UN chief to army: Reverse coup, take heed of protests

CAIRO (AP):

The United Nations (UN) secretary general urged Sudan’s generals on Sunday to reverse their takeover of the country, a day after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in the largest pro-democracy protest since last week’s coup.

Antonio Guterres said the generals should “take heed” of Saturday’s protests. “Time to go back to the legitimate constitutional arrangements,” he said in a tweet.

He was referring to a power-sharing deal that established joint military-civilian rule, following the ouster of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019.

The UN envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, meanwhile, said he met on Sunday with Abdalla Hamdok, the deposed prime minister who remained under house arrest in the capital, Khartoum.

“We discussed options for mediation and the way forward for Sudan. I will continue these efforts with other Sudanese stakeholders,” he said.

Since last week, UN representatives have shuttled between the military and leaders of the pro-democracy movement.

A military official said that other efforts are under way, also supported by the UN but conducted by a Sudanese committee that began separate meetings last week with Hamdok and coup leader General Abdel-Fattah Burhan.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, as he wasn’t authorised to release the information, said that Hamdok is still the main candidate for heading a cabinet that would report to the leading generals. But should he not accept, other Sudanese figures could.

TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT

It remains unclear what mandate such a government would have. Burhan had repeatedly said in the weeks prior to the takeover that the military will hand over power only to an elected government. Before the coup, Sudan was ruled by a transitional government that included a joint military-civilian sovereign council and a cabinet, headed by Hamdok, that ran the day-to-day affairs.

The official said in these negotiations, the prime minister has insisted on the release of all government officials and political leaders arrested since the coup, before engaging in “meaningful talks” to form a new government.

Hamdok also demanded the return to the pre-coup constitutional order that would set a deadline by which the complete leadership of the country would be handed over to civilians, he said.

Burhan has given an initial approval to release the majority of the detained officials, but said a few must remain in custody for allegedly playing a role in a coup attempt that was thwarted in September, the official said.

He added that another issue is semantic – the military does not consider their takeover as a coup, arguing that they had already been part of the ruling government.

Burhan said he would install a new technocrat government soon, with the aim of holding elections in July 2023. But the pro-democracy movement also fears the military has no intention of easing its grip and will appoint politicians it can control.