The organizing committee of the National Dialogue launched by Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir, known as the ‘7+7 mechanism’, has approved a timetable and guidelines for the work of six committees working toward producing a “national document” as an outcome of the conference.
Sudan’s Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman told Radio Tamazuj in an interview that the committees emerged from the General Conference on Saturday and began meeting on Sunday.
Osman said one of the committees is tasked with contacting groups that have rejected participation in the National Dialogue, including several opposition parties, Darfur armed groups and the SPLA-North.
The government spokesman said the dialogue will begin within the six committee formed Sunday, while praising the results of the opening session.
State-run news agency SUNA reported that the 7+7 coordinating committee met Monday at Friendship Hall in Khartoum and “set a timetable for the committees’ work three days every week (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday) for speeding up the dialogue and coming out with national document that is resolving to Sudan issues.”
“The mechanism has reviewed in its first meeting the work of the six dialogue committees and issued directives for avoiding shortcomings and pushing ahead the work… The mechanism has called on the political parties and the armed movements to determine their membership and to offer identity cards for each member so as to be able for entry to the discussion panels,” reads the SUNA report.
The 7+7 committee, also known as the Higher Coordination Committee, previously announced that the purpose behind the National Dialogue is “to agree on the higher strategic interests of the Sudan, how it could be governed and how to bar ascending power by forceful means.”