals from Sudan and abroad were in attendence. The meeting marked the second time the NDA had met since it first met in Asmara in 1995, the report said.