* Senior military, intelligence officials accused of
inciting chaos
* Army tanks seen rolling through Khartoum around midnight
* Streets appear normal Thursday
* Sudan hit by unrest, inflation after losing the south
By Ulf Laessing and Khalid Abdelaziz
KHARTOUM, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Sudan arrested its former spy
chief and other senior military and security officers on
Thursday after foiling what officials said was a plot to incite
chaos and target leaders in this oil-producing African state.
Witnesses told Reuters they saw army tanks and armoured
vehicles moving down a main street in the centre of Khartoum
around midnight, but life in the city was normal during the day
with shops in the centre bustling with customers.
Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has kept up a
23-year hold on power, even as a series of uprisings troubled
the country’s poor border areas, including the conflict-torn
region of Darfur.
But Sudan has been stuck in economic crisis since the south
– the source of most of its known oil-reserves – declared
independence last year under the terms of a peace deal.
High prices for food have added to widespread public anger
over losing the south and have emboldened opposition activists
to call for protests. Analysts say the crisis has also
exacerbated divisions in the government and squeezed the
patronage system they say Bashir has relied on.
(To see a special report on Bashir’s Sudan, please click on
ID:nL3E8MD574])
Unrest over price rises and food and fuel shortages has
preceded coups in Sudan in the past.
Salah Gosh, former head of Sudan’s powerful intelligence and
security agency, was arrested with 12 o thers on suspicion of
“inciting chaos”, “targeting” some leaders and spreading rumours
about Bashir’s health, the information minister told reporters.
Bashir, 68, has undergone throat surgery twice since the
summer. Officials insist he is in good health.
“A lot of evidence was gathered showing there is a movement
aiming to incite chaos, target some leaders and undermine the
country’s stability,” the minister, Ahmed Belal Osman, said.
“The situation is now totally stable,” he added, naming
Gosh, and another arrested officer, Wad Ibrahim, a prominent
Islamist in the army.
Some Islamists inside the army and the ruling National
Congress Party have said that Bashir and other senior leaders
have abandoned the religious values of the 1989 coup and have
concentrated decision-making in the hands of a few people.
Some also feel Bashir has been too soft on South Sudan,
which temporarily wrong-footed the Sudanese army by seizing a
major oilfield during border fighting in April – a shock to many
officers.
TANKS HEADED DOWNTOWN
Harry Verhoeven, an Oxford University researcher who has
studied Sudan extensively, said the arrests’ timing suggested
the incident was connected to a conference of Sudan’s Islamic
Movement last weekend that illustrated these tensions.
The Islamic Movement is a part of Sudan’s ruling
establishment that counts many of the country’s most powerful
politicians as members.
Analysts say reform-minded members of the group were unhappy
with the new secretary-general elected at the conference.
The arrest of Gosh – who is not seen as overly close with
the Islamists – may have been a signal to the reformists that
authorities would not tolerate serious dissent, Verhoeven said.
“I think the key question is what the reformists do. Do they
form a new party? Do they stay quiet?” he added.
Officials have cited a plot but have stopped short of saying
this constituted a coup attempt.
Witnesses said they saw military vehicles on a major street
that runs alongside the city’s airport overnight.
“We saw something unusual in Khartoum … four armoured
vehicles and two tanks on Abeid Khatim Street heading in the
direction of downtown,” one witness said, asking not to be
named.
Security at the defence ministry, intelligence headquarters
and other buildings associated with military and security
authorities appeared normal, a Reuters witness in the city said.
Sudan has been plagued by political conflicts and crises for
most of its history since independence from Britain in 1956.
Decades of civil war between the north and south culminated
with South Sudan’s independence in July last year under a 2005
peace deal.
Tensions in both nations and between the two states have
been high since then. The two countries accused one another of
incursions in disputed border zones on Wednesday, a setback to
recent security and border deals.
Small demonstrations against cuts in fuel subsidies and
other austerity measures broke out across Sudan in June but
petered out after a security crackdown and the start of the
Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
“PLOTTING LIKE BREATHING”
Gosh was once among Sudan’s most influential officials. As
chief of the National Intelligence and Security Service, he
headed what is one of the country’s most powerful institutions
alongside the army.
Bashir removed Gosh as spy chief in 2009, replacing him with
the current head Mohammed Atta al-Moula. Officials did not
explain the decision to sack Gosh at the time, but Khartoum
political circles widely speculated the former chief was
suspected of plotting against Bashir.
A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable from 2008 quoted a government
official as saying Gosh had mused about the possibility an
International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Bashir could
lead some to try to replace the president.
“Conspiracy and plotting is like breathing in Sudan,” the
cable noted.
Gosh had been appointed presidential adviser on security
affairs, but was also removed from that position last year.
Western rights groups have accused Gosh of complicity in
abuses in the country’s Darfur region, which has endured a
nearly decade-old insurgency.
But while the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Bashir and
other officials on charges of war crimes in Darfur, Gosh has
never been indicted.
The former spy chief is also described by historians and
analysts as a key interlocutor with U.S. officials when Sudan
was cooperating with the United States by providing information
on al Qaeda in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks.
