Sudan P.M. up against it

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 10

Sudan P.M. up against it

NZPA-Reuter Khartoum

A military defeat by southern rebels, arguments with his army generals and a broadside of criticism from Egypt have plunged the Sudanese Prime Minister, Sadeq alMahdi, into deep trouble.

Mr Mahdi threatened on Monday to quit next Sunday unless army generals gave him a free hand to form a new, broad-based Government.

, Mr Mahdi, speaking in Parliament, sought assurances from army leaders that they would continue to respect the constitution and asked trade unions to stage no

more strikes while the war continued. The Prime Minister’s speech coincided with the expiry of a one-week ultimatum from military chiefs, who demanded reforms because they said the army was not adequately equipped to defeat the rebels. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army said on Monday it had captured the town of Torit in the Equatoria region after a two-day battle ending on Sunday. Torit, near the Ugandan and Kenyan borders, had been under rebel siege for several months, and

reports from the area had consistently spoken ’of scores of its inhabits mts starving to death ev, sry day.

It was the second lai - ge garrison town to fall ii ito S.P.L.A. hands this yei ir. Last month, the S.P.L. A. captured Nasir in tl ie Upper Nile region ne: ir the Ethiopian border.

The S.P.L.A. has bee ,n fighting Governmer it troops since 1983 in th e animist and Christiai i south to end what it see: s as the rule of a minority r Muslim clique in Khar- ■ toum. The S.P.L.A. said that Juba, south Sudan’s larg-

est town 135 km northwest of Torit, was its next target. The Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, in his sharpest public criticism of the Sudanese leader, said in Cairo that Mr Mahdi was trying to divert attention from his own problems and that he had squandered a chance for a peaceful settlement in the south. Mr Mubarak cited last November’s peace pact between the S.P.L.A. and the Democratic Unionist Party which Mr Mahdi rejected with the help of his militant Muslim allies in the coalition.