INTERVIEW – Sudan’s opposition Turabi says unity govt a fraud

Sept 27, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s new government set up in line with a peace deal will push the south towards secession because the president has failed to share real power, opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi said on Tuesday.

Turabi ruled out the possibility that his own party, one of the largest in Khartoum, would join the government announced last week arguing that it was only offered a few seats in the unelected parliament and no cabinet posts.

And he criticised Salva Kiir, leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) since the death of John Garang in July, for not negotiating hard enough with Khartoum over government posts.

“That’s not a government of national unity,” he said. “It was a setback for the spirit of unity between north and south,” said Turabi, adding it made southern separation more likely.

“The palace is actually taking over government altogether,” the prominent Islamist told Reuters in an interview at his home.

“There is a dictatorship in the country governed by a military officer in uniform now and in office,” said Turabi, leader of the opposition Popular Congress.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir announced the government last week under a power-sharing deal signed in January to end a long civil war between Khartoum and the former southern rebel SPLM.

The deal included an agreement on the distribution of Sudan’s wealth, plans for a democratic transition and — crucially — a referendum in the south within six years on secession.

JAILED, RELEASED

Turabi said the new government failed to include enough representation for the east and Darfur, the western region of Sudan, where rebels took up arms in 2003 to fight what they said was marginalisation by Khartoum.

A major political force in Sudan, Turabi backed the bloodless military coup that brought Bashir to power in 1989 and became one of its most important defenders.

But the two fell out and Turabi has since spent around four years in detention. He was most recently released in July after being accused of arming the Darfur rebels and plotting a coup.

He said on Tuesday he supported the struggle of the Darfur rebels for a more federal system of government but denied arming them.

In the new government, the former southern rebels were only allocated the foreign ministry of the major portfolios.

Turabi said Garang, who died in a helicopter crash three weeks after becoming first vice president, would have negotiated a better deal for the southern party.

“Garang’s share (of cabinet posts) would have been better than the share gained by Salva Kiir,” Turabi said. He added that Kiir, who led the military wing of the southern rebellion, was a newcomer to politics.

The conflict pitted the Islamist Khartoum-based government against the mainly Christian, animist south, complicated by issues of oil, ethnicity and ideology. It claimed 2 million lives and forced more than 4 million from their homes.

January’s deal does not cover the separate rebellion in Darfur, which has killed tens of thousands and prompted U.S. accusations levelled at Khartoum of genocide.

(Reuters)