Sudan general vows ‘gallows’ for perpetrators of deadly crackdown

KHARTOUM: A top Sudanese general vowed on Sunday to send to the "gallows" those who carried out a deadly crackdown on protesters earlier this month that killed dozens and left hundreds wounded.

"We are working hard to take those who did this to the gallows," Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy chief of the ruling military council said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

"Whoever committed any fault" will be held accountable, Dagalo added. Thousands of protesters who had camped outside the Khartoum military headquarters for weeks were violently dispersed by armed men in military fatigues on June 3, according to witnesses.

More than 100 people were killed that day in Khartoum, according to doctors linked to the protest movement, while the health ministry put the nationwide death toll at 61. On Thursday, military council spokesman General Shamseddine Kabbashi expressed "regret" over the crackdown. But the council insists it did not order the dispersal, saying it had actually planned to purge an area near the protest camp where people are said to sell drugs.

"The planning of the operation of Colombia area was done by military and security authorities," the council said in a statement late on Saturday. "We assure you that the council is keen to investigate minute by minute facts through its investigation committee."

Brigadier Abderrahim Badreddine, spokesman for the investigative committee, said initial findings showed "officers and soldiers of different ranks from regular forces entered the sit-in without any orders from their superiors."

"They were not part of the troops who were ordered to clean Colombia," he told state television. The crackdown has triggered international condemnation, with the United States and others calling for an independent probe into the killings.