SUDAN OPPOSITION REJECTS MILITARY CHIEF’S OFFER OF TALKS
Sudan’s military rulers offered an unconditional resumption of talks with opposition groups on Wednesday, two days after security forces mounted a deadly raid on a protest camp, but the opposition rejected the invitation.
The military council cancelled all agreements it had reached with the opposition immediately after the raid but on Wednesday it rowed back amid mounting international criticism of the violence.
“We in the military council extend our hand for negotiations without shackles except the interests of the homeland,” its head, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-burhan, said on state TV.
But a Sudanese alliance of protesters and opposition
groups rejected the offer, saying the military could not be trusted.
“Today the council invited us to dialogue and at the same time it is imposing fear on citizens in the streets,” Madani Abbas Madani, a leader of the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF), told Reuters.
Madani said Burhan’s invitation had come before the arrest of one of the opposition alliance members, Yasir Arman, deputy head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-north (SPLM-N) rebel group.
At least 60 people died in Monday’s operation and subsequent unrest, medics linked to the opposition said on Wednesday. KHARTOUM REUTERS
JUNE 5