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07-12-2022
KHARTOUM, SUDAN: Sudanese protesters have denounced a framework agreement between the military, powerful armed groups and political parties.
The deal, signed on Monday, is aimed at ending the standoff that exceeded a year between security and political elites following a military coup on October 25, 2021.
Critics fear the deal extends a lifeline to the army and the powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), both of which spearheaded the putsch.
Sudan’s resistance committees, which are neighborhood groups leading the street pro-democracy movement, say the deal effectively restores a partnership between political and security elites and thereby betrays the aspirations of the 120 people killed in anti-coup protests.
“We believe that if there is no justice then the killing and raping will continue,” said Ahmed Ismat, a spokesperson for the Khartoum south resistance committees. “We are just repeating the same cycle.”
International observers and mediators have touted the agreement as a “positive step” towards restoring a pathway to democracy, with the settlement ushering in a two-year transitional period ahead of elections.
“There is now a credible path to a final agreement that would take Sudan out of the current political crisis, we respectfully urge all Sudanese stakeholders to seize that opportunity,” tweeted John Godfrey, the US ambassador to Sudan.
Despite the optimism, important issues such as transitional justice and security sector reform still need to be worked out in the second phase of the framework agreement, preceding a final settlement.
The Juba Peace Agreement, which was signed in October 2020 to bring an end to protracted internal conflicts, will also be revised. Many Juba signatories to the deal later backed the coup and are now excluded from the framework agreement.
Nabil Abdullah, the spokesperson for the military, said the army was committed to the deal.
“The position of the army was made clear by its commander-in-chief (Abdel Fattah al-Burhan) in his speech yesterday morning … where he [expressed] the commitment of the army … to the agreement and that (the army) is open for all political forces to join it,” Abdullah said.
Sustainable deal?
While the army and RSF have agreed to give up control over Sudan’s economy and political decision-making, the framework agreement does not provide a clear mechanism for them to do so, said Kholood Khair, founder and director of Confluence Advisory, a think-tank in Sudan’s capital Khartoum.
“Even if it is just a symbolic agreement meant to lay the framework … it doesn’t show how it will functionally work,” Khair told media over the phone. “Clearly, the deal means more to the people that were in the room, the generals and politicians and little to everybody else.”
Across Khartoum, most people were apathetic to the news, while many others braved tear gas and violence to oppose the settlement.
There was a heavy police presence throughout the downtown quarters of the city, including dozens of white Toyota pick-up trucks that transported plain-clothed men with scarves over their faces to crack down on demonstrators, a frequent strategy deployed by security forces.
On the eve of the agreement, many protesters were also outraged that Mohamad Adam, a 17-year-old boy that goes by the nickname Tupac reportedly arrived at his court session visibly beaten and bruised.
Tupac, a hero of the protest movement, stands accused of killing a police official, yet his lawyers say the charges were fabricated and he was tortured into giving a false confession. (Int’l News Desk)
