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| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Sudan frees two Islamist leaders... |
| 2002-09-01 |
| The Sudanese government has freed two senior leaders of the Islamist opposition but more than a hundred other activists detained over the past week remain in jail. The acting secretary general of the Popular National Congress (PNC), Abdullah Hassan Ahmed, said he and fellow party official Siddeiq al-Ahmar were released on Thursday after a day in detention. "We have not been interrogated and were not told why we were arrested or, later, why we were set free," Ahmed said. But he added that more than 100 of the party's activists remained in detention after a string of police raids over the past week. Maybe Omar's tired of hearing y'all whistling that same old tired Islamist tune? The Khartoum authorities have accused PNC activists of staging a series of violent protests in recent days against the continued house arrest of their leader, former parliament speaker Hassan al-Turabi. See what I mean? Maybe they should try not being indignant all the time, and staging riots... They have also accused the party of seeking to sabotage a breakthrough peace accord with southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army signed in Kenya last month. Since the deal's shakey enough, it doesn't take many indignant Islamists to sabotage it... Long considered the power behind President Omar al-Beshir's military regime, Turabi was detained in 2001 after falling out with his longtime protector in late 1999. On August 22, Beshir issued an extraordinary decree extending Turabi's detention for another year. He should count himself lucky. They used to deal with Grand Viziers who'd outlived their utility a little more, uh... stringently. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |