News Article by AFP posted on May 09, 2003 at 06:33:38: EST (-5 GMT)
Beshir sacks officials in rebel-hit Sudanese state
KHARTOUM, May 9 (AFP) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has made major changes in regional governments in west Sudan's Darfur region, apparently as a result of recent rebels attacks there, state television reported.
Beshir issued presidential decrees Thursday sacking the governors of North Darfur and West Darfur states, General Ibrahim Suleiman and Omar Haroun respectively, as well as top security officials in North Darfur capital Al-Fasher.
The local military commander, the director of the security unit and the police chief in Al-Fasher were all dismissed in the wake of last month's attack on the city in which dozens of soldiers and civilians were killed, military planes destroyed and an air force general abducted.
Beshir also disbanded the security committee which he formed last year for maintaining security and order in Darfur region under the chairmanship of the North Darfur governor, the television said.
The presidential decrees, which were also carried by the official SUNA news agency, appointed Major General Suleiman Abdallah Adam as governor of West Darfur and Osman Mohamed Yousuf as governor for North Darfur state.
On Monday Defence Minister Bakri Hassan Saleh told parliament the "outlaws" of the Sudan Liberation Army killed 75 government troops and captured another 30 in the attack on April 25.
Beshir's government has refused to acknowledge any political motivation for unrest in the states of North, South and West Darfur, blaming it instead on "armed criminal gangs and outlaws," who it says are aided by tribes from neighboring Chad.
The Sudanese authorities have also accused the southern separatist Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) of helping the rebels in the Darfur region.
The SLA, which first emerged in late February under the label of the Front for the Liberation of Darfur, is not included in the framework of peace talks aimed at ending Khartoum's 20-year-old civil war with the SPLA.
It has never acknowledged any link with the SPLA, but called in mid-March for an "understanding" with other opposition forces fighting the Islamic government in Khartoum.
Darfur is one of the most arid and isolated regions in Sudan, Africa's largest country. The area has witnessed tribal clashes and bandit raids for many years, but no armed political faction had previously been reported there.