Sudan protesters present demands to military in talks

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.