PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Bashir calls on Sudanese rebel movements to take part in constitution drafting
Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Sudanese President Omar Bashir on Monday renewed his call to armed rebel movements to lay down arms, join the peace process and form political parties for participation in drafting a permanent constitution of Sudan.
Addressing parliament, Bashir stressed that a ceasefire he recently declared to last until June 30, was designed to provide time for reaching peace with the remaining holdouts and to show sincere willingness by his government for achieving peace with them.
However, the President warned that he would not permit combining military with political actions, saying: "We will never tolerate combination of an anti-government military activity with a political action. Any government responsible to God and to the people cannot tolerate a force that intimidates, plunders and kils people to have at the same time a political party to practice politics.
"Any movement,” he stressed, "has to choose one of two options-- either to take up arms and in this case we will confront them with the necessary decisive force, or to join the political alternative and in this case they must clearly declare renunciation of violence."
Bashir also announced his government would in the coming days commence dialogue with the political parties and organizations and national dignitaries on drafting a permanent constitution that would be endorsed by a referendum, either before or after the 2020 general and presidential elections.
He noted that one group of the National Dialogue parties calls for endorsement of the constitution before the elections while another group says it must be endorsed by an elected parliament after the polls as provided in the National Dialogue document.
Bashir said this disagreement necessitates calling the general assembly of the National Dialogue to decide on the time for endorsement of the constitution.
Sudan is currently run on an interim constitution of 2005, that saw the secession of South Sudan in 2011.
On the economic situation, Bashir said that since the beginning of this year problems have led to the plummet of the Sudanese currency against foreign currencies.
He blamed the scarcity of foreign currencies in the country to greedy money dealers and smugglers of gold and goods.
"All this led to an unprecedented and unjustified skyrocketing the cost of living," he said, adding that there were networks of corrupt people working for subversion of the economy.
-0- PANA MO/AR 2April2018
Addressing parliament, Bashir stressed that a ceasefire he recently declared to last until June 30, was designed to provide time for reaching peace with the remaining holdouts and to show sincere willingness by his government for achieving peace with them.
However, the President warned that he would not permit combining military with political actions, saying: "We will never tolerate combination of an anti-government military activity with a political action. Any government responsible to God and to the people cannot tolerate a force that intimidates, plunders and kils people to have at the same time a political party to practice politics.
"Any movement,” he stressed, "has to choose one of two options-- either to take up arms and in this case we will confront them with the necessary decisive force, or to join the political alternative and in this case they must clearly declare renunciation of violence."
Bashir also announced his government would in the coming days commence dialogue with the political parties and organizations and national dignitaries on drafting a permanent constitution that would be endorsed by a referendum, either before or after the 2020 general and presidential elections.
He noted that one group of the National Dialogue parties calls for endorsement of the constitution before the elections while another group says it must be endorsed by an elected parliament after the polls as provided in the National Dialogue document.
Bashir said this disagreement necessitates calling the general assembly of the National Dialogue to decide on the time for endorsement of the constitution.
Sudan is currently run on an interim constitution of 2005, that saw the secession of South Sudan in 2011.
On the economic situation, Bashir said that since the beginning of this year problems have led to the plummet of the Sudanese currency against foreign currencies.
He blamed the scarcity of foreign currencies in the country to greedy money dealers and smugglers of gold and goods.
"All this led to an unprecedented and unjustified skyrocketing the cost of living," he said, adding that there were networks of corrupt people working for subversion of the economy.
-0- PANA MO/AR 2April2018
