Protests planned for Powell, Annan visits to Sudan

KHARTOUM, June 28 (AFP) — Sudanese Islamic and trade union groups are planning protests Wednesday against visits here by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, a state-owned daily reported.

Some 500 people are expected to take part in a rally in the capital called by the Sudanese Muslim clerics’ association and trade unionists, before handing in a protest letter to the UN representative, the Al-Anbaa newspaper said.

One of the organisers, Fathi Khalil, who heads the lawyers’ association, said the letter would protest “the criminal acts being committed by the United States in Iraq and Palestine, as well as the passive attitude of the international body.”

Trade union federation chief Ibrahim Ghandour said the demonstrations would protest US and UN “double standards”.