The Sudanese civil forces on Monday started a three-day meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, aimed at establishing a broad-based front to end the war and restore democracy that wil achieve the slogans of the glorious December Revolution: Freedom, Peace, Justice.
Addis Ababa: Altaghyeer
Following is an unofficial translation of the statement delivered by the Preparatory Committee in the opening session of the meeting:
H.E. Dr Abdallah Hamdouk, Prime Minister of the Transitional Government;
Ladies and gentlemen representatives of the Resistance Committees and Revolutionary Trade Unions; the ever burning coal of the glorious December Revolution;
Ladies and gentlemen chairpersons and representatives of the political parties and alliances, armed movements, civilian, professional, women and youth forces;
Ladies and gentlemen in attendance at this meeting, national figures, initiatives launchers, religious, society and native administrative leaders;
Ladies and gentlemen in attendance at this meeting hall and the entire Sudanese people:
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh (Peace, mercy and blessings of Allah the Almighty be upon you)
May Allah rest the souls of the martyrs, we lost in April 15th war, in peace, we wish urgent recovery for those who suffered injuries and safe return for those missing. This war, which has entered its seventh month, recalled to our national memory the deep wounds caused by the civil wars in the history of modern Sudan. May Allah have mercy on all martyrs and we stand in full solidarity with the victims.
I have the pleasure and honour to present to you this opening statement on behalf of the members of the Preparatory Committee for the first meeting on the Unification of the Civilian Forces which is seeking to end the war, build peace and restore the democratic track.
We would like to reaffirm our commitment to the goals of the glorious December Revolution whose torch continues glowing ever since, recurrent challenges and conspiracies will but make it stronger and more resilient to achieve its slogans “freedom, peace, justice” and the Revolution’s martyrs stand out for ever as eternal symbols in our national history.
This meeting is just a first step towards establishment of a broad-based civilian front with the aim of ending the war and restoring the democratic track for the realization of the glorious December Revolution’s slogans “Freedom, Peace, Justice”.
It is imperative to indicate here that this meeting was a culmination of painstaking efforts exerted by a number of pro-democracy civilian and political actors, and it is aimed at making good preparations for the conference of unifying the civilian and democratic forces, to enable it come up with unanimous position on how to end the war, build peace and launch the democratic transition.
It is imperative to refer at this point with pride and honour, to the Hajj Yousef’s Resistance Committees, initiators of the idea for forming a unified civil front well before the outbreak of this war. We also highly appreciate all the democratic civil initiatives that preceded our meeting, and we look forward to seeing all these efforts integrated and unified in raising their voice in unison: No to war, yes to peace and democratic transition, and yes to achieving the goals of the glorious December Revolution. We are also looking forward to seeing all these initiatives organized and united in one front for the Sudanese people to lead the country to peace and a democratic civil state.
We announce to the honorable Sudanese people at this preparatory meeting that a broad spectrum of representatives of the Sudanese people, hailing from diverse political, cultural, religious and sectarian backgrounds confer with the aim of achieving specific and direct goals:
First: the most urgent and higher objective is to end the war through political and institutional materialization of the slogan ‘No to War’ and brining closer the ranks of broad popular grassroots to support this slogan, hence eliminate the suffering of millions of children, women, youth and senior citizens.
Second: preparation for holding the conference on unification of the anti-war pro-democracy civilian forces in one broader front.
Honorable ladies and gentlemen present at this meeting, all Sudanese people wherever you are,
We are pained to witness the catastrophic humanitarian tragedy through which our country is struggling as a result of the current war, we lost thousands of martyrs; women, children and men, seven million children are suffering from lack of food, 19 million children are out of school, most of health facilities out of work, thousands of families have lost their homes and livelihoods and turned into displaced people and refugees where the number of those displaced inside the Sudan and those who fled to other countries has reached almost six millions.
This war has caused horrific human rights violations including not only killing, torture, arrests, women rape, but also expulsion of civilians from their homes, looting their properties as well as forceful mass eviction and ethnic cleansing, as was the case in the town of Genaina, West Darfur State. We condemn the two parties to the war, the Army and the Rapid Support Forces, who should bear the full responsibility for those violations. We support the decision by the Human Rights Council to establish an independent international mission to probe war violations in the Sudan. We do look forward to the success in forming a democratic unified civil front so as to be able, as Sudanese, to establish an independent national mechanism to investigate the war crime and to put an end to the impunity.
The critical historical circumstances witnessed by our country as a result of this war, has resulted in major challenges that could not be faced without an influential, strong and democratic civil alliance. Top of these challenges is to maintain the national unity of the Sudan which is now under serious menace because of the hate speech that accompanied the war and because of the endeavors by the defunct regime’s elements who have instigated this war, to divide the country following their failure to regain power once again.
As well, the fate of the nation has become hostage to the belligerent military forces which are hostile to democracy and there is no way the people of Sudan could be empowered to achieve their legitimate aspiration in peace, democracy and development, without the unification of the civilian forces who believe in these goals. And to achieve these goals, it should be emphasized that more efforts would continue to be exerted for expanding the base of participation in the envisaged meeting, so as to ensure the ownership and the people support and consequently to ensure the legitimacy and the inclusiveness of participation for the largest popular sectors from the grassroots up to the top.
Dear bereaved Sudanese people, the war enters its seventh month now and all indices show that it could not be stopped without unity, as urgently as possible, for all or most of the lively political, civilian, societal, sectorial, and professional forces in a wide popular front capable of upholding higher the call for ending war, capable of taking procedural measures and urgent and practical, popular supported, steps to convince the two parties to the conflict to return to the negotiating table and to sign as soon as possible a ceasefire that would allow the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the affected people, in preparation for a democratic civilian interim political process.
This meeting is taking place at critical and complex circumstances, as it is being held, regrettably under non-objective division among the various political and civil forces while the war machine is claiming the lives of thousands of civilians and is destroying the basic infrastructure of the country and menacing with total collapse. To such a situation, unity of the lively civil forces towards ending the war become not only one among several choices, but the only one and pressing choice to select.
Ladies and gentlemen, honorable present here, as we are heading for deliberation sessions, our people look forwards to hearing news and decisions ending the war, today before tomorrow, therefore we must be ready to make possible and impossible concessions for the success of this meeting and to avoid any stumbling on differences over close vested interests.
In sum, this is a historic opportunity and chance for the unity of the civil forces around the goals of halting the war, an objective that stands as the minimum common element for unifying the democratic civil forces. And here we have to ask ourselves, all of us, this question: if the civil forces fail to unite under one broad base to end the war urgently, then when are they going to unite?
Ladies and gentlemen;
The Preparatory Committee takes this historical opportunity to raise the following four main messages:
First message: to all the sons and daughters of the Sudanese people, and to the IDPs and to those directly impacted by the war in the conflict areas and in Darfur, Khartoum and Kordufan, in particular.
It has to be emphasized here that you are the ones who have direct interest for this war to end, putting an end to your suffering, ensure that humanitarian assistance is delivered urgently and guarantee that interim justice is served and that impunity is ended, no matter how long it takes, and we hope that the end of the war would see a gradual return for you to your normal life.
The Preparatory Committee and all civil forces represented in this meeting, underline the need for the participation and representation of all grassroot community which ensure ownership, legitimacy and popular support for this civilian front. The committee and all lively civilian forces represented in this preparatory meeting, irrespective of their ideological, political and programmatic differences, would also like to underline that they are fully united and are agreed on ending the war.
The second message: to all youth, boys and girls, of the emergency rooms and to the doctors;
You are the unknown soldiers working under direct life- threatening security circumstances, to you we bow in appreciation of your unprecedented sacrifices in serving the victims of the war, those who were killed and those injured and those suffering chronic diseases. We express our condolences for the victims who martyred while discharging their sacred duties in unique manner. You are the pride of this nation wherever you are living and you will remain as such and those who passed away are and remain martyrs.
The third message: to all political and civil forces, to the armed struggle forces who are not represented here or are not present in this meeting;
Although this preparatory meeting is taking place without your participation, for different reasons, we must underline that this is only the beginning of a comprehensive and critical process for management of a diversity and the right of each and every one to participate at all stages of building a wide-based front bringing together all lively civil forces.
The fourth and last message: to all international, regional actors and neighbors of the Sudan;
While commending the role and efforts of the international and regional community to bring an end for the war and for supporting the democratic transition and peace, the Preparatory Committee, the leadership and all representatives of the civil, political, professional, women, youth and Resistance Committees, we look forwards to more efforts and more pressure exerted on the two warring parties to return to the negotiating table to end the war and to launch a civil political process that would restore the path of the glorious December Revolution in freedom, peace and justice, under civilian ownership and leadership.
Before closing, the Preparatory Committee would like to extend its thanks and appreciation for the government and people of sister Ethiopia for hosting this preparatory meeting which is setting the ground for the expanded coming meeting of the Sudanese democratic civilian forces.
No to war, yes to ending the war now
Glory and honor to the martyrs of our bleeding homeland
Yes, for realization of the slogans of the revolution: freedom, peace and justice
The Preparatory Committee of the Preparatory Meeting for the Civilian Front
Ethiopia, Addis Ababa
Monday 23rd of October 2023
