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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
The RCC-NS banned all political parties following the 1989
coup and arrested several political leaders including the deposed
prime minister, Sadiq al Mahdi. Nevertheless, all northern
parties that existed at the time of the coup maintained their
party structures outside the country or in southern areas
controlled by antigovernment forces. Some banned political
parties actually operated fairly openly in Khartoum and other
urban centers. The National Islamic Front, whose leaders were
considered to have close relations with several RCC-NS members,
was particularly open. Both supporters and opponents of the
regime asserted that in the past most government decisions were
made by a secretive council of forty men whose members included
both top military leaders and prominent figures in the NIF, a
coalition dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. In addition,
several cabinet ministers belonged to the NIF. With the exception
of the NIF, however, the precoup parties generally did not
cooperate with the military government and were committed to its
overthrow.
The RCC-NS attempted to broaden its legitimacy by meeting
with members of the various opposition parties. Its first effort
to reach out to the banned parties was to invite them to send
representatives to a National Dialogue Conference, held in
Khartoum in the autumn of 1989. Most of the parties sent
delegates, but the SPLM was conspicuously absent. The substantive
results of the National Dialogue Conference were meager because
the RCC-NS controlled the agenda and did not permit any criticism
of its rule. Various meetings in 1990 and 1991 appeared to be
aimed at coopting individuals rather than engaging in serious
discussions about the country's government. The state-controlled
media covered these meetings, but the participants rarely were
prominent party leaders. In fact, Sadiq al Mahdi's Umma Party
disassociated itself from contacts with the RCC-NS by announcing
through its publications that the person with whom the RCC-NS met
was not connected with the party. The DUP expelled two members
for unauthorized contact with the government.
After the 1989 coup, the banned parties gradually coordinated
a common opposition strategy. Northern political leaders
initiated a dialogue with the SPLM that resulted in early 1990 in
a formal alliance among the SPLM, the Umma Party, and the DUP.
This grouping, known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA),
an organization in exile, most of whose leaders lived in Cairo,
provided the Umma and other parties with access to valuable radio
transmitting facilities in SPLM-controlled areas. The NDA was
further strengthened when several high-ranking military officers
whom the RCC-NS had dismissed from service in 1989 established
informal contacts with it. The most prominent of these officers
was Lieutenant General Fathi Ahmad Ali, who had served as armed
forces commander in chief prior to Bashir's coup. In January
1991, the NDA proposed to establish a government in exile for the
purpose of overthrowing the Bashir regime. General Ali was named
head of the government, and Garang his deputy. In March 1991, the
NDA met in Ethiopia with representatives of military officers,
professional associations, trade unions, and the Sudanese
Communist Party to discuss ideas for organizing a national
government.
Although all political parties remained officially banned in
1991, many precoup parties continued to operate underground or in
exile. All the major Sudanese political parties in the north were
affiliated with Islamic groups, a situation that has prevailed
since before independence in 1956. Among the important religious
organizations that sponsored political parties were the Ansar,
the Khatmiyyah, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Although several
secular parties had been set up between 1986 and 1989, except for
the long-established Sudanese Communist Party and the Baath (Arab
Socialist Resurrection) Party, none of these had effective
organizations after the coup.
Data as of June 1991
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