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Five dead as Sudan military rulers try to disperse sit-in
KHARTOUM, June 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – At least five protesters were shot dead
Monday as Sudan’s military rulers tried to break up a sit-in outside
Khartoum’s army headquarters, a doctors’ committee said as gunfire was heard
from the site.
Heavily armed security forces in pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns
were deployed in large numbers all around the capital, while protesters put
up makeshift barricades and closed off streets.
The United States and Britain called for an end to the crackdown on
demonstrators, who want the generals behind the overthrow of veteran
president Omar al-Bashir to hand over to civilian rule.
Three more people were killed “by the bullets of the military council,”
bringing the total to five dead, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors,
which is close to the protesters, wrote on Facebook, calling it a “massacre”.
It also reported a “large number of critical casualties”.
Gunfire was heard from the protest site by an AFP journalist, who reported
a heavy deployment of security forces around the streets of the capital.
There were multiple reports of the military using force to disperse the
sit-in in front of army headquarters, where protesters have been camped out
for weeks.
“Now an attempt is taking place to disperse the sit-in at the headquarters
of the people’s armed forces by force by the military council,” said the
Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), the group which spearheaded
nationwide protests that started in December.
The SPA said it amounted to a “bloody massacre” and called on Sudanese to
take part in “total civil disobedience” to topple the military council.
Rallies against Bashir’s authoritarian, three-decade rule led to his ouster
in April, but protesters have remained outside the army headquarters calling
on the generals to cede power to a transitional authority.
Near the demonstration site, a witness living in the Burri neighbourhood
said he could “hear the sound of gunfire and I see a plume of smoke rising
from the area of the sit-in.”
Another resident of the area, in east Khartoum, said he had seen forces in
“police uniform” trying to expel the demonstrators.
– ‘Heavy gunfire’ –
Britain’s ambassador to Khartoum, Irfan Siddiq, said he had heard “heavy
gunfire” from his residence.
“Extremely concerned by… reports that Sudanese security forces are
attacking the protest sit-in site resulting in casualties. No excuse for any
such attack. This. Must. Stop. Now,” he wrote on Twitter.
The US embassy in Khartoum said “security forces’ attacks against
protesters and other civilians is wrong and must stop.”
“Responsibility falls on the TMC. The TMC cannot responsibly lead the
people of Sudan,” it added referring to the transitional military council.
The Alliance for Freedom and Change, the umbrella group of the protest
movement, urged “peaceful marches and rallies” nationwide and for barricades
to be put up including in the capital.
Protesters had already set about building a brick barricade and had set
tyres and tree trunks alight on Street 60 — one of the main streets in the
capital.
The SPA had said on Saturday that it had reason to believe the military
council was “planning and working to end the peaceful sit-in at the
headquarters with excessive force and violence” after three people were
killed in incidents on the fringes of the demonstration last week.
Negotiations between protest leaders and the ruling military council have
broken down, as the two sides have failed to agree on whether a planned
transitional body would be headed by a civilian or a military figure.
BSS/AFP/RY/1405 hrs