Sudanese opposition members prevented from flying to Europe

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Sudanese opposition delegation were prevented on Monday from flying to Europe to meet other opposition leaders and address the European Parliament, one of the delegation said. Siddiq Youssef, a leader of Sudan's Communist Party, said members of the seven-strong delegation had been due to meet other opposition leaders abroad, as well as representatives of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, an alliance of two rebel factions fighting government forces in the Darfur region. He said they had also been scheduled to meet the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee in Paris, and to address a session of the parliament in Brussels on June 12. Security officials at Khartoum airport told the delegation they were on a blacklist and confiscated their passports, Youssef said. The Information Ministry was not immediately available for comment. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's opponents say he allowed security forces to crack down on the opposition and civil society in the months leading up to April's elections, after initially opening up political space last year. Opposition groups boycotted the elections, saying they had no chance of competing fairly. As he started his new term last week, Bashir said Sudan was open to dialogue with Western nations, an unusually conciliatory comment from a leader charged at the International Criminal Court with masterminding genocide and other atrocities in his campaign to crush the revolt in Darfur. He denies the charges, which have contributed to Sudan's isolation from global financial and political institutions. "Stopping us travelling shows that the president's talk at his inauguration about opening up to the West was just talk without action. This government is continuing in its way of being against freedoms and against dialogue," Youssef told Reuters. "The European Parliament wants to listen to the point of view of the Sudanese opposition, both the political and military wings. We were going to make clear that we do not reject dialogue with the government but we have conditions," he said. Maryam al-Sadeq al-Mahdi, vice president of the Umma Party, one of the main opposition groups, confirmed that the delegation had been prevented from flying out.