Day: December 21, 2022

Ousted Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir admitted that he bore responsibility for the June 30, 1989 coup, in his first statement before the judiciary since he was ousted and detained on April 11, 2019, saying: “I know that confession is the master of evidence.”

Yesterday, during his plea, he said that no member of the Revolutionary Command Council had any role in the events of June 30, 1989. The former president said he was “proud” to have been “the leader of the national salvation revolution.”

Al Bashir appeared before the special court for the first time since the trial began in 2020, facing charges of undermining the national constitutional order during the military uprising in 1989. He came to the court from Kober prison in Khartoum, where he is being held after being convicted on charges of corruption and currency irregularities in December 2019.

He refused to make any statements before the legal committee investigating the coup that brought him and the Islamic Front to power for 30 years, “because it was a political committee that included activists.”

He said the leaders of the Salvation Council were not involved in the coup and had no role in the planning or implementation of the coup, and that the movement was not with the participation of any civilian figure.

“We did not intend to monopolise power,” he said. “The conditions in the army were dire, and I proudly stand before the court and say that I am the leader of the Salvation Revolution.”

Lawyer Moaz Hadra, member of the indictment panel concerning the June 30, 1989 coup under the leadership of former Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir questioned the importance of yesterday’s plea. Hadra explained that “courts deal only with evidence and facts.”

Hadra told Radio Dabanga that the ousted president aims to clear the Islamic Front when he says that he alone should be held accountable for the coup.

The statement of the indicted former dictator is “just a political sermon that contradicts the facts and does not have any legal value,” he said. “It does not change anything,” referring to ample evidence confirming the Islamic Front’s planning and participation in the 1989 coup.

“Al Bashir’s statement contradicts his lawyer’s line of defence, as well as his statements about the subject for the past thirty years,” he said, adding: “Nobody can carry out a coup by themselves.”

May 2021, the Khartoum court that is trying deposed former president Omar Al Bashir and 27 former officials for the 1989 coup, heard a detailed list of those involved in the plot.

Ousted President Omar Al Bashir, who ruled the country for 30 years and was deposed by a military coup on April 11, 2019, was sentenced to two years in a ‘correctional facility’ designed for older prisoners following his ouster.

Al Bashir has also been charged with incitement and involvement in the killing of demonstrators during the protests that led to his removal from power. In December he was questioned about his role in the 1989 coup that brought him to power.

Source: Radio Dabanga

Earlier this month a framework agreement was signed in Sudan between the military junta and major political forces who are under the umbrella of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC).

The agreement provides for the formation of a transitional civilian government that would take over from the military and rule for 24 months after which elections would be held.

Sceptics at home: But despite the international praise for the deal including from western nations and regional powers, many at home are wary of contentious items not addressed in the agreement that may be used by the military to slow-walk or even derail implementation.

These items include transitional justice, dismantling of the 1989 coup holdovers, resolving conflict in eastern Sudan as well as military & security reform.

Question of who runs the army:

There is also plenty of apprehension regarding the role of the army chief in the new government who would theoretically be appointed by the civilian head of state who will hold the title of the commander in chief.

Much of the talk revolves around where the current chief general Abdel-Fatah al-Burhan and his deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemetti) who leads the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) be placed in the upcoming transitional government.

Burhan and Hemetti led a coup last year that disbanded the first civilian government formed after the ouster of ex-president Omer Hassan al-Bashir. They also briefly detained most cabinet ministers including Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok along with scores of other politicians.

Legitimizing Burhan?

Siddiq Tawer, who was a member of the dissolved Sovereignty Council under in the transitional government, told {Sudan Tribune} that Burhan lured FFC into signing the framework agreement which recognizes him as an equal partner in the political scene rather than someone who carried out a coup against the legitimate civilian authority.

“What kind of civilian authority is it whose chief gets orders from leaders below him and cannot relieve, promote or dismiss? Burhan will be in this sense above any authority and the military institution is under his command and outside the authority of the civilian government” Tawer said.

Tawer added that recent statements by Burhan downplaying the significance of the framework agreement is effectively a death certificate for the deal.

But another official with the Unionist Alliance party Mohamed Abdel-Hakam dismissed these concerns to {Sudan Tribune} stressing that the draft transitional constitution produced by the steering committee of the Sudanese bar association that was agreed to by the military side in addition to the framework agreement, stipulates that the military would recommend a candidate for the army chief to the civilian president to endorse or express reservations.

Military role:

On the broader question of military role, Abdel-Hakam noted that the draft transitional constitution and the political framework agreement specified that military companies would devolve to the Ministry of Finance and that the armed forces are prohibited from engaging in commercial and investment activities except with regard to military missions and military industrialization.

Furthermore, the decision to declare war or other similarly sensitive issues will be deliberated in the security and defence council chaired by the civilian prime minister who holds executive power and authority over the police and intelligence agencies.

He noted that the transitional legislative assembly will also have a say in any major security issues including the declaration of war.

Status Quo:

Mohieddin Mohamed, a researcher and political analyst, said it is all but certain that the current military brass would stay in place under the new transitional government.

He added that he does not expect the military to nominate a figure other than Burhan, particularly in light of his role as a signatory to the framework agreement. The same would be true of all other senior military leaders.

Avoid ambiguity:

Fayez Al-Silek, a former adviser to former Prime Minister Hamdok, told Sudan Tribune that the clauses on the appointment of the army commander must be worded clearly to avoid any ambiguity.

He stressed that the role of the army chief is not a political function but rather a military technical function in the first place.

Source: Sudan Tribune

Sudan’s ousted president Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday announced his full responsibility for the events of the 1989 coup d’état that brought him and 27 of his aides to power.

“I bear full responsibility for what happened on June 30 (1989); a confession is the strongest of all evidence,” al-Bashir said as part of his testimony, which was broadcast live on Tuesday.

Al-Bashir said other non-military factions were not involved in the takeover.

The former president cited several achievements since he came to power in 1989.

“We invited 77 party leaders for dialogue after the 1989 events, with the aim of restoring peace to the country,” al-Bashir said.

“We had great successes, we wanted to serve the Sudanese people, and our goal was not power,” he said, denying any role for civilians in carrying out the 1989 coup.

Al-Bashir faces charges of undermining Sudan’s constitutional order by staging the 1989 coup.

On June 30, 1989, al-Bashir staged a military coup against the government of Prime Minister Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, and ruled the country under what he named the “national salvation revolution”.

The former president is currently held in the Kober prison in Khartoum after being found guilty of corruption in December 2019.

Al-Bashir ruled Sudan for three decades and was removed from power by the military in 2019 following mass protests.

Source: Radio Tamazuj