Sudan’s SPLM condemns detention of opposition leaders

September 10, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s coalition government partner on Monday condemned as “unconstitutional” the continued detention of opposition politicians accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

Yassir Arman, deputy secretary general of the former southern rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), also deplored the recent crackdown on opposition and independent newspapers and the arrest of journalists.

“Mubarak al-Fadil and Ali Mahmoud Hassanein were arrested in violation of the constitution and its charter on human rights,” he said, referring to two prominent opposition politicians.

Sudanese authorities detained a number of former army officers and opposition leaders in July, accusing them of a plot to bring down the government and of seeking to create chaos in the capital.

They included Fadil, head of the opposition Umma Party for Reform and Renewal, his party’s secretary-general, Abdel Jalil al-Basha along with Hassanein, the deputy head of the large opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

None of the detainees has been charged.

“We call for an end to detentions and the referral of detainees to a fair trial,” Arman told a news conference.

The SPLM signed a peace deal with the dominant northern National Congress Party in 2005, ending more than two decades of north-south war that left some 2 million people dead and forced 4 million to flee their homes.

Under the deal, which resulted in the SPLM joining the government, parliament passed a new constitution that enshrined basic rights and freedoms.

But the SPLM accuses its peace partner of using laws that should have been amended to curtail freedoms.

“The press and journalists have over the past period been exposed to unjustified attacks and many of them were arrested, including leading SPLM figures,” said Arman.

Late last month, Sudanese authorities confiscated 15,000 copies of an opposition newspaper with ties to Sudan’s communist party.

In June police killed four people at a protest against plans to build a new dam in Kajbar in northern Sudan. Security held 10 journalists and lawyers after they reported on or tried to visit Kajbar. Nearly all of them have been released.

Last week, rights group Amnesty International said Sudan had tortured five of the people detained in connection with the failed coup plot.

(Reuters)