Sudan protesters demand civilian government
SUDAN - Sudanese protest organisers have presented demands to the country’s new military rulers, urging the creation of a civilian government, the group spearheading demonstrations has said.
Thousands remained encamped outside Khartoum’s army headquarters overnight and into Sunday to keep up the pressure on the military council that took power after ousting veteran leader Omar al-Bashir on Thursday.
A 10-member delegation representing the protesters delivered their demands during talks late on Saturday, according to a statement by umbrella group the Alliance for Freedom and Change.
“We will continue our sit-in until all our demands are met”, including the formation of a fully civilian government, one of the alliance’s leaders, Omar al-Degier, said.
The umbrella group insists that civilian representatives should be accepted onto the military council, and that a fully civilian government should be formed to run dayto-day affairs.
“We surely want our demands to be met, but both sides will have to be flexible to reach a deal”, said a protester who spent the night at the army complex.
On Saturday, the new chief of the military council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, vowed to dismantle Bashir’s regime and lifted a night-time curfew with immediate effect. Burhan also pledged that individuals implicated in killing protesters would face justice and that protesters detained under a state of emergency imposed by Bashir during his final weeks in power would be freed.
He took the oath of office on Friday after his predecessor General Awad Ibn Ouf stepped down little more than 24 hours after ousting Bashir.
Tens of thousands of people have massed outside the army headquarters since 6 April, initially to urge the armed forces to back their demand that Bashir be removed.
Burhan comes with less baggage from Bashir’s deeply unpopular rule than Ibn Ouf. But while celebrating the fall of Bashir and then Ibn Ouf – a defence minister and longtime close aide of the deposed president – protesters remain cautious.
Degier said their demands include restructuring the country’s feared National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), whose chief Salih Ghosh resigned on Saturday.
Rights group Amnesty International urged the military council on Saturday to examine Ghosh’s actions during a crackdown against protesters during the final weeks of Bashir’s rule.
“It is crucial that Sudan’s new authorities investigate Ghosh’s role in the killings of scores of Sudanese protesters over the past four months”, said Amnesty’s regional director Sarah Jackson.
The newly formed 10-member transitional council contains several faces from Bashir’s regime.
On Saturday evening, the new military ruler named NISS deputy head Jalaluddin Sheikh to the council.
He also nominated Mohammad Hamdan Daglo – known as Himeidti – a field commander for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) counter-insurgency unit, which rights groups have accused of abuses in war-torn Darfur.
(AFP)