KHARTOUM, July 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Sudan’s ruling generals and protest
leaders reached an agreement on the disputed issue of a new governing body Friday, in a breakthrough power sharing accord aimed at ending the country’s months-long political crisis.
The landmark agreement came after two days of talks following the collapse of the previous round of negotiations in May over who should lead the new ruling body — a civilian or soldier.
“The two sides agreed on establishing a sovereign council with a rotating
military and civilian (presidency) for a period of three years or little
more,” African Union mediator Mohamed El Hacen Lebatt told reporters.
Sudan has been rocked by a political crisis since the army ousted longtime
ruler Omar al-Bashir in April on the back of widespread protests, with the
generals who seized power resisting demonstrators’ demands to hand it over to a civilian administration.
“We want to reassure all political forces and armed movements and all those who took part in the change… that this agreement is all inclusive and does not exclude anyone,” deputy chief of the ruling military council General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said in a statement.
Tension between the two sides had further soared after a brutal raid on a
longstanding protest camp outside army headquarters in the capital Khartoum that killed dozens of demonstrators and wounded hundreds on June 3.
Lebatt did not specify the exact make-up of the new ruling body, but
prominent protest leader Ahmed al-Rabie said that it would comprise of
six civilians, including five from the protest movement, and five members of the military.
The latest round of talks had resumed Wednesday after intense mediation by Ethiopian and African Union envoys, who had put forward a draft proposal to break the weeks-long deadlock.
The blueprint proposes a three-year transition period, with the president
of the new ruling body to be held by the military for the first 18 months and
a civilian for the second.
Before talks collapsed in May the generals and protest leaders had agreed
on forming a 300-member parliament, with two-third of lawmakers to be from the protest movement.
Lebatt said that both sides have now also “agreed to have a detailed,
transparent, national, independent investigation into all the regrettable
violent incidents that the country faced in recent weeks,” including the June
3 raid.
At least 136 people have been killed across the country since the raid,
including more than 100 on June 3, according to doctors close to the umbrella protest movement, the Alliance for Freedom and Change.
The health ministry says 78 people have been killed nationwide over the
same period.
On Thursday hundreds of students from several schools in three towns —
Madani, Gadaref and Sinnar — staged spontaneous protests chanting “civilian rule, civilian rule”, witnesses said.
Earlier on Thursday a group of 235 fighters from a faction of a Darfur
rebel group that is part of the protest movement were released as decided
during the talks. — NNN-AGENCIES
