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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Sudan army ruler calls for unconditional talks

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Khartoum: Sudan’s army ruler on Wednesday called on protest leaders to resume talks on the transfer of power without any conditions, as tension between the two sides persists after the bloody dispersal of demonstrators.


“We are calling on the Alliance for Freedom and Change and all political powers to come and sit without any conditions... we need a solution that satisfies all people,” General Abdel Fattah al Burhan told a gathering of medics in a speech broadcast on state television.


His remarks came just over two weeks since armed men in military fatigues broke up a weeks-long sit-in outside army headquarters.


The ruling generals had vowed on several occasions not to disperse the sit-in.


The dispersal came after multiple rounds of talks between the military council and protest leaders faltered.


“The country has been without a government for three months... the Sudanese people and foreign policy have been affected by the lack of government,” Burhan said.


“We don’t want the situation to get out of control. We don’t want to see another coup,” he said.


The ruling generals said last week that “more than one coup attempt had been planned” against the military council, but had been thwarted, with “two groups of officers” taken into custody.


The military council took power after deposing long-time president Omar al Bashir on April 11, following months of demonstrations against his iron-fisted rule.


Meanwhile, Sudan’s ruling generals must swiftly hand power to civilians if they are to regain the trust they lost after a deadly crackdown on protesters this month, Britain’s envoy to Khartoum has said.


Crowds of protesters who had camped for weeks outside the capital’s army headquarters to demand civilian rule were violently dispersed on June 3 by armed men in military fatigues.


The gunmen shot and beat protesters at the crack of dawn in an operation that left dozens dead and hundreds wounded, according to doctors and witnesses.


The killings sparked a wave of international condemnation, and the ruling military council has distanced itself from the events.


But Irfan Siddiq, Britain’s Ambassador to Khartoum and a leading advocate of civilian rule in Sudan, said the military council was ultimately responsible.


“At the end of the day, it is the security forces who conducted these raids and led to the killings of the people,” Siddiq said in an interview at his official residence in Khartoum.


“Therefore, the military council bears responsibility for taking the steps to build and rebuild the trust and confidence that would enable the civilian transition to occur.”


At least 128 people have been killed since the crackdown, the majority on the day the sit-in was cleared.


That is according to doctors linked to the protest movement that led to the ouster of longtime leader Omar al Bashir and his replacement by the military council in April. The health ministry has put the nationwide death toll on June 3 at 61.


The military council has expressed “regret” over what happened but insists it had only ordered the clearing of an area near the protest camp where drug dealers had reportedly operated.


The initial findings of a military investigation showed that “officers and soldiers of different ranks and regular forces” had entered the sit-in itself without orders from their superiors, the investigating committee said.


Siddiq, a fluent Arabic speaker who began his Khartoum posting in April 2018, said the international community was waiting for the committee’s report.


“But until that happens... the military council is responsible for security and therefore it’s responsible for what happened,” he said.


“Therefore, I think we need to see measures from the military council that build trust, build confidence” among the Sudanese public and the international community, he added.


Minutes after the assault began, Siddiq, whose residence is near the army headquarters, had heard gunshots and raised the alarm on social media.


“No excuse for any such attack. This. Must. Stop. Now,” he tweeted as the operation was in progress. — AFP


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