From its headquarters on Al-Baladiyya Street, located in the vicinity of the sit-in in front of the army leadership in Khartoum, the organization of the families of the “martyrs of the December Revolution” started its activities that focus on the internationalization of the sit-in issue on June 3, 2019.
Despite the growing hypothesis of the shadow brigades 'supporters of the former regime' being involved in the murders accompanying the sit-in process, the organization notes that the military council was - at that time, the commander of the rift from the balcony of the headquarters, approximately 300 meters from the organization's building.
The leaders of the junta became partners of the "Freedom and Change" forces in the transitional government that now runs the country under an agreement signed two months after the sit-in massacre.
The features of the internationalization of the sit-in issue are generated if the government does not have the ability and desire to bring those involved in the violations of murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearance into a challenge similar to the case of the isolated President Omar al-Bashir with the International Criminal Court.
The Wall of Repel
The National Investigation Committee - in the events of the sit-in dissolution in front of the army headquarters in Khartoum and the states - appears to be a single blocking wall to ward off the internationalization of the sit-in issue, but it lacks the necessary support and support from the government.
The resignation of lawyer Ahmed Al-Tahir al-Nur, a former judge, came from the committee’s membership this month, drawing attention to the extent of the problems that the investigation committee suffers to the extent that it threatens not to accomplish the task of bringing those involved to justice.
The resigning committee member of Al Jazeera Net says that the capabilities available to the committee compared to the amount of work required to accomplish will not enable it to issue a report within the specified time.
Even before the resignation, Al-Taher says that the committee remained operating without a headquarters when the authorities asked them to evacuate a temporary headquarters in the building of Sudan Airways for security reasons, and therefore the committee was operating from the office of its president, Adeeb.
Short hand
After the resignation, the authorities allocated two apartments in a building in the suburb of Kavouri in Khartoum Bahri, but the investigation committee still has no budgets that enable it to travel to cities in the states that witnessed simultaneous operations to break up sit-ins in front of the army headquarters, according to Taher.
The suffering of the committee is exacerbated, and it lacks the necessary techniques to display 120 videos documented to break the sit-in, most of which were taken via smart phones, in order to print photographs from these clips, which may have been important in identifying the perpetrators of the military.
Al-Taher says that these technologies are not available in Sudan, and were requested from the African Union in accordance with the constitutional document that allowed the investigation committee to request African technical assistance.
It indicates that these aids provide a detailed preparation for tabulation and reports on the videos, as well as a huge work related to about 7,000 pages of investigations conducted by the prosecution with 3 thousand witnesses.
The investigation committee formed last October consists of seven members, joined by an attorney, accountant, writer and computer worker, who are served by one car.
Internationalization endeavors
On the other hand, the organization of the families of the "martyrs of the December revolution" does not seem occupied by the "Adeeb" committee, as it considers that the formation of the organization is defective, and therefore, steps have been taken towards internationalization.
Kisha Abdel Salam, the organization's deputy secretary-general, told Al-Jazeera Net that they have already started efforts to internationalize the case in coordination with the Darfur Bar Association, which already has a memo to the International Court of Justice accusing the Rapid Support Forces of committing atrocities in Darfur.
Kisheh - who lost his son "Abd al-Salam" in the events of breaking up the sit-in - confirms that they have waited a lot without success, and that the national law does not keep pace with crimes related to human rights violations.
"The sit-in crimes amount to crimes against humanity, the place of which is The Hague, not the courts of Sudan," he added.
In a trend related to the bureaucracy of the victims' families, Abdullah Suleiman, the father of the "martyr Mujahid" - who was among eight others in the Qadarif protests (east of the country) on December 20, 2019 - says that he has not yet received a death certificate for his son.
It is reported that his 21-year-old son was shot in the head, killing him on the spot, but all his efforts to obtain a death certificate to prove this were unsuccessful between the hospital and the prosecution offices.
The game of settlement
According to Muddathir Muhammad Taha, head of the legal committee of the Families of the Martyrs and his deputy, Abu Bakr Atay, the investigation committee headed by Adeeb is defective since its formation.
The two lawyers make clear that the formation of the committee by a decision of Prime Minister Abdullah Hamduk made it political, not legal, and the first was to form a committee of this importance the Attorney-General and preside over it himself.
Under the way the committee was formed, Muddathir and his deputy considered that the results will be handed over to the Prime Minister in preparation for a settlement that does not go "criminals" to justice, so there is time play and a slowdown in the procedures for lifting immunities, an approach that has long been used by the previous regime in crimes committed by military personnel, according to their description.
The two lawyers propose special courts that include all cases of killings and violations that accompanied the revolution and not just victims of the sit-in. According to them, the majority of the families of the victims have opened reports to the Public Prosecutor away from the investigation committee, and after the Corona ban, special courts for these cases will begin.
Warning about internationalization
For his part, Tariq Kandik, lawyer and leader of the "Freedom and Change" forces alliance, told Al-Jazeera Net that he is not a supporter of internationalization because it is "an unfortunate option" and added that regardless of the validity or error of internationalization, it contains caveats.
He added that it is necessary to wait for the report of the investigation committee and then judge him with giving the committee sufficient time, indicating that the International Criminal Court took five years from April 2002 to July 2007 to prepare the case of Ali Kushayb.
Kandic added that the Sudanese and activists, in particular, are required to support the investigation committee to complete its tasks and to establish a state of law capable of public and private deterrence.
Until the report of the investigation committee is issued, eyes inside and outside Sudan remain focused on the issue of resolving the sit-in, which requires the issuance of investigation results that are in conformity with the true law and guarantee the appearance of accused persons before the courts, according to preliminary evidence, according to Al-Taher, the resigned committee member.
On the first anniversary of the June 3 sit-in, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch alerted the Sudanese government to the need to bring to justice those responsible for the sit-in.