Khartoum — The Trilateral Mechanism of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), African Union (AU), and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), held a meeting with the ‘Military Quartet Committee’ yesterday, represented by Vice President of the Sovereignty Council, Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’, Lt Gen Shamseldin El Kabashi and, Lt Gen Ibrahim Jaber.
According to today’s statement on the UNITAMS Twitter page, their meeting was “constructive and tackled the issues related to the Intra-Sudanese direct talks” expected to launch next week.
The statement renewed the Trilateral Mechanism’s claim that the talks are aimed at reinstating constitutional rule and accomplishing the aspirations of people in Sudan towards a democratic transition.
The AU-IGAD-UNITAMS statement also recognised the potential of “unnecessary use
of force against peaceful protestors” at the third anniversary demonstrations of the “violent dispersal” of the 3 June 2019 sit-in, tomorrow.
The Trilateral called on the authorities to “respect and protect the right to peaceful assembly”, in order to ensure “conducive conditions” for the talks going forward. Also calling on all parties commemorating the event, to “uphold peaceful means”.
June 3 Massacre
On June 3, 2019, two days before the end of Ramadan, the large sit-in in front of the army command, was broken up with excessive violence. More than 127 protesters were reportedly killed. The bodies of 40 of them were found floating in the Nile. More than 700 others sustained injuries, and at least 100 people went missing in the June 3/Ramadan 29 massacre.
The sit-in was the result of the military coup. Since December 2018, large protests were organised to pressure the then ruling Omar Al Bashir to step down. In April, the dictator was deposed in a military coup. However, protesters continued to occupy the space in front of the Ministry of Defence to demand the military to cede power to a civilian government.