The recent invitation by the United States government to a senior delegation of the National Congress Party (NCP) headed by Nafie Ali Nafie, to attend talks in Washington, DC is a big mistake.
The man the Obama Administration will be speaking with has blood on his hands, quite literally. As one of the most brutal members of the National Islamic Front regime and head of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in the 1990′s, Nafie masterminded a savage campaign of torture and killing in compounds known as “Ghost Houses.” Thousands of people were tortured and hundreds disappeared in a campaign that saw the annihilation of voices of dissent. Leaders of civil society and professional and student unions were persecuted under his direct orders. He himself is known to have tortured individuals directly.
The US government must understand that the NCP has lost all legitimacy and has never represented the Sudanese people. Rather, it represents a tiny cabal of individuals that have exploited us, killed hundreds of thousands of our innocent brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, and continues to commit mass atrocities and crimes against humanity until this day. The regime of Omar al-Bashir has proved itself unwilling to accept the rule of law, or implement any of the myriad agreements it has signed with the various armed groups and the civilian opposition.
The only agenda this regime has is the continuation of its stranglehold on power.
On Friday April 26, this regime’s “security” forces murdered an innocent teenager, a high school student, after the residents of the Om Doum town (in the suburbs of Khartoum) peacefully protested the illegal sale of their homes to wealthy investors from the Gulf. The NCP cabal deals with Sudan as its personal property.
If the United States is genuinely interested in stability and peace in the region, it must not fall into the false paradigm that the NCP is the only harbinger of stability. In fact, the NCP’s prolonged rule will ensure that South Sudan will remain unstable, and that various armed conflicts in Sudan will continue.
We, the Sudanese people, have grown tired of the piecemeal and haphazard way this regime has dealt with the genuine grievances of our people in Darfur, South Kordofan, Blue Nile, Eastern Sudan and in all corners of our nation. We are demanding a holistic solution to our nation’s problem: a comprehensive and absolute change of this oppressive regime.
The Sudanese people yearn for and believe in an alternative: democracy, justice, accountability and peace. If the US government is interested in helping the Sudanese people achieve this alternative, it must not stand in our way. Talking to this regime is one thing, but legitimizing it is a mistake.