Sudan to release jailed Islamist leader – minister

KHARTOUM, July 27 (Reuters) – The Sudanese government will release Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi, jailed in March for inciting rebels in the western Darfur region, as soon as possible, a Sudanese minister said on Tuesday.

Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmed, minister for agriculture, said Turabi would be released along with other members of the Popular Congress, the opposition party he heads, “at the nearest possible opportunity.” He did not say when.

Others jailed in relation to Darfur, where rebels took up arms against the government in early 2003, had already been released, based on an April 8 cease-fire agreement between the Darfur rebels and the government, Ahmed added.

Khartoum is facing mounting pressure from the United States and the EU over Darfur, where the United Nations says the world’s worst humanitarian crisis is unfolding.

Washington is expected to call a U.N. vote this week on a U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution threatening Khartoum with sanctions if it fails to provide security for non-Arab villagers from Arab militias in Darfur.

“If the Sudan government thinks there is any symbolism in this release, we say that symbolism is one thing, but concrete, tangible action is another,” said a State Department official, who declined to be named.

“What we need are not symbols but actions that have a tangible effect on the people suffering in Darfur,” the official said.

Speaking after a meeting of Sudan’s council of ministers to discuss Darfur, Ahmed said the ruling party would hold meetings with opposition parties and civil society groups in an effort to promote national unity. “The government of Sudan rejects any attempts to condemn it or to place sanctions on it … this interference in our internal affairs,” Ahmed said.

Turabi, 72, was once a powerful figure in the Islamist government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. He was taken to hospital on Sunday after eating nothing but dates for most of July to protest against his detention.

Turabi was also arrested in 2001 after signing a controversial deal with a southern rebel group and released in October 2003.

(Additional reporting by Saul Hudson in Washington)