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Sudan Tribune

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Military council accepts AU-Ethiopian proposal to settle Sudan’s crisis

June 28, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – The Transitional Military Council (TMC) accepted the joint proposal made by the African Union and the Ethiopian envoys and called for talks to form the executive bodies.

Shams al-Din Kabbashi, spokesperson of the Transitional Military Council on 7 May 2019 (Photo SUNA)
Shams al-Din Kabbashi, spokesperson of the Transitional Military Council on 7 May 2019 (Photo SUNA)
The nine-page proposal provides to form a sovereign council composed of 15 members. Seven to be designated by the TMC and seven others by the opposition Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC).

The sides have to agree on an additional civilian member to ensure the principle of civilian majority in the council.

The Transitional government will be formed of technocrats selected by a prime minister who is designated by the FFC. The premier will select his ministers in consultation with the opposition, except for the defence and interior ministers who will be designated by the TMC.

The draft agreement says the parties once they endorsed the proposal they will engage in talks on the outstanding issues particularly the composition of the transitional legislative council.

In a short statement released by its spokesperson Shams al-Din Kabbashi, the TMC declared its acceptance of the joint proposal, after studying it for two days.

“A number of observations emerged, but in general, it is considered a viable proposal to negotiate a final agreement leading to the formation of transitional government institutions,” he said.

“The Military Council sincerely looks forward to the immediate start of a serious and sincere negotiation that ends with a national consensus,” he further added.

The FFC had accepted the Ethiopian proposal which was similar to this with the difference that 67% of the legislative council members will be appointed by the opposition groups.

After accepting to concede the majority at the Sovereign Council to the opposition forces, the military council said it would not accept that the FFC control the parliament and want to renegotiate its percentage of 33%.

The coalition of the opposition forces did not yet issue a joint statement on the joint proposal as many of its factions refuse to make further concessions to the military council.

However, the National Umma Party (NUP) of Sadiq al-Mahdi has issued a statement welcoming the joint proposal and vowed to work with its allies to adopt a common position.

“We appeal to Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, leader of the SPLM-North, and Abdel-Wahid Mohamed al-Nur, head of the Sudan Liberation Movement, to respond to this initiative,” further said the statement.

Regarding the reservations made by some opposition groups towards the joint proposal, the NUP said it should be settled by the internal initiatives of the Sudanese mediators.

“We will make specific proposals to help fill those gaps,” further stressed the statement.

The opposition party, also, called on its partisans and supporters to take part in the first big demonstration the FFC plan to organize on 30 June.

(ST)

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