Sudan accuses Eritrea of supporting rebels in Darfourl; Turabi denies links to rebels

The Sudanese foreign minister, Mustafa Othman Ismael, said that Sudan will file a complaint against Eritrea with the UN organization, because of what he called escalating acts of unrest in his country.

Ismael told journalists upon his arrival in Khartoum on late Tuesday evening, coming from Addis Ababa, that the complaint represents a mechanism within many, to prevent Eritrea from interfering in Sudan's affairs. But he gave no mention to the content of the mechanism. After his negotiations with Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi and the Yemeni President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Addis Ababa this week, the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir accused Eritrea of supporting the rebels in Darfour to the west of Sudan.

Within the same context, the Islamic leader Hassan al-Turabi renewed yesterday ( Wednesday) his party's involvement in the armed incidents in Darfour. He held the government responsible for escalation in this area.

Al-Turabi said that the People's National Congress, which he presides over, is not involved in these incident, but he added that members of the party joined the rebels in Darfour.

He stressed that members of the party who joined the gunmen in Darfour did so without permission from the party, noting that all parties including the ruling party have among them members who joined the armed groups there.

Al-Turabi, on the other hand, criticized the extension of the state of emergency in Sudan for 2004, approved by the parliament on Monday, considering that this decision indicates that the government intends to suppress freedoms.