that's all. stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm zeinab badawi. i am in the grounds of the presidential palace here in khartoum, sudan. my guest is general abdul fatah al burhan in his first interview with international tv since he took over the running of the country after the fall of president omar al—bashir after 30 years in power. but the protesters are re—intensifying their demonstrations because they see the military is not handing over to a civilian—led government soon enough. is there a stand—off between the military and the protesters and where does sudan go from here? general abdul fatah al burhan, welcome to hardtalk. the protests and sit—ins are being escalated and intensified. you've reached a stalemate, haven't you? but you have now warned the protesters against setting up road blocks. you are saying things can't continue like this because, as you say, security is a responsibility of the state. i give it to you, general, that it sounds like you are making a threat to the protesters. will you guarantee that you will not ask any of the armed forces to use force to remove these roadblocks? you can guarantee that absolutely? because protesters i've spoken to are quite concerned, some of them, that the situation could change. the forces of freedom and change who now represent the protesters, the sudanese professional association, which led the protests, and other political parties are now demanding an immediate handover in a matter of days to a civilian transitional government. will you do that in a matter of days? so you're waiting for a consensus from the protest movement? and then you would hand over power? and could that be a matter of days, weeks, months? because we have heard reports that you said you want the military council to lead the transitional government for two years. are you now saying that's not the case? but they don't want you to be here for a0 years. professor mohamed yousef, spokesperson officially for the sudanese professional association, has told me specifially that he wants the military council to step down and hand over power to a civilian—led presidential council with perhaps some representation of the military, in perhaps the defence post. is that acceptable to you? are you in control of the army, general burhan, because there are so many factions in the army led for so many years led by omar al—bashir? so do you control all the factions in the army? the forces for freedom and change say one of their key demands is they will not enter into any consensus transitional government with groups that participated in president bashir‘s regime. as things stand, there are those who are associated with the old regime who are on your military council. why? because there are real fears, you acknowledge, that the deep state is still in place even though president bashir has been removed from power. you acknowledge those fears? the deep state, the system he created. you've cut off the head but not the body. because one member of the sudanese professional association, taha osman, has told reporters here in khartoum, "the objectives of the revolution cannot be achieved "totally a nd com pletely "in the face of the backstage manipulations "by the remnants of the regime." those fears are justified. do you see yourself as a servant of the protesters, that you will do their bidding, that the military is subservient to the civilian protesters? one very clear demand that you get from the street protesters is that they have a complete rejection not only of omar al—bashir‘s former regime, but also of political islamism. they don't want islam in politics. can you guarantee that you will purge your army of those who still have sympathies for the islamists, in case they try to mount some kind of counter coup? so it's possible that the islamists could still be a major political player in sudan? how long do you envisage the transitional period taking? the sudanese professional association says four years of a transitional government. do you agree with that? and what composition of a transitional government do you envisage in those two years? who takes the lead? would you yourself seek a leadership role? because the idea is that there would be a residential council to replace the military council, which would be civilian—led, and there would be a government made up of a technocratic cabinet with a technocrat as prime minister. is that a vision that is acceptable to you? would you serve on the presidential council? do you have the power and authority to stop any other generals in the army from trying to assert themselves? if they say, "you're relinquishing too much power, general burhan." there is a view amongst some observers here, western diplomatic sources, who have said that perhaps you shouldn't have a hasty handover to civilian rule because there is instability in the sudan. you've got armed militias in darfur, in blue nile, in south kordofan. do you think that if there is a handover to civilian power, that stability be maintained in the sudan? you mentioned darfur, and i have to put it to you that your deputy in the military council, hemeti, who is the leader of the rapid support force here in sudan, is associated with the darfuris with the conflict there, that the force he leads now now is the successor of the arab militias, the janjaweeds, and this is creating a lot of discontent. but what about him specifically, hemeti, who is darfuri, and leads the rapid support forces, and is your number two? what about your role as well, general burhan, because you've had a very long career in the military. you've served in south sudan before secession there in 2011, and also in darfur. and i have to put it to you that one darfur leader, sheikh matar younis, in thejustice and equality movement, has described you as also being, as he put it, and i quote, "a bloody murder of the people of sudan in darfur since before 2014". what's your response to that? but do you feel, and i have to say of course you've not been named in any capacity by any international body, because of course we have had names sent by the international criminal court, president bashir, omar al—bashir, and ahmed haroun. you don't appear on any list like that. but can i ask you, can you fully defend your actions in darfur? in a statement via spokesman mutasim mohamed saleh, thejem, justice and equality movement, have made a demand that all the war—related detainees in darfur be released. and he says "not releasing them is a call for the continuation of the war and a further rupture of the country," sudan. have you released all detainees? can i ask you now to the circumstances of the removal of omar al—bashir, what made you and your senior army colleagues decide that it was time for bashir to go? was there any danger at any time that force was going to be stepped up against the protesters? was that something that omar al—bashir, at the time, was asking for? and did you personally tell him, no, that's not acceptable? there are reports that you are one of three army officers who personally told president bashir that he was no longer in power. can you confirm that? what did you say to him? and what did he say? he said ok. just like that? yes. because, i... was he arrested immediately? what did you do with him? because i'm hearing reports, reliable sources here in khartoum, that he is in a state of shock at what has happened, that he's depressed, that he's refusing to eat here in prison. how can we verify that he is in prison, because, again, so many people in sudan are saying we don't really believe that he's in prison. can i verify it personally? but isn't it your responsibility of the current leader of sudan, because one senior western diplomatic sources said to me you must show yourself better than the regime you've replaced. you can'tjust detain omar al—bashir, ali osman taha, his vice president, and his other associates, his two brothers, and not charge them, not have them visited or inspected by the international red crescent, for example. what should happen to omar al—bashir? because he stands accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. and amnesty internationaljoan nyanyuki say he "must be immediately handed over to the icc, the international criminal court, for due process to be followed. his case must not be hurriedly tried in sudan's notoriously dysfunctional legal system. justice must be served." will you hand him over to the icc? so he will not be handed over to the icc? do you have the mandate to decide that, because what if the transitional government or a subsequent democratically elected government says we don't abide by what general burhan says, we want to see omar al—bashir delivered to the icc and the sudanese professionals association says that as an option they want to leave open. you couldn't stop that, could you? so you accept it's not a guarantee that you can make? could you pre—empt this, perhaps, by allowing him to go into exile somewhere, because president museveni of uganda has said he would give him shelter. is that a possibility? when will you put him on trial? when can we see him on trial? and would it be, the court case, could it be under international supervision? in terms of what the international community can do to help sudan at this transitional period, one thing that you are seeking is a removal of the sanctions by the united states of america, because sudan is on the list of states that sponsors terrorism, but the americans are saying that that is too premature. you've talked of sending a delegation and it's likely that they won't accept it. we've also had reports that the united arab emirates and saudi arabia have pledged to give sudan, to give you, $3 billion. they know you because, of course, you been in charge of sorting out the sudanese soldiers who've served in yemen and that helps the coalition there against the rebels in yemen. but we've heard chants on the streets saying to saudis "we don't want your money". has that money been sent to you and have you accepted it? have you received the money? is it on its way? finally, for 63 years of independence for sudan, from britain in 1956, for all but ten of those years sudan has been ruled by the military. former prime minister sadiq al—mahdi of the umma party, one of the oldest, biggest parties in sudan, says the military have become hinged to the idea of takeover, so we must have a civilian military charter that makes the military subject to civilian democratic control. are you, general burhan, committed to taking, finally, the army out of sudanese politics? well, they want you to step down, though, the street has made it very clear they don't want the army to stay in power and you've become accustomed to ruling. you're ready now? yes. straightaway? yes. a matter of days. general abdul fattah al burhan, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk. uk forecast in just a moment but first of all we are off to mozambique where it looks like we've got another weather—related disaster on the way. another cyclone, this is cyclone kenneth, picking up strength and it's going to make landfall thursday afternoon in northern mozambique and bringing you through five days of forecast here, you can see the problem. once the storm has made landfall, it stops moving and we will see torrential falls of rain in the same area day after day. we could be seeing, getting on for a metre of rain over coming days combined with a storm surge 2—4 metres high which could bring coastal inundation and looks like we will see another round of devastating flooding across mozambique, particularly in the north of the country. here in the uk, our weather has changed. it's turned a bit cooler, we've got unsettle weather ovewr the next few days with rain or showers but also temperatures have eased over recent days. it will feel cooler as we head into this weekend combined with strengthening winds as well. now, today we'll start off with some reasonable weather around. in scotland and northern ireland, a bit of brightness or sunshine first thing. showers across england and wales from the word go push northwards. in terms of being cloudy, the showers get heavy with hail and thunder mixed in. some of those downpours will be quite lengthy as well as they drive their way northwards. in the south, perhaps turning a bit lighter today, a bit more sunshine, temperatures down on recent days, 13—16 degrees and quite a breezy day coming up. going through thursday evening and overnight, further wet weather for scotland, showers working in across parts of western england, and wales, perhaps some lengthier spells of rain through northern ireland through thursday night and into the early part of friday morning. friday, on the face of it, although it's quite unsettled again, there'll be some bigger gaps between the showers and perhaps some more in the way of sunshine, particularly eastern areas of scotland for a time, but it's not completely dry, you will see some further showers moving in through the afternoon. some of these are likely to be heavy and quite lengthy in places. gusty winds around too. temperatures 13—15 degrees celsius and then through friday night and into the weekend, we see this area of low pressure diving southwards, tightly squeezed isobars, it's going to be a windy spell of weather. the strongest winds of this stage, targeting probably south—west england. gusts 60, 65 miles per hour, something like that. outbreaks of rain, widespread, and it's going to feel quite cold, notjust on account of those strong winds, heavy rain but also those temperatures. we'll be looking at highs of between 10 and 13 degrees. you can forget the 25 we had a few days ago. this is newsday. i'm rico hizon in singapore, the headlines: the death toll rises again in sri lanka. more than 350 people were killed in sunday's attacks, as new details about those behind the bombings. —— emerge. a guard of honourfor the north korean leader as he arrives in russia. but will the first ever summit between kim jong—un and vladimir putin be more ceremony than substance? i'm kasia madera in london. also coming up in the programme: prince william takes part in anzac day commemorations in auckland, as new zealand and australia honour their fallen heroes.

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