Official undone by tight trouser crackdown

A senior official in South Sudan who ordered a crackdown on young women wearing tight trousers has been sacked, officials said Saturday.

Police arrested scores of women -- many on their way home from church -- in the capital Juba last week on charges of disturbing the peace. Officers said their choice of clothing proved they belonged to youth gangs.

Police acted after Juba county commissioner Albert Pitia Redentore banned any public display of gang behavior that, he said, threatened traditional values.

A government statement said Redentore was removed form office by President Salva Kiir Friday.

Gender minister Mary Kiden said the crackdown was unconstitutional and reminded her of the restrictions on women’s dress enforced in the Muslim north of the country.

South Sudan fought the north in a two-decade war that was partly fueled by resistance to the north’s Islamic Sharia law.