Sudan: Presentation of draft Document of Agreement expected today

The African Union Envoy to Sudan, Mohamed Lebatt, has officially called on the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the Alliance for Freedom and Change (AFC) to receive the Document of Agreement after the High Commission of Jurists has concluded drafting it.

The handover of the agreement, initially planned for Wednesday, was postponed  for "technical reasons", and is now expected to occur today.

Meetings between the members of the Sudan Call alliance and the AFC are continuing in Addis Ababa to discuss the formation of a transitional government after bridging the gap between the two alliances following recent tensions.

The spokesman for the TMC, Lt Gen Shamseldin El Kabbashi, said that the TMC and AFC will receive the final version of the agreement in the Corinthia Hotel in Khartoum in preparation for signing it in a great ceremony in the coming days.

Transition to democracy

Ibrahim El Amin, a leading member of the AFC said in a press statement on Wednesday that the agreement is a stage of transition to democracy, reaffirming that it will work with everyone to ensure the implementation of the agreement.

He pointed out that this agreement “is the beginning of a phase required by the Sudanese people to move from the period of a lot of grievances to a phase paving the way for democracy and respect for human rights

Darfur Bar Association

The Darfur Bar Association said that nobody has been nominated for membership in the Sovereign Council and that the information on the Sudanese Professionals Association’s nomination of one of the lawyers in the seat allocated to Darfur is irrelevant to the Association.

It explained in a statement on Wednesday that it had received several questions from parties of the AFC about the relationship of the Darfur Bar Association with the nomination of a candidate from the Sudanese Professionals Association. In Sudanese newspapers it was said that one seat would be allocated for a member of the Association to represent Darfur in the Sovereign Council.

It added: “The association confirms that it is not related to the nomination of the candidate mentioned nor did it submit any candidate for any position.”

The association said in its statement that the head of the Democratic Alliance of Lawyers assured it that the alliance has nothing to do with what the Sudanese Professionals Association stance to nominate a candidate for the Sovereign Council to get the proposed seat allocated to Darfur and ignoring the right of the Darfuri regional components from participating in naming their representatives.

Armed movements

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) coalition of armed movements does not accept the agreement reached between the Transitional Military Council and the Alliance for Freedom and Change (AFC). They call for an urgent meeting with the AFC under auspices of the African Union.

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