Sudan paramilitaries involved in deadly June 3 raid: probe

A probe into the deadly June 3 raid on a Sudanese protest camp has found a paramilitary group was involved but without orders from the top, a chief investigator said Saturday.

Fatah al-Rahman Saeed, head of a probe into the raid, said orders had been given to security forces to clear an area near the protest camp.

But a general from the country's feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces also ordered a colonel to disperse the sit-in outside army headquarters, he said, which led to the deaths of scores of demonstrators according the protest movement.

"They led the (RSF) forces... inside the sit-in area and ordered them to get down from their vehicles and whip the protesters," Saeed told a press conference.

Protesters and rights groups have accused the paramilitary force of carrying out the raid, but the deputy chief of Sudan's ruling military council General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo who also heads the RSF has steadfastly denied his group's involvement.

On Saturday, Saeed identified the RSF general who allegedly ordered the raid by his initials A.S.A, and the colonel as A A M.

"It is clear to the committee that General A.S.A issued an order to Colonel A A M to deploy anti-riot forces of the RSF, even when they were not part of clearing Columbia," Saeed said, referring to the area near the sit-in which the authorities had ordered cleared.

Since the raid took place, the country's ruling generals have insisted they did not order the dispersal of the protest camp, but had instead told security forces to clear the Colombia area.

"The area had become a security threat which forced the authorities to take proper measures to clear it," Saeed also said on Saturday.

Saeed also said an RSF captain, identified as H.B.A, was involved in clearing Colombia but was later ordered to go to the sit-in to disperse it.

He said that security forces "broke the law and entered the sit-in area".

"(They) removed the barricades, fired tear gas and fired intense and random bullets that led to the killing and wounding of protesters and the burning of tents," he added.

Doctors linked to the protest movement say 127 people were killed during the raid.