Army’s participation in transitional govt is better that separate military council: Ibrahim
September 17, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – Gibril Ibrahim head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and a leading member of the National Consensus Forces (NCF) said he supports the army’s participation in power instead of establishing a supreme council for the army with wide powers giving them control of the country.
Ibrahim held a press conference on Saturday to speak about the position of the NCF coalition on the political efforts to end the military coup. Also, he criticized proposals calling for the establishment of a fully civilian government, and blamed the head of the UNITAMS mission for his “lack of impartiality”.
He said that the NCF groups believe that only a partnership between civilian and military forces can maintain stability during the transitional period, recalling that this partnership is originally agreed upon by the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) and the military component in 2019.
JEM leader questioned the possibility of forming a full transitional civilian government and added they consider that it is not easy to tell the army to go to the barracks during the transition.
“If this can be achieved and the army chooses to go to the barracks, that’s fine. But in my reading of al-Burhan’s statement, he does not say that they will go to the barracks, but rather announces their withdrawal from the dialogue process. If the political forces reach an agreement, they will allow the formation of a civilian government,” he said.
On their part, they will form a Supreme Military Council that will have more powers than the Sovereign Council, he said.
“I think it is better for Sudan and for the democratic transition to maintain the status quo rather than moving to a supreme military council closer to the current coup council (which controls powers in the country),” he asserted.
The proposed army council wants to have all the sovereign powers, the powers of security, defence, foreign relations and international cooperation, as well as other powers that they will negotiate with the civilian transitional government, he further explained
“In fact, this is a hijacking of the entire power,” he said before stressing that only an elected government can send the army back to the barracks.
The NCF groups backed the military coup of October 2021, as they had organized a sitting outside the Sudanese presidency calling for the dissolution of the civilian government.
Ibrahim omitted to speak about the largely agreed draft transitional constitutional proposed by the Sudanese Bar Association which is supported by the Deputy Chairman of the Sovereign Council.
This proposal limits the role of the army to national defence and security issues.
Volker is impartial
Ibrahim slammed the head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), saying he is impartial and does not fit to be a mediator.
“I told him that he is a non-neutral mediator and is not fit to be a mediator, and I was not the only one to tell him that but different other parties said the same thing,” he said.
“We expected the UN secretary-general would withdraw the man when it turned out that he had forged the signatures of his colleagues in IGAD and the African Union. But this did not happen. Also, the government did not pressure the UN to take this decision,” he said.
JEM leader made these statements in response to a question posed by an Islamist journalist who wondered lack of reactions to “the forged letter” issued by the UNITAMS to announce a pause in the efforts of the trilateral mechanism to facilitate the intra-Sudanese dialogue after the withdrawal of the military component from the process last July.
At the time the trilateral mediation issued a statement saying that the envoys of the African Union and IGAD did not sign the letter but they agree with its content.
(ST)