SUDAN’S military leaders have scrapped all existing agreements with the main opposition coalition, and have cynically declared they will hold elections within nine months.
The announcement was made after special forces and police units launched a murderous attack on a workers’ occupation in the capital, Khartoum, during which they killed over 35 occupiers.
The military crackdown came after the Transitional Military Council and the protesters had announced a three-year transition period to civilian rule. Millions of furious Sudanese workers and youth are demanding a civilian government now!
The Transitional Military Council head, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, after the mass murder of the protesters, said in a statement broadcast on state television that they had decided to ‘stop negotiating with the Alliance for Freedom and Change and cancel what has been agreed on.’
The army moved on the main occupation site early on Monday amid heavy gunfire as they murdered the 35 liberation fighters. In the national TV statement the Military Council expressed its ‘sorrow for the way events escalated’, claiming the operation had only targeted ‘trouble makers and petty criminals’.
Sudanese workers pointed out that security forces had surrounded one hospital in Khartoum and opened fire on another. The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, which is one of the leading liberation organisations, said at least 35 people – including an eight-year-old child – had been killed, and that the toll is likely to rise as not all casualties have been accounted for. Hundreds of people were injured as the murderous Rapid Support Forces, known as the ‘Janjaweed’ militia went into action.
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) is now calling for a campaign of ‘sweeping civil disobedience to topple the treacherous and killer Military Council.’
The Sudanese revolution has been developing since 19 December 2018, when massive protests by over one million people erupted after fuel and bread price rises were announced.
On 22 February 2019, President Bashir dissolved the government. When over a million workers took to the streets, security forces responded by firing live bullets.
On 6th April, workers began a sit-in at military headquarters, and then on April 11, army generals announced Bashir had been toppled.
Workers responded that the sit-ins would continue until civilian rule was in place. On 20th April, talks between the military rulers and civilian representatives began.
Then on 13 May, shooting outside the military headquarters left six people dead, and on 14th May the Military Council announced a deal on a three-year transition period. But on 16th May talks were postponed, and on June 3rd talks with the military were suspended after force was used to smash the sit-in.
The ruling Military Council now says it will hold elections within nine months but has decided to cancel all agreements with the main opposition coalition.
The announcement, by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in the early hours of yesterday, came just hours after the security forces fired live ammunition to clear the main protest site outside the military headquarters in Khartoum – the focal point in the demonstrators’ months-long struggle for civilian rule.
Protest groups condemend it as a ‘bloody massacre’.
‘This is a critical point in our revolution. The Military Council has chosen escalation and confrontation,’ said Mohamed Yousef al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA), which has spearheaded the months-long protests.
‘They are criminals who should be treated like al-Bashir,’ he said. ‘Now the situation is either them or us, there is no other way.’
There is only one way forward. The trade unions and the professional organisations must call on the millions of Sudanese workers and poor that support them to install a workers’ government in Khartoum. The military leadership must be put on trial. Sudanese workers must call for full support from the workers of the world to ensure the success of their revolution!
