Sudan sets up panel to investigate deadly crackdown

Sudan has appointed a commission to investigate the violent dispersal of protesters camped outside the armed forces headquarters in which scores were killed.

Veteran rights lawyer Nabil Adib will lead the independent body, which will have broad powers including the right to summon officials and to see official, medical and security documents.

It will report to the government in three months’ time, but can ask for one-month extensions depending on the progress it makes, the Suna state news agency said on Sunday.

Other members include lawyers and security officials.

The crackdown on June 3 ended almost two months of protests outside the armed forces’ headquarters in Khartoum.

The sit-in began on April 6 to put pressure on the military to remove authoritarian leader Omar Al Bashir after almost four months of protests against his 29-year rule.

The military removed Mr Al Bashir on April 11, but the sit-in continued, to force the generals who succeeded him to hand power to civilians.

Almost 130 people were killed as the protest was dispersed by security forces, said the pro-democracy movement that arose from the uprising against Mr Al Bashir. Authorities, however, put the death toll at fewer than 90.

The commission’s mandate includes determining the number of people killed and identifying who was responsible for the operation. It will also determine the number of people wounded and missing, the news agency reported.

The commission can enlist the support of the African Union.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, a group that orchestrated the protests against Mr Al Bashir, welcomed the formation of the commission, saying it was “the first brick” in the structure of a fair investigation that would eventually identify the culprits and bring them to justice.

An independent investigation of violence on June 3 was part of a power-sharing agreement signed in August between the military and pro-democracy movement the Forces of Freedom and Change.