Amin said that nearly all of those arrested were southerners, despite the fact that the outpouring of anger that followed Garang’s death in a helicopter crash last Saturday sparked retaliatory attacks by northerners.

But he said his group had no firm evidence to back up complaints by southerners that they were targeted solely because they were southern.

"In situations such as this, it’s possible that there were arbitrary arrests," he said.

Some 110 people died in the capital alone in the three days of disturbances that followed Garang’s death.