Five Sudanese protesters shot dead ahead of talks

KHARTOUM: Five demonstrators including students were shot dead at a rally in Sudan Monday, a day before protest leaders and ruling generals meet to resolve the remaining issues concerning the forming of a civilian administration.

The two sides have already signed a power-sharing deal that aims to set up a joint civilian-military ruling body which in turn would install civilian rule.

That is the main demand of a nationwide protest movement that led to the April ouster of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir and has since demanded that the military council which took his place cede power to civilians.

But ahead of the talks, five protesters were killed on Monday, including four students, in the central town of Al-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, a doctors committee linked to the protest movement said in a statement.

“Five martyrs succumbed to direct wounds from sniper bullets during a peaceful rally in Al-Obeid,” the committee said.

A key protest group, the Sudanese Professionals Association, said that “live ammunition” had been used against what it said was a student rally.

“We are calling on all citizens and medics to go to the emergency ward of Al-Obeid hospital and other hospitals that are receiving the wounded from the live ammunition fired on the rally of school students,” the group said on its Facebook page.

The reason for the rally was not immediately clear, but Al-Obeid had not witnessed any major anti-Bashir protests during the months-long campaign that erupted in December.

Demonstrators have been rallying again in Khartoum since Saturday, when an investigation found that security officers, including some from the feared Rapid Support Forces, carried out a deadly crackdown on a protest camp without any orders from their superiors.

Shortly before dawn on June 3, gunmen in military fatigues raided the site of the weeks-long sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum, shooting and beating protesters.

Doctors linked to the protest movement say the raid left 127 people dead and scores wounded.

But the joint investigation by prosecutors and the ruling military council that took power following Bashir’s ouster found that just 17 people were killed on June 3, with a total of 87 dying between that day and June 10.

The probe identified eight officers involved in the violent crackdown on the protest camp, including a general, a colonel and a captain from the Rapid Support Forces.

The eight officers face charges of crimes against humanity, chief investigator Fatah al-Rahman Saeed told reporters on Saturday.

But protest leaders have rejected the findings, saying the inquiry exonerated the military council and gave a far lower death toll than their own figures.

Saeed’s investigation “was commissioned by the military council, this is challenging its integrity as the military council itself is accused in this case,” said the Sudanese Professionals Association, which spearheaded the initial protests against Bashir.

Angry demonstrators have staged rallies against the probe, calling for an independent investigation into the raid.