KHARTOUM — Sudan’s leading opposition figure and former prime minister Sadiq Al-Mahdi called on Saturday to the continuation of the sit-in until all the people’s goals are met.
In a press conference, Mahdi said: “We call for the continuation of the sit-in until all the people’s goals are met.”
Mahdi, Sudan’s last democratically elected premier also expressed appreciation for the Transitional Military Council respect for the opposition’s role, saying: “We seek to agree with the military council on the constitutional declaration.”
The top opposition leader also called for Sudan to join the International Criminal Court which has indicted its ousted president Omar Al-Bashir.
Mahdi also told reporters that the army’s ouster of Bashir was “not a military coup”.
His comments came as a joint committee representing the ruling military leadership and protesters held their first meeting to discuss a demand by demonstrators for a handover to civilian rule.
Protest leaders said that their meeting with the Transitional Military Council on Saturday was “positive.”
Mahdi, who said his party would not join a civilian transitional government, told reporters “it is possible to agree on a civilian authority with the military council because they did not plan a coup.”
Mahdi also said Sudan should “immediately” join the Hague-based International Criminal Court where Bashir is wanted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the conflict in Darfur. “This should be done in coordination with the transitional military council,” he added.
Assailants hurled rocks at leading members of Sudan›s top Islamist party on Saturday at a meeting in Khartoum, injuring 32 of them, a party official told AFP.
The Popular Congress Party (PCP), an ally of ousted president Bashir’s regime, was holding a meeting of its Shura Council when it came under “attack”, said Suheir Salah, its deputy undersecretary.
When the participants in the meeting took a break, they came under attack from a group of people who threw rocks at them,» she said, without identifying the assailants.— Agencies
