Sudan’s Parliament Is Disbanded; Emergency Declared

The president dissolved parliament on Sunday and declared a three-month state of emergency.

The moves, to take effect today, apparently were part of a struggle within Sudan’s leadership and came as parliament considers amendments to the country’s constitution that would have curbed the powers of the president.

“There are dangers against the country from abroad, and internal problems that will aggravate the country’s problems will not be allowed,” Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir said on state-run television. The president said he was declaring a state of emergency “to preserve the unity of the country and its coherence.”

Bashir did not provide details on what the state of emergency would include, and said he would later issue presidential decrees clarifying the move.

Sudanese television reported that Bashir had decreed that parliament will be dissolved as of today and voters will be asked to elect a new parliament once the nation’s Public Elections Committee sets a date.

The president said Sudan is facing “challenges” in a U.S. law allowing rebels in southern Sudan to receive food aid--a provision U.S. officials say President Clinton has yet to decide whether to implement--and a spate of attacks on oil pipelines.

“With all these challenges, God gave us another test on our internal front, which is a dispute in the state’s departments and dualism in the public institutions,” Bashir said.

Though Bashir was not specific in his statement, the declaration may have stemmed from recent friction between Bashir and Sudan’s powerful parliament speaker, Hassan Turabi. Over the last year, many of Bashir’s powers have been transferred to Turabi.

Bashir came to power in a 1989 military coup that was sponsored by Turabi and his now defunct National Islamic Front. Even though Bashir became president, Turabi remained the regime’s ideologue and strongman.

The two men also disagree on how best to handle efforts at reconciliation with opposition groups.

Sudan has been caught in a 16-year civil war between the Islamic government in the north and largely Christian rebels in the south.