THE SUDANESE HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY - Sudan Tribune

and the Interim Constitution to allow all opposition parties to participateactively in the transition to democratic rule by national elections.The Organization believed that the remaining weeks constitutionallyallowable for the NIF/NCP government and president to stay in politicalpower should be carefully spent in close peaceful relations with the oppositionand civil society groups, especially the SPLM peace partner, towardsthe establishment of an all-Sudanese transitional government torun the national elections in order to sustain and to apply firmly the Sudan’smost significant peace treaty, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.Expanded State ViolenceViolence was not abated: the government failed to sustain normal relationswith Chad, which exchanged serious accusations with the governmenton mutual attacks across the international borders by different rebelgroups. Moreover, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the South troops engagedin violent confrontations in Abyei.The eruption of violent hostilities between the CPA partners overshadowedthe bilateral relations between the two governments and at onepoint the SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum indicated in a press conferencethat the South might consider separation as a possible option, insteadof the optional unity endorsed by the national forces.Several cities witnessed acts of violent confrontations resulting in killingsand casualties in Malakal, Fashir, and many villages and camps ofthe displaced population in Darfur. The peace talks with the Darfur rebelsmoved in a direction of partial reconciliation in Qatar between the Justice& Equality Movement and the Government. Still, the major agenda werenot resolved in the absence of most parties to the conflict.The state’s violence was not reduced in the period as the Judiciarysentenced with the death penalty scores of the Darfur citizens accused ofsedition and other crimes punishable with death. Even in universities andschools, such as the Ahlia University in Omdurman, the authorities didnot refrain from exercising violent show downs with the students supportingthe opposition any time, with any tools of violence, or simplyclosing up the institution for unrestricted time.36THE SUDANESE HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLYAn ad hoc publication issued by the Sudan Human Rights Organization - Cairo