Islamist leader freed in Sudan after more than two years of detention

By Mohamed Ali Saeed

KHARTOUM, Oct 13 (AFP) — Sudan’s Islamist President Omar el-Beshir freed his former ally-turned-rival Hassan al-Turabi after more than two years of house arrest, as the country works to end its 20-year civil war.

The president’s office said the release was part of efforts to “prepare for the coming peace era” in Sudan.

A beaming Turabi, wearing the traditional white turban, told reporters he was freed because of domestic and foreign pressures coinciding with dramatic progress toward ending a 20-year-old civil war with southern rebels.

“Pressuring forces from the south, the west, the Sudanese people and international pressures all contributed to my release,” said Turabi, surrounded by supporters who chanted “Allah Akhbar (God is Greatest).

The decree signed by Beshir also lifted a ban on the activities of Turabi’s Popular Congress Party (PCP).

Turabi, an Islamist ideologue with influence beyond Sudan’s borders, backed the 1989 military coup which brought Beshir to power but was removed from key political posts after losing a power struggle with the president in 1999.

He was arrested along with many of his followers in February 2001 after the PCP signed a memorandum of understanding in Switzerland with southern rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

Turabi said the deal as aimed at promoting democracy and ending Sudan’s civil war, which erupted in 1983.

A Sudanese government official had said the deal, which called for joint peaceful resistance to Beshir’s government, was a “conspiracy, subversion and a threat of violence.”

Since July 2002, the Sudanese government and the SPLA have made major strides during US-backed negotiations in Kenya toward ending the war, with officials here predicting a final peace agreement within weeks.

National Security director general Major General Salah Abdallah Mohamed said in a statement that Turabi, 71, was released because “the reasons for his detention have ended.”

The statement distributed by the Sudan Media Centre (SMC) confirmed the lifting of the ban on PCP activities.

PCP deputy secretary general Abdallah Hassan Ahmed said Turabi’s release “means a lot to us as we have been banned and now the party has come back with full strength and freedom.”

SMC reported that the authorities also Monday released PCP officials Yousuf Libis after two years in detention and Jireel Al-Neel who spent six months in prison.

The president “decided to set free all political detainees, numbering three, so the country’s prisons will be empty of all political detainees and Sudan can enter a stage of free and healthy political exercise,” Beshir’s office said.

Beshir’s decree also paved the way for the party’s newspaper to return to newsstands, PCP officials said.

Turabi, who headed from the state guest house where he had been kept under house arrest to his party’s headquarters, said he was set free without any conditions dictated to him by the authorities.

He believes that any peace agreement has to be approved by the Sudanese people. “An agreement with the south will be of no value if it is not adopted by the Sudanese people.”

Several northern opposition groups have complained they were excluded from the negotiations with the SPLA in Kenya, though some have now been invited to attend and observe them.