18th March 2017 Statement Regarding Joining Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM-N)

To heroic people of Sudan,
Out of our belief of the New Sudan Project, the thesis of our late leader Dr. John Garang, the only promising vision for building a state leading us out of the woeful and complete failure that have befallen the Sudanese state since independence. It is a vision that embodies the clear and exalted ideals cherished by true revolutionaries seeking a dependable aegis for their public endeavour and the desire to conduct politics with integrity. Based on a true desire to achieve the goals of this noble vision of a society that would accommodate all its people respecting their diversity and differences- a democratic homeland with its people free and living with dignity.
We have become convinced that the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM-N) is the crucible within which all our difference would dissolve and out of many we will become one united whole to build the Sudan of the future.
As a result we, all three hundreds and forty-two of us, as leading cadres and activists, impelled by our free will to declare our voluntary decision to join the SPLM-N.
Our proud people,
The continuing Sudanese crisis and its elaborations that are linked to mis- governance and the management of public affairs are the self-same reasons that have inspired the dedicated patriots to build a genuine national vision that would guarantee the stability and security of our homeland under the leadership of Dr. John Garang, February 2003. They are the same reasons that ignited the revolution in Darfur, and they are, but a further iteration of the new Sudan vision. In both movements the principles and objectives have been the same with the only difference in the names and locale of the persons in leading positions.
The current ‘National Islamic Front’ regime led by the war criminal Al-Bashir and his henchmen is an entity built upon a terrorist foundation using Arabo-Islamist ideology to subjugate our people and our country. And yet, it was not able to vanquish the Darfur revolution. That is why it relied on funding and arming local tribes and set them against each other, employing the policy of divide and rule.  It found it ideal recruit in the malleable, simple folks of the region. It established the notorious ‘Janjaweed’ militia, and the government of Khartoum Continued to supply and assist those duped in this way through their military institutions. Those recruit are themselves targets of the same marginalisation, probably even more so than their victims. Even so, they went on to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing against entire communities in Darfur. In a genocidal onslaught resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, according to well-sourced international reports. The ensuing International investigations resulted in the indictment of the head of state by the international Criminal Court with committing war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. He has since become a fugitive from international justice, pursued wherever he travels. Needless to say that the splintering of revolutionary forces in Darfur has cost us the opportunity of exploiting to maximum effect Al-Bashir’s diminishing stature. A matter complicated by the renewed rivalry amongst the international powers taking greater priority.
Out of the belief in the legitimacy of our cause, we did not sit on our hands, but we took part with what we had answering the call of the revolution. We remain certain of the justice of our cause and we remain positioned in our battle trenches, fighting to reclaim the dignity for our people and the establishment of a state based on equal citizenship in a country accommodating all. This has allowed us to live through the various chapters of the Darfur story with their bitter taste of suffering, and hundreds of thousands of deaths from famine and disease. Beside many more forced into displacement and flight from their homes and into camps in side and outside of Sudan, exacerbating the humanitarian disaster. Worse still is the fracture of communities into Arabs and Africans, and into herders and farmers. The division of each group along imaginary distinctions helped incite futile internecine conflicts that enable easy control over our destiny. An old, and ever new, strategy against the people of Darfur and West Sudan generally in order to banish them as they are seen as a threat to racist state.
But now we have understood the lesson: that we have to work with each other abandoning all the ethnically and tribally based affinities for an all-inclusive outlook to win a decent life for our people.
We could not pass this opportunity without saluting the heroic role played by the honourable leaders of the Sudanese opposition for their steadfast position and their fortitude in the face of an authoritarian regime. We also offer our sincere salutations for the role played by the youths movements- particularly, the youths activists behind the recent calls for civil disobedience- for forging new revolutionary weapons of resistance in the struggle to uproot this regime. These public actions present the finest forms of civil resistance. Our gratitude is also extended to all organisations, movements, civil society bodies and the heroic women resisters.
The SPLM-N was founded for the defence of the dispossessed and downtrodden and has been always ready to offer its support. It has not sat on its hand tied toward the cause of Darfur, but have always been present before and after the eruption of the revolution there. And, it has been cognizant from its inception of the necessity for a comprehensive resolution of the country’s crises. Its leadership affirmed its engagement in building a platform for Darfur long ago. Its commitment was displayed in its dispatch of a military mission for the liberation of Darfur led by the late Daoud Yahya Bolad. In this regard, the SPLM-N sent its most distinguished and able leaders who paid with their lives for that noble goal. More recently, the cause of Darfur have been always present in all fifteen rounds of negotiations between the SPLM-N and the Khartoum regime. The SPLM-N was not satisfied with simply offering moral support and political solidarity within its sphere of influence, but contributed by supporting the Darfuri movements with all its power.  Without a doubt this preoccupation and considerable efforts reflect how all-embracing the SPLM-N’s vision is in its holistic approach to the country’s crises.
We have a firm conviction that the issue of Darfur is a permanent feature amongst the concerns of the SPLM-N leadership, but sadly leaders of the revolution in Darfur are not seized by the importance of task of unifying political action and directing it towards a common goal, thereby, realising the hopes and aspirations of the Sudanese people. In this task, we have failed as movements that stood up for the issues that concerning the citizens of Darfur, and in unifying our revolutionary action and bringing about a comprehensive resolution to the crisis. These divisions had a deadly impact on our cause, and have fractured the aims of the revolution among the many ineffectual armed groups, and the political atomization continues to this day. Regrettably, those at the helm are not content with dereliction of responsibility. They have compounded the situation with surrendering to the bear-hug of the regime. Always offering weak justifications for the dishonourable and fragile peace deals struck, or worse, opting for voluntary suicide in the ceaseless rivalry between leaders.
To our Glorious People,
All the reasons outlined above, have compelled us to join the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement. This step is not the result of a momentary spasm, but we have been engaged with the SPLM-N for a long time in one initiative after another, and offering many concessions in order to arrive at an acceptable formula that would unite all those factions and create a better reality. We were prepared to persevere even if this necessitated forming a strategic alliance with the single goal of overthrowing the regime. None of these initiatives, though, met with the attention it deserves from our revolutionary leadership of our organisation.
We are more certain as a result that the Sudan problem would not be resolved by striking fragile peace deals and power-sharing arrangements with a bloodthirsty and scheming regime as the one we have. For this reason we have engaged the leadership of the SPLM-N in a series of detailed exchanges and discussions which continued for eight months in various world capitals. We have emerged convinced from these discussions by the nationally inclusive nature of their vision. They have accepted our outlook for the resolution of the complex problems of the Sudanese state. Also, they further affirmed the common features between that outlook and the new Sudan vision, and that the cause of Darfur was, and is, at the centre of their current and future concerns, and that they are committed to its progress and the re-establishing of John Garang’s vision in Darfur whatever the cost. It has become clear to us that the SPLM-N is a broad project concerned with the Sudanese problem in a holistic way, and has far reaching consequences.
This is what we have observed following the process of the release of the 130 Prisoners of War recently, in what is known as the ‘Goodwill Operation’, commemorating the passing of SPLA-N’s Brig. Gen. Ahmed Bahar Hajana who was slain whilst in government captivity in the U.N. compound in Kadugli in June 2011.
To Our Courageous People,
As we embark on joining the SPLM-N, our highest ideal is to achieve a society of equal citizenship, liberty, equity and democratic governance- that will guarantee a peaceful transfer of power. We resolve to address all the challenges that stand in the way of the mobilization of the Sudanese behind the call for national salvation through popular revolution. We aspire to a country that free from schisms of regionalism and ethno-nationalism, and where all forms of discrimination and racial superiority is banished.
As we declare our move to join the SPLM-N out of conviction and certitude, we issue a genuine revolutionary call to all our comrades who are scattered in the wilderness of Darfur by the acts of irresponsible leaders. And also call upon those who lost their way inside the corridors of power ensnared by regime’s scheming. Join us in rebuilding the Darfur sector of the SPLM-N, as a broad inclusive platform for the building of a new Sudan, leaving behind the entrenchment of tribalism, and abandoning the fantasies of a dogmatic leadership, which squandered a golden opportunity in Abuja to bring the regime to heel. Thereafter, the same failed leadership, with nothing more to offer, except await what fate we deal it from the recesses of the unknown.
We ask for mercy on the souls of our revolutionary martyrs, and wish quick recovery for our injured. We offer our congratulations for the released of our prisoners of war, and wish for a speedy release for those still in captivity.
We call on our ex- comrades who remain true and holding steadfast the revolutionary cause in Darfur to align our ranks and work as a single front for the rights of our peoples. We are not enemies, let point our weapon towards the real enemy.

(We will build that of which we
Dream of daily,
A new homeland towering and strong,
Democratic and bountiful.)