Sudan’s FFC accepting higher armed forces council as internal military structure
October 14, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – The military component can form a supreme council for the armed forces within the framework of an internal military organization but this does not require including it in the transitional constitutional institutions, an FFC spokesman said on Friday.
On Wednesday, the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) confirmed the reported discussions with military leaders on the basis of a draft transitional constitution proposed by Sudanese lawyers which requires the army withdrawal from politics.
“The most prominent observations raised by the army leaders on the draft transitional constitution are the non-inclusion of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in the draft constitution and the selection of the Chief Justice and the Attorney General,” Shihab al-Tayeb, a spokesman for the Sudanese Alliance, one of the FFC components told Sudan Tribune.
“The FFC refuses to include the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in the draft transitional constitution, but army commanders can form it as an internal structure for the regular forces without granting it sovereign or executive powers,” he further stressed.
The idea of this separate higher military body was advanced for the first time by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan last July when he announced the withdrawal of the military component from the Trilateral Mechanism-facilitated talks on the restoration of the civilian government.
But the FFC rejected this body saying it goes against the principle of a civilian state, as al-Burhan wants it to be given some sovereign and economic powers.
UNITAMS speaks
In an interview with the Al-Hadath TV channel on Friday, UNITAMS Head Volker Perthes said that in democratic regimes the rule that the national security council be headed by a civilian.
“It seems to me that the Sudanese parties have agreed on this point,” said Perthes.
Regarding the supreme council, he said that it is something that the Sudanese could agree upon it, considering the exceptional situation in the country.
“The transitional government will be an unelected government. And it is understandable that the military component when they relinquish political and executive powers, may ask not to interfere in military affairs,” he said.
“It seems to me that most civil forces understand this position,” he further stressed.
Sudan Tribune learned that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was included in the draft political declaration without giving it sovereign or executive powers.
The parties also agreed that the three leaders of the peace signatory group who are now in the Sovereign Council would join the supreme council of the armed forces besides al-Burhan and his deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo “Hemetti”.
For the Chief Justice and the Attorney General the military component says they should be elected by their pairs at the Supreme Judicial Council and the Supreme Council of the Public Prosecution.
The draft constitution says they would be picked by the council of ministers.
The FFC groups are expected to discuss the matter in a meeting to be held on Saturday.
Some groups reject their cooptation by the councils saying the former Islamist regime still has many of its supporters in these sensitive judicial bodies which should achieve justice one of the most important popular demands.
(ST)