20091207

AFP - Sudanese police detained three senior figures from the south's ruling party and dozens of protesters on Monday including a state minister in a crackdown against a pro-reform protest, witnesses said.

Pagan Amum, Yassir Arman and Abbas Gumma from the ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) were led away as they arrived by car at the parliament building in Khartoum, said the witnesses, including an AFP reporter.

Amum is the SPLM?s secretary general, Arman its deputy secretary general in northern Sudan, and Gumma is a state minister at the country's interior ministry.

Police had announced that the demonstration to push for reforms ahead of national elections and over an independence referendum for south Sudan would be considered illegal.

But by mid-morning, several hundred opposition protesters trailed by armed police were marching on the streets of Khartoum, waving placards and chanting: "We want our freedom."

Among those arrested were Siddig al-Turabi, son of veteran Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, and more than 50 of the demonstrators.

Security forces blocked roads leading to parliament, with a heavy presence in key areas. They were also reported to have closed the bridge to Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, which lies on the west bank of the Nile river.

"The security committee for Khartoum state has met and decided that the protest is illegal," senior police officer Mohammed Babikir said on state television late Sunday.

"Whoever takes part in this demonstration will be breaking the law," he said, shortly after Arman had told journalists he expected "thousands of our people" to take part.

The SPLM and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of President Omar al-Beshir have failed to agree on democratic reforms ahead of elections next April and on a law for the south's referendum scheduled for January 2011.

The national vote will be the first in Sudan since 1986, three years before Beshir toppled a democratically elected government in a bloodless military coup.

The SPLM and around 20 opposition groups called for a "peaceful protest" to exert pressure on the NCP.

Registration for regional, legislative and presidential elections began on November 1 and was extended until Monday after a request from opposition parties and the former southern rebels.

Khartoum state announced the closure of schools on Monday and a day off for public employees to underline the government's "engagement ... towards democratic reform" and to aid voter registration.

Reform and changes to the election law were key aspects of a 2005 peace accord which ended the African continent's longest-running civil war, between north and south Sudan.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA, called for the general election and the referendum.