Sudan lifts emergency state in east after deal

KHARTOUM, Oct 22 (Reuters) Sudan has lifted the state of emergency in its eastern region and released prisoners following a peace deal signed last week, state media and eastern politicians said today.

''They lifted it two days ago,'' said Ahmed Mohamed Mokhtar, president of the east's main political Beja Congress party. ''It was not announced but we can see they have taken the police from the streets,'' he told Reuters from Port Sudan.

Police checkpoints are the most visible symbol of the state of emergency, imposed in 1999 and lifted in 2005 throughout Sudan except in the east and the remote western Darfur region.

The state-owned Sudanese Media Centre (SMC) said President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had lifted the state of emergency in the east and released political prisoners with a decree issued on Friday.

But Mokhtar said there were no eastern political prisoners because they had all been released before.

The deal eastern peace deal was signed in the Eritrean capital Asmara on October 14.

It gives the alliance of eastern parties called the Eastern Front a small degree of political representation in central government and parliament, and the largest share of local government in the east.

With no international mediation the accord received little fanfare and ended more than a decade of low-level conflict in one of Sudan's poorest regions despite being rich in resources.

Sudan's main oil pipelines -- carrying its estimated 330,000 barrels of crude production -- run to Port Sudan. And the east houses Sudan's largest gold mine.

Yet malnutrition rates in the arid area are higher than in even the most war-torn regions of the country.

Reuters DKA DB1822