11-09-08, 9:15 am

Sudan Tribune

November 7, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The Secretary General of Sudan’s communist party (SCP) Ibrahim Nugud announced today that he will visit the Southern capital next week for talks with political forces there.

Nugud told the independent Al-Akhbar in an interview that his trip aims at “bolstering the activities of the SCP in southern Sudan”.

The opposition leader further said that he will take part in political forums that will take place in Juba.

This is the first time the communist figure visits Southern Sudan in more than two decades. He has been in the hiding since the 1989 coup fearing arrest by the Sudanese authorities until five years ago.

The SCP has minimal presence if any in the semi-autonomous south. Nugud attributed this to the dominance of the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the region.

However the veteran opposition leader said that he wants to utilize his party’s links with SPLM so that 2011 self determination referendum in the South will favor unity rather than secession.

The SCP has been supportive of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and told Sudan Tribune in an interview last year that “the CPA as an end result is a positive agreement; it stopped the war, opened the road to peace, and gave southern Sudan the right for self-determination after a referendum”.

However, he regretted that the CPA “addressed many issues in abstract terms and did not take into account the experience of the Sudanese political movements”.

The SCP is set to hold its fifth congress soon which would be held forty years after its last convention.

Founded in 1946, the SCP was a major force in Sudanese politics until 1971, when former president Gaa’far al-Nimeiri launched a wave of repression against the party after escaping a foiled coup where some communist officers had been involved.