Bashir’s government calls opposition deals a ‘criminal project’ Khartoum – Abedalgoum Ashmeag A Sudanese opposition committee has been tasked with revising the terms of the New Dawn Charter, the anti-government agreement signed in Kampala earlier this month, according to opposition sources .
Committee made of opposition parties in Sudan is set to be created to revise the terms of the New Dawn Pact Kamal Omar, the head of the Sudanese opposition coalition's media committee and Popular Congress Partypolitburo chief, revealed.
Speaking exclusively to Arabstoday, Omar -- an opposition coalition spokesman -- said that parties had agreed “in principle” to hold talks regarding the contents of the agreement, signed in the Ugandan capital. Recommendations would be forwarded on to the Sudan Revolution Front [SRF] leadership, before amending the draft.
Talks were necessary, Omar claimed, following interfactional disagreements over some of the Charter’s points. Denying that opposition signatories were “divided and infilitrated,” Omar mocked Sudanese government claims that it could “learn of goings-on” in anti-government meetings.
"The opposition is determined to mass its powers to topple the regime," Omar said, staving off accusations of internal divisons following a reported investigation into messages sent between opposition coalition chief Farouk Abu Issa and Secretary-General of the SRF, Malik Agar.
Omar described the inquiry as an “internal procedure, not a judicial or policing act.”
The SRF had previously described the New Dawn Charter as "the way out of Sudan's crises and the only mechanism to resolve issues in Sudan." Speaking in Addis Ababa, Agar said the pact was "subject to change” and he respected other elements’ reservations.
Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party [NCP] has threatened new measures against opposition forces following recent developments. Badiya Suleiman, head of a parliamentary legal committee, called on opposition signatories to be “held accountable” by launching formal criminal charges against them.  
Charges could include incitement and cooperating with an enemy state, Suleiman claimed.
According to international law, Suleiman said, only the Sudanese government had the power to enter into negotiations with rebels. She described the New Dawn Charter as a “criminal project," which "threatens the nation's unity and security."
Aboud Jabir, Secretary-General of the Council of National Unity Parties [CNUP], meanwhile demanded that opposition forces abandon slogans calling for forcible regime change.
Speaking to Arabstoday, Jabir said: "Change does not come about in the way the opposition is talking about. They must give up talk of bearing arms and instead adopt a discourse geared towards national unity." He also renewed CNUP calls for talks with the opposition as "the shortest and best route to resolving issues."
"The door for talks between political forces and the ruling regime are open and have not yet been shut, as evidenced by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's invitations to dialogue,” Jabir said.
The CNUP leader listed "contentious issues" facing negotiations as "democracy, the sharing of power and wealth, the system and form of governance and the country's permanent constitution.” The relationship between religion and the state could also be problematic, Jabir added.