El Burhan: Sudan junta committed to agreement with opposition

The chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC), Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, said the TMC is committed to the agreement with the opposition Alliance for Freedom and Change (AFC), that was reached in the early hours of Friday. In a speech to the Sudanese people on Saturday evening, he called implementation of the agreement “the right of the people”.

El Burhan said that the agreement reached with the AFC represents new hope, and is a dream that everyone has sacrificed for.

He added that the TMC will cooperate closely with the AFC and others to build and protect the homeland, to fulfil the aspirations of the Sudanese people, and to do what is necessary in the coming transitional period.

El Burhan stressed that partnership with the AFC is a declared goal of the junta and that the TMC will work to make Sudan a state of peace, freedom, and justice.

Dissolution

The TMC chairman announced that the junta will be dissolved when the Sovereign Council has been formed. The military will move away from the government after the end of the first term. According to the TMC-AFC agreement a Sovereign Council is to rule Sudan until free elections are held in three years.

El Burhan pointed out that there has not yet been agreement with the AFC on the names to be nominated by the military junta for the Sovereign Council. “There are ongoing consultations with our partners of the AFC over the people to be nominated for the Sovereign Council.”

He stressed the need to have talks with parties and groups he did not name that do not support the agreement between the TMC and the AFC.

Draft agreement

A committee of legal specialists has begun to draft the text of a written agreement between the junta and the AFC. The committee, which includes African and Sudanese legal experts, will prepare the final political agreement and hand over the results within 48 hours.

The members of the Sovereign Council and the Cabinet are supposed to be announced within a week.

A senior official that was part of the Afro-Ethiopian mediation initiative said to Radio Dabanga that the final agreement will include a timetable for nominations and the establishment of institutions, that will be binding to both parties.

Hemeti

The deputy chairman of theTMC, Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’, said that the agreement between the TMC and the AFC requires serenity and good intentions to get the country safe.

Hemeti said in a public meeting in the densely populated North Khartoum district El Haj Yousef: “We promise you as our brothers, whom we made an agreement with, to combine forces and to put our hands in your hands for the sake of Sudan.”

He pointed out that the country started a new phase that requires the unity of all the Sudanese people. He renounced racism and tribalism.

He stressed the need to hold accountable all those who assaulted citizens and said that everybody should work in accordance with the rule of law.

Meanwhile, the TMC has not released protestors and community activists who have been detained during the past months, and has not restored the internet.

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