Donors want transition talks, criticise arrest of Sudanese opposition leaders
Friday February 11 2022
People march during a demonstration calling for civilian rule and denouncing the military administration, in the south of Sudan's capital Khartoum on February 10, 2022. PHOTO | AFP
Sudan’s military junta has run into trouble with Western donors after arresting leading opposition figures in the country.
The arrest and detention of nine key people who had been leading protest against the junta saw the US and allies warn that the incident could hamper peace talks.
On Thursday, the US, Norway and the United Kingdom, who are known as the Troika, said they are alarmed by the arrests of high-profile political figures and asked the junta to free them for the sake of discussions on a transitional government.
“These troubling actions are part of a recent pattern of arrests and detentions of civil society activists, journalists, and humanitarian workers occurring throughout Sudan these last weeks. We condemn this harassment and intimidation on the part of Sudan’s military authorities,” the three said in a joint statement.
“This is wholly inconsistent with their stated commitment to participate constructively in a facilitated process to resolve Sudan’s political crisis to return to a democratic transition.”
Targets
The criticism came after Sudanese security forces launched a massive arrest campaign targeting politicians, members of civilian resistance committees and activists leading the current protests in the street demanding for a civilian-led government.
On Wednesday, Sudanese security forces arrested the former Sudanese minister of Cabinet Affairs Khaled Omar Youssef, a member of the Commission to Dismantle the Empowerment of the Muslim Brotherhood, an extremist group.
The junta accused him of criminal activities and breach of trust, including allegations of misappropriation of funds recovered through the Dismantling Commission.
Member Wajdi Saleh and secretary general of the Commission Al-Tayeb Othman were also arrested under the same accusations.
Youssef had previously been arrested following the decisions of the President of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, Lt-Gen Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, on October 25, to dissolve the transitional government in a coup.
He was released on November 27 after the signing an agreement between the military leaders and then Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok to have all civilian detainees freed, in exchange for forming a new transitional government.
Criticism
British Ambassador to Sudan, Giles Leifer, said via Twitter, “The (Wednesday) arrests of civilian politicians completely contradict the efforts led by the United Nations to resolve the political crisis in Sudan and show a lack of goodwill, and we call for the immediate release of all detainees.”
While Norwegian Ambassador, Therese Loken Geisel, said that “the ongoing arbitrary arrests and detention of political figures, activists and journalists undermine efforts to resolve the crisis in Sudan.”
Washington says the arrests “undermine efforts to resolve the political crisis” in the country.
The arrests came as the UN tried to broker peace and negotiations between groups that have refused to sit at a table since the coup.
On Wednesday, the UN called on the Sudanese authorities to release Khaled Omar Youssef and “other leaders of civil society leaders who are still in detention.”
According to the Lawyers Emergency Committee, a non-governmental group in Khartoum, the campaign of arrests has increased remarkably during the last two days through raids on homes and offices.
The Alliance of Freedom and Change Forces, one of the protest movements and which had been part of Hamdok’s government, considered the arrests a purely political process carried out under a legal cover.
It warned in a statement of its effects on the United Nations efforts to resolve the crisis in the country.
Negotiations
In a separate statement, the Sudanese Professionals Association said that the arrest of seven leaders and employees of the committee aims to cover up the return of employees of the dissolved National Congress regime of Omar al-Bashir, and to block implementation of decisions of the committee on recovered assets for people said to have profited from the extremist group.
Before the detentions of its members, the civilian movements had showed some flexibility to negotiate. The Alliance of Freedom and Change had given pointers to discuss a new transition government.
The Forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change the Central Council called on a new constitutional status that establishes a transitional civilian authority with popular legitimacy, and stressed the need for the consultations led by the UN Mission in Khartoum (UNITAMS) to end the coup chaos.
It was the first time the groups had positively engaged with the UNITAM head Volker Peretz, a departure from the “three Nos”, of “no negotiation, no partnership, no legitimacy.”