Sudan: military admits deadly decision on protester crackdown - urgent investigation needed

“The senseless killing of protesters must be stopped immediately” – Sarah Jackson

Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC) has admitted that they met with the country’s security chiefs on 2 June, and after receiving undisclosed advice from the Attorney General and the Head of the Judiciary, ordered the dispersal of peaceful protesters on 3 June which killed more than 100 people and injured hundreds more.

Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, said:

“It is completely outrageous and unacceptable that what has now been confirmed to have been a carefully planned attack on sleeping protesters has in the same breath been reduced to a ‘mistake’.



“The senseless killing of protesters must be stopped immediately, and those responsible for the bloodbath, including at command level, must be held fully accountable for their actions.



“The Attorney General and Head of the Judiciary should urgently clarify the advice they gave before leaving the meeting where this decision was taken. The world needs to understand the extent to which they advised the security forces on the legality and proportionality of deadly force used.

“Following this admission, it is now more urgent than ever, in the interest of accountability and transparency, that the military authorities allow international scrutiny and investigations by the United Nations and African Union into the escalating human rights violations under their watch.”



Background

Yesterday (13 June), the TMC spokesperson Lieutenant General Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi issued a statement about the 2 June meeting where the decision was taken to clear the protester sit-in area near the military headquarters in Khartoum.

The statement reads in part: “In the evening before the implementation of the decision to clear the sit-in area, we called for a meeting attended by all members of the TMC, the head of military intelligence, the head of General Staff Command (army), the head of national security and his deputy, the head of police and his deputy, and the head of RSF. We also requested the Head of the Judiciary and the Attorney General to attend this meeting to provide us with legal advice on how to deal with this situation. We thanked the Head of Judiciary and the Attorney General for their advice and then they left the meeting.”