Police arrest dozens of opposition supporters at pro-democracy rally

Sudanese police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a pro-democracy rally outside parliament on Monday and arrested dozens of opposition supporters, including senior party officials. Those arrested were later released.

AFP - Sudanese police fired tear gas, used water cannons and rounded up dozens of opposition supporters on Monday to halt a pro-democracy rally outside parliament, an AFP reporter said.
   
Police used tear gas and water cannons outside opposition party offices in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman.
   
Spokesman for the opposition Ummah party Mohammed Zaki said senior party officials, including Mariam al-Mahdi, daughter of party leader Sadiq al-Mahdi, were among those detained.
   
All of the protestors who had been arrested were released from a police station by the evening, an AFP correspondent said.
   
There had been a heavy security presence in the capital as police closed off large parts of the city, including all roads leading up to the parliament building where the demonstration was planned.
   
Earlier, several protesters from the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) carrying their party flag were beaten by police as they tried to reach parliament, the correspondent said.
   
Some 21 opposition groups, including the SPLM and Ummah had called a rally to demand greater democracy, even after a deal was reached on Sunday between Sudan's two main political parties on reforms.
   
Leaders of the former warring north and south announced they had reached an agreement over laws related to a 2011 referendum on independence for the south, as well as a law on the powers of the security services.
   
No details of the agreement have yet been made public.
   
Tensions between the two parties had reached crisis point last week when southern protesters torched an office of President Omar al-Beshir's National Congress Party after Khartoum police arrested three leaders of the opposition and dozens of demonstrators.
   
Pagan Amum, Yassir Arman and Abbas Gumma from the former rebel SPLM were freed after a few hours but their arrests had prompted angry protesters to set fire to the NCP office in the southern city of Wau.
   
Amum is the SPLM’s secretary general, Arman its deputy secretary general in northern Sudan, and Gumma a state minister at the country's interior ministry.
   
After his release, Arman said he was beaten by police and sustained minor injuries while in custody.
   
US envoy Scott Gration who arrived in Sudan on Sunday, meanwhile, is to hold talks with senior Sudanese leaders, including First Vice President and southern leader Salva Kiir as well as Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, the official SUNA news agency reported.
   
His visit is aimed at defusing tensions between the north and south partners.
   
The SPLM and Beshir's NCP had failed to agree on democratic reforms until Sunday.
   
The 2010 general election will be the first in Sudan since 1986, three years before Beshir toppled a democratically elected government in a bloodless military coup, and the fifth since independence in 1956.

 

Date created : 2009-12-15