Crackdown on rebels after oil pipeline attack

Prosecutor-General Abdel Nasr Wonan has formally asked Egypt to extradite NDA military chief Abdel Aziz Khalid - in addition to spokesman Abdel Rahman Said, whose extradition Sudan had previously requested - on terrorism charges related to the 19 September rebel bombing of Sudan’s new oil pipeline near Atbara, responsibility for which was claimed by the NDA, the official SUNA news agency reported on Tuesday. Security forces were also reported to have searched the Sudanese homes of resident and exiled opposition Umma Party leaders in connection with the pipeline blast, including that of party leader and former prime minister al-Mahdi. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail also asked the international community during his address to the UN General Assembly last week to take punitive action against SPLM leader John Garang, similar to the sanctions against UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi in Angola, in order to pressure him into “meaningful participation” in the peace process. He said Sudan was committed to a comprehensive ceasefire in all parts of southern Sudan “for humanitarian reasons and to prepare the atmosphere for peace talks”, and hoped other parties would respond so that “the process of separation of the forces and monitoring of the ceasefire could begin”, Sudanese national radio reported.