Sudan rebel leader who was in Khartoum for talks detained by military junta

Yasir Arman, deputy chief of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), was seized from the house where he was staying in Khartoum by armed men who arrived in pick-up trucks and surrounded the building, the spokesman said.

"They took him without clarifying to us the place (they would take him to) and said they were from the National Intelligence and Security Service," Mubarak Ardol said. 

The spokesman charged that the armed men "beat" Arman and his assistant and destroyed surveillance cameras outside the house.

Arman returned to Khartoum on May 26 to take part in talks after the ouster of president Omar al-Bashir in April following months of mass protests against his authoritarian rule.

The SPLM-N's armed wing had battled Bashir's forces in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states since 2011.

Britain's ambassador in Khartoum condemned the arrest.

"This is outrageous. We need confidence building now. Not further escalation," Irfan Siddiq tweeted, calling for his release.

Arman's detention came after a doctors committee close to the protesters said 60 people had been killed in a two-day crackdown on protesters by security forces.

Sudan's ruling Transitional Military Council, which ousted Bashir following the protests, dispersed a weeks-long sit-in outside army headquarters by forces on Monday.

At least 60 people were killed in the deadly raid on Monday, a doctors' committee close to the demonstrators said on Wednesday.

The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors announced on Wednesday that 40 dead bodies were pulled from the River Nile, along with the estimated 60 already killed during the vicious attack on peaceful Sudanese protesters carried out by the Saudi-backed army.

The committee said it held "the militias of the (military) council... responsible for this massacre.”

A day after the massacre began, the Sudan's military ruler on Tuesday cancelled negotiations over a transition period to ultimately lead the country to civilian rule and declared snap elections – a move objected by the Sudanese opposition.

"We refuse the call for an early election and we consider the statement of the military council conforms with the counter-revolution and is linked to the interests of the old regime," Omar al-Dukair, the Secretary General of the Sudanese Congress party, told reporters in Khartoum. 

Rights watchdog Amnesty International deplored the army's violence which "destroyed the trust of the Sudanese people".

"Many of those attacked this morning were sleeping when the Rapid Support Forces and other Sudanese security agencies began unleashing deadly violence," Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said. 

"With this senseless slaughter the [transitional military council] has completely destroyed the trust of the Sudanese people and crushed the people's hope for a new era of respect for human rights and respect for the right to protest without fear," Jackson added.

"The Sudanese people suffered for decades under the repressive rule of Omar al-Bashir, and his ousting should have represented a new chapter of respect for human rights," Jackson said. 

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