Military junta asks rebel leader to leave Sudan

May 29, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – Yasir Arman the deputy leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Malik Agar (SPLM-N Agar) said the Transitional Military Council asked him six times to leave Sudan indicating he has rejected the request.

Arman arrived in Khartoum on Sunday without prior notice and called to a political declaration to end the wars in Sudan and to show the determination of the political forces and the military council to achieve a comprehensive peace during the transitional period.

In a statement released late on Tuesday, the rebel leader said he had been asked to leave Sudan five times by the deputy head of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and one time by the head of the Council.

“I rejected their ask as it is my right to stay in Sudan and to advocate for a comprehensive peaceful settlement, democracy and equal citizenship,” he said in a Tweet he posted.

“We should be part of the political process as we are part of the Freedom and Change alliance,” he further said.

Before his return to Khartoum, the TMC declined to cancel death sentences for two SPLM-N Agar leaders of the (SPLM-N) but Arman reiterated his determination to return to Sudan after the collapse of al-Bashir’s regime.

He and Malik Agar were sentenced to death by a Sudanese court in March 2014 for their participation in a rebellion in Blue Nile State in September 2011.

Arman accused the TMC of seeking to establish a new dictatorship in Sudan.

“The TMC has indicated they are not authorized to turn Bashir over to The Hague, and if that is the case, they are also not authorized to implement political arrest warrants issued by Bashir for the SPLM-N,” he stressed.

(ST)