Sudan to lift state of emergency, free political detainees

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Feb 13, 2005 (PANA) — The Sudanese government dropped hint Saturday of plans to lift the state of emergency it decreed five years ago, as well as the release of all political detainees including Islamic fundamentalist Hassan el-Turabi whom the authorities accused of plotting to topple the regime.

Sudanese Islamist and former parliament speaker Hassan Turabi , left, receives Sudan’s justice minister Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin ,far right, in Khartoum Monday, Oct 13, 2003. (AP).

The government declared a state of emergency way back 1999 citing
conflict and instability in the south, west and east of Sudan.
The dispensation allowed the authorities to detain people without
charge.

However, in the wake of the comprehensive peace agreement sealed
last 9 January in Nairobi, Kenya to end two decades of fighting
with southern separatists, the government said it was ending
emergency rule.

“You will in the next few weeks see Turabi freely moving in
Khartoum just like any other opposition leader,” press accounts
quoted Foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail as affirming.

The leader of the opposition Popular National Congress (PNC)
party was jailed last September after the government accused his party of plotting a coup and of maintaining links with rebels in the troubled western region of Darfur.

“We are moving towards emptying the prisons completely of any
political detainees,” said Mustafa, who is currently on a tour of the US and Europe.

Analysts remain doubtful, though, as to a countrywide lifting of the state of emergency. They reckon that Khartoum would maintain emergency rule in certain areas of the country, notably Darfur and in the east, where the military wing of the opposition Beja Congress has been carrying out sporadic attacks.

“We are ready for dialogue with the rebels of the east. The
vision of the government is very clear: comprehensive peace in all areas of Sudan,” Ismail maintained.