KHARTOUM: A top Sudanese general on Sunday vowed to send to the “gallows” those who carried out a deadly crackdown on protesters earlier this month that killed dozens and left hundreds wounded. “We are working hard to take those who did this to the gallows,” Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy chief of the ruling military council said in a speech broadcast live on state television. “Whoever committed any fault” will be held accountable, Dagalo added. Thousands of protesters who had camped outside the Khartoum military headquarters for weeks were violently dispersed by armed men in military fatigues on June 3, according to witnesses.
More than 100 people were killed that day in Khartoum, according to doctors linked to the protest movement, while the health ministry put the nationwide death toll at 61. Last Thursday, military council spokesman General Shamseddine Kabbashi expressed “regret” over the crackdown. But the council insists it did not order the dispersal, saying it had actually planned to purge an area near the protest camp where people are said to sell drugs. “The planning of the operation of Colombia (area) was done by military and security authorities,” the council said in a statement late on Saturday.
“We assure you that the council is keen to investigate minute by minute facts through its investigation committee.” Brigadier Abderrahim Badreddine, spokesman for the investigative committee, said initial findings showed “officers and soldiers of different ranks from regular forces entered the sit-in without any orders from their superiors.” “They were not part of the troops who were ordered to clean Colombia,” he said. Meanwhile, dramatic cheers and boos echoed through a spartan arena in Sudan’s capital where hulking wrestlers went head-to-head once more, after a brief hiatus.
Captivating a sea of spectators, two of the wrestlers bowed forward before pouncing into one another, trading blows and tumbling to the sandy floor at the Haj Youssef stadium on the edge of Khartoum. Originating in the Nuba mountains, the sport has become wildly popular country-wide in recent years. — Agencies
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