BFF-16 Sudan protesters present demands to military in talks

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Sudan protesters present demands to military in talks

KHARTOUM, April 14, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Sudanese protest organisers have
presented demands to the country’s new military rulers, urging the creation
of a civilian government, the group spearheading demonstrations said.

Thousands remained encamped outside Khartoum’s army headquarters overnight
to keep up the pressure on a 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 with the council late Saturday, according to a statement by the
Alliance for Freedom and Change umbrella group.

“We will continue… our sit-in until all our demands are met,” including
the formation of a fully civilian government, said one of the alliance’s
leaders, Omar al-Degier.

The group insists on civilian representatives joining the military council
and on the creation of a fully civilian government to run day-to-day affairs.

Later Sunday the military council is due to hold meetings with several
political parties, state media reported.

“We surely want our demands to be met, but both sides will have to be
flexible to reach a deal,” said a demonstrator who spent the night at the
army complex.

Talks between protest leaders and Sudan’s new rulers were followed Sunday
by a meeting between Washington’s top envoy to Khartoum, Steven Koutsis, and
the military council’s deputy.

Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, widely known as Himeidti, told Koutsis “about the
measures taken by the military council to preserve the security and stability
of the country,” the official SUNA news agency reported.

Himeidti is a field commander for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) counter-
insurgency unit, which rights groups have accused of abuses in the war-torn
Darfur region.

– Burhan talks the talk –

On Saturday, the new chief of the military council General Abdel Fattah al-
Burhan vowed to dismantle Bashir’s regime, lifting 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.

Burhan 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 April 6, initially to urge the military to back their demand that
Bashir be removed.

Burhan comes with less baggage from Bashir’s deeply unpopular rule than
Ibn Ouf, a former defence minister and long-time close aide of the deposed
president.

But while celebrating the fall of both men in quick succession, 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 on Saturday urged the military council
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 Salah Ghosh’s role
in the killings of scores of Sudanese protesters over the past four months”,
said Amnesty’s regional director Sarah Jackson.

– Gulf allies voice support –

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, with Himeidti as its deputy head.

of the protester taking at the sit-in outside army headquarters said he
was ambivalent about that appointment.

“Himeidti was part of the crimes that happened previously but at least now
he is on the side of the people,” said Mohamed, who gave only his first name
for security reasons.

Key regional power-brokers Saudi Arabia and the UAE voiced backing for the
transitional council.

Burhan’s nomination “reflects the ambitions of the brotherly people of
Sudan for security, stability and development”, UAE state news agency WAM
said.

Saudi Arabia has promised an aid package, the Saudi Press Agency reported
Saturday.

Sudan is part of a UAE and Saudi-led military coalition fighting Iran-
backed Huthi rebels in Yemen.

That marked a dramatic shift by Khartoum, which aligned itself with the
Gulf Arab monarchies at the expense of close ties with their arch-rival Iran.

The International Criminal Court has longstanding arrest warrants against
Bashir for suspected war crimes during the regime’s brutal campaign of
repression in Darfur, where a decade-and-a-half of conflict has killed
300,000 people.

Amnesty demanded Saturday the deposed president be handed over to the
Court.

But the military council has said it would never extradite Bashir or any
other Sudanese citizen.

BSS/AFP/RY/1810 hrs