Sudan detains 189 over alleged coup plot

KHARTOUM, Oct 7 (AFP) — Sudan has detained 189 suspects in connection with last month’s alleged coup attempt, derided by the opposition as a sham to divert attention from the crisis in Darfur, a state-owned daily said Thursday.

Sudanese army soldiers ride in the back of a truck escorting another truck full of prisoners, not pictured, through the streets of central Khartoum, Thursday, Sep. 30, 2004.

Sudanese Defence Minister General Bakri Hasan Saleh told the Al-Anbaa newspaper the detainees included six officers, seven non-commissioned officers and 176 civilians.

“The situation is now under full control of the government and the army, and the security authorities are closely following up the situation,” Saleh said.

The detainees were all said to be members of the Popular Congress of jailed Islamist leader, Hassan Turabi, a one-time ally and chief ideologue of President Omar al-Beshir.

Sudan’s interior ministry accused Turabi’s party of masterminding the plot to topple the government even though most of its senior officials were already in custody following a string of alleged arms finds earlier in the month.

A longtime mentor of Beshir, Turabi, 74, is awaiting trial on a raft of offences against the state, including incitement to sedition, sabotage and undermining the regime.

The Islamist leader, who was detained in late March amid government allegations of an earlier coup attempt, had been at liberty for only six months since being freed from three years of house arrest last year.

Turabi had been increasingly critical of the scorched earth policy adopted by the government in Darfur, where the United Nations says up to 50,000 have been killed and about 1.4 million left homeless amid clashes between ethnic minority rebels and state-sponsored Arab militia.

Khartoum has persistently accused the Popular Congress of fanning the crisis in the western region, where one of the two rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, is close to the Islamists.

The government also implicated the JEM in the alleged coup attempt.