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Sudan protest leaders suspend talks with army rulers
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Protest leaders on Sunday said they suspended talks with Sudan’s military council as they urged people to intensify their protest outside army headquarters in Khartoum and in other towns."We will continue the sit-in and we are suspending our talks with the military council," a front man of the protest movement Mohammed al-Amin announced in front of thousands of protesters gathered outside the army complex. "We are treating the military council as an extension of the regime," he said. Amin also called on demonstrators to step up their protests until their demand for a transfer of power to a civilian council is met by the military. "We call for escalating and continuing the demonstrations until the demands are met," he said. A sea of protesters had been rallying outside the army headquarters, awaiting the unveiling of a civilian body to replace the military council that was put in place following the ouster of president Omar al-Bashir  Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. earlier this month. The military rulers have resisted calls to transfer power immediately to a civilian body, but earlier on Sunday new army ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan insisted he was committed to handing power to the people and also pledged to respond to demonstrators’ demands within a week. Posted by: Fred 2019-04-22 |
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