News Article by AFP posted on November 30, 2000 at 09:51:19: EST (-5 GMT)
Sudanese president says he'll share power with opposition leader
KHARTOUM, Nov 30 (AFP) - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir said
he is
ready to give a share in power to former prime minister Sadeq
al-Mahdi,
leader of the opposition Umma Party, a newspaper reported
Thursday.
"We are ready to go along with Sadeq al-Mahdi till the end of
the road. I
mean he will fully participate in power," Beshir was
quoted by the
independent Al-Ayam daily as saying.
Ruling National Congress (NC) party Secretary General Ibrahim
Ahmed Omar
told reporters Thursday that a government reshuffle would
be made in a
month's time, after presidential and legislative
elections due on December
11-20.
Beshir said negotiations between the NC and the Umma Party are
under way
and that the two sides would be able to reach agreement on
power-sharing by
the end of the elections.
Democratically elected prime minister in 1986, Mahdi was
overthrown three
years later in a coup that brought the military and
Islamists to power under
the leadership of Beshir.
Beshir said Mahdi's return "practically proved that the door is
open to
all opponents to come back home as there is no need for them
to stay abroad
and to carry arms" against his government.
In 1995, the Umma and other northern groups took up arms against
Khartoum
under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an umbrella
for the southern
and northern opposition. Khartoum has been fighting
southern rebels since
1983.
Mahdi fled from Khartoum in December 1996 for fear of arrest,
pronouncing
"a lack of freedom and democracy" in Sudan. He travelled
first to Eritrea
before settling in Egypt.
But in November 1999, Madhi struck a reconciliation deal with
Beshir, then
in March he bolted from the NDA.
Madhi announced his return home earlier this month, but at the
same time
his party announced that it would boycott the
parliamentary and presidential
elections.
Umma officials said that ending the country's 17-year civil war
was the
first priority.