Leaders of Sudan’s pro-democracy movement yesterday welcomed a power-sharing agreement with the ruling military council as a victory for their “revolution,” raising hopes for an end to a three-month standoff with the generals and deadly violence.
“Today, our revolution has won and our victory shines,” read a statement posted early yesterday on the Facebook page of the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, which has spearheaded the protests.
The emerging deal could break the political impasse that has gripped the country since the military ousted former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in April, amid an uprising against his rule.
Photo: AFP
In the following months, protesters stayed in the streets, demanding that the generals hand over power to a civilian leadership.
Talks collapsed on June 3, when security forces razed a protest camp outside the military headquarters in Khartoum, leaving more than 100 people dead, protesters have said.
The African Union and Ethiopia made intensive efforts to bring the generals and the protesters back to the negotiating table.
Negotiations resumed earlier this week, after tens of thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of Sudan’s main cities over the weekend in the biggest show of numbers since the razing of the protesters’ sit-in camp.
At least 11 people were killed in clashes with security forces, protest organizers said.
When news of the deal broke at about dawn yesterday, hundreds of protesters returned to the streets dancing, singing and waving Sudanese flags, while passing drivers honked.
The military-controlled al-Sudan TV channel played national songs. It also reran excerpts of the news conference announcing the agreement, held by protest and military leaders, which it subtitled: “Congratulations to the Sudanese people.”
“We hope that the formation of transitional institutions marks the beginning of a new era,” said Omer el-Digair, a leader of the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, a political coalition representing the protesters, at the news conference with the military and African mediators following the conclusion of the deal.
“We hope it is an era where we can shut off the sound of pistols and destroy for good prisons of arbitrary detention,” he said.
The two parties agreed to form a joint sovereign council to lead the country during a transitional period of three years and three months, the association said in a statement.
The council is to include five civilians representing the protest movement and five military members. An 11th seat would go to a civilian chosen by both parties.
A military member is to preside over the council in the first 21 months, followed by a civilian member, the statement said.
This suggests a significant concession by pro-democracy forces, which had insisted that the sovereign council have only a civilian president.
However, the deal did secure another key demand, that protest leaders select the members of a technocratic Cabinet to be formed independently from the generals.
The two parties also agreed to launch “a national independent investigation” into the killings of protesters since al-Bashir was ousted on April 11, the statement said.
“I am not fully satisfied, but it is a step forward to bring peace to our people,” coalition leader Tarek Abdel Meguid told reporters.
Concessions were necessary to avoid further bloodshed, he said.
“It is a civilian revolution and the people had already rejected the idea of sharing power” with the military council, he said. “But this is what the balance of power imposed.”
The coalition was to meet in the afternoon and discuss whether to call off plans for rallies to mark 40 days since the deaths and a national strike on July 14, he added.
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