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Sudan
POLITICAL GROUPS
The RCC-NS banned all political parties following the 1989 coup
and arrested several political leaders including the deposed prime
minister, Sadiq al Mahdi. Nevertheless, all northern parties that
existed at the time of the coup maintained their party structures
outside the country or in southern areas controlled by antigovernment
forces. Some banned political parties actually operated fairly
openly in Khartoum and other urban centers. The National Islamic
Front, whose leaders were considered to have close relations with
several RCC-NS members, was particularly open. Both supporters
and opponents of the regime asserted that in the past most government
decisions were made by a secretive council of forty men whose
members included both top military leaders and prominent figures
in the NIF, a coalition dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. In
addition, several cabinet ministers belonged to the NIF. With
the exception of the NIF, however, the precoup parties generally
did not cooperate with the military government and were committed
to its overthrow.
The RCC-NS attempted to broaden its legitimacy by meeting with
members of the various opposition parties. Its first effort to
reach out to the banned parties was to invite them to send representatives
to a National Dialogue Conference, held in Khartoum in the autumn
of 1989. Most of the parties sent delegates, but the SPLM was
conspicuously absent. The substantive results of the National
Dialogue Conference were meager because the RCC-NS controlled
the agenda and did not permit any criticism of its rule. Various
meetings in 1990 and 1991 appeared to be aimed at coopting individuals
rather than engaging in serious discussions about the country's
government. The state-controlled media covered these meetings,
but the participants rarely were prominent party leaders. In fact,
Sadiq al Mahdi's Umma Party disassociated itself from contacts
with the RCC-NS by announcing through its publications that the
person with whom the RCC-NS met was not connected with the party.
The DUP expelled two members for unauthorized contact with the
government.
After the 1989 coup, the banned parties gradually coordinated
a common opposition strategy. Northern political leaders initiated
a dialogue with the SPLM that resulted in early 1990 in a formal
alliance among the SPLM, the Umma Party, and the DUP. This grouping,
known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an organization
in exile, most of whose leaders lived in Cairo, provided the Umma
and other parties with access to valuable radio transmitting facilities
in SPLM-controlled areas. The NDA was further strengthened when
several high-ranking military officers whom the RCC-NS had dismissed
from service in 1989 established informal contacts with it. The
most prominent of these officers was Lieutenant General Fathi
Ahmad Ali, who had served as armed forces commander in chief prior
to Bashir's coup. In January 1991, the NDA proposed to establish
a government in exile for the purpose of overthrowing the Bashir
regime. General Ali was named head of the government, and Garang
his deputy. In March 1991, the NDA met in Ethiopia with representatives
of military officers, professional associations, trade unions,
and the Sudanese Communist Party to discuss ideas for organizing
a national government.
Although all political parties remained officially banned in
1991, many precoup parties continued to operate underground or
in exile. All the major Sudanese political parties in the north
were affiliated with Islamic groups, a situation that has prevailed
since before independence in 1956. Among the important religious
organizations that sponsored political parties were the Ansar,
the Khatmiyyah, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Although several secular
parties had been set up between 1986 and 1989, except for the
long-established Sudanese Communist Party and the Baath (Arab
Socialist Resurrection) Party, none of these had effective organizations
after the coup.
Data as of June 1991
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