Sudanese military are not serious about power transfer: opposition

April 30, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – The Freedom and Change forces Tuesday said the Transitional Military Council (TMC) was not serious about handing over power to a civilian authority.

Tensions have escalated on Tuesday between the military council and the opposition groups after accusations and counter-accusations between the two sides over the forced dispersion of the sit-in.

The military also said that the Freedom and Change forces come to the meeting with a different negotiating team and every team comes with a different vision.

In return, the opposition groups held a press conference to respond to the military council, Mohamed Nagi al-Asam, Khalid Omer and Madani Abbas to refute the claims made by the military council.

“What we feel from all the actions of the military council to the moment is that it is not serious about handing over power to civilians,” said Mohamad Nagi al-Asam.

“Time is running out, and as time goes on, the powers of the military council are stretched, to include executive and legislative decisions. This is a very serious threat to the Sudanese revolution,” stressed Mohamed Nagi.

Alluding to the claim that they come every time with a different position, he said when they realized that the military council had a different perception of the role of the sovereignty council they proposed to stop talks on the composition of the collegial presidency and come with proposals details the powers and attribution of the transitional sovereignty council, the government, and the legislative assembly.

He pointed out that the meeting, which was scheduled Tuesday, to resume discussion on the issue did not take place.

“But in a matter of hours, we will give our vision on the three levels of power and expect them to respond quickly.”

For his part, Khalid Omer went further to that the military council is not only not serious about the power transfer process but “have an explicit intention to retain power”. ”

He recalled that on 6 April when they launched their sit-in outside the army headquarters in Khartoum they came with a clear partnership between the two sides asked the army to align itself with the demands of the Sudanese people, especially the civilian government.

The military council thinks that the civilian rule “as mere names that we submit to be appointed and dismissed while they control everything,” Omer stressed before to add that was the reason that triggered their demand to discuss the powers of the three organs before to resume talks on the composition of the sovereignty council.

Madani Abbas commented on the traffic of trains and the two bridges the military council said they had pledged to settle.

He said they explained to the military council that such issues should not be discussed at these meeting because it is dedicated to handling the power transfer to civilian rule.

“However, about the trains we told them that we had reached an agreement with the Sudan Railways Corporation on 26 April about the traffic flow of trains on the rail network in order to supply the different states with commodities,” he said.

Regarding the bridges we told them that the Burri Bridge “is partially open for traffic and the Blue Nile Bridge it was about the main streets, not the bridge,” he added.

He further went to say that if the militaries are serious about the normalization of the traffic and other things they can accelerate the talks on the power handover.

There is no indication if the parties will resume discussions on Wednesday.

(ST)