Sudan shuts anti-south newspaper: state media

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan closed a newspaper known for its harsh criticism of the country's south and censored two other dailies, editors and state media said, signalling a new crackdown before a vote on southern independence.

The Sudanese Media Centre, a news outlet with links to state security, said on its website on Tuesday that Al Intibaha newspaper had been "suspended indefinitely", without going into further details.

Editors of two other newspapers told Reuters security agents phoned late on Monday telling them to remove articles about conflicts in Sudan's oil-producing south, saying they would damage relations between Khartoum and the south.

"They said they wanted us to concentrate on the issue of unity. They said anything that might disturb the government in the south might make problems," said the editor in chief of Al- Tayyar newspaper Osman Mirghani.

Southerners are six months away from a referendum on whether they should split away as an independent nation.

The vote was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war between Sudan's north and south, and also created a semi-autonomous southern government.

Northern and southern leaders are due to start politically sensitive discussions on Saturday in Khartoum on how they would divide oil revenues and debts after the plebiscite.

Analysts say most southerners favour independence but President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has promised to campaign to persuade southerners to vote for unity.

A ban on papers criticising the south would mark a change in direction for Sudan's security which, newspapers say, has in the past focused its censorship on criticisms of Bashir and his northern National Congress Party (NCP).

A spokesperson from the south's main party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), declined to answer questions about whether the group had requested the closure.

Al Intibaha is known for its regular criticism of the south and southerners and has argued for Arab north Sudan to take the initiative and separate from the south. SPLM officials have made a series of complaints about its coverage in the past.

No one was immediately available to comment from Al Intibaha or from state security.

Bashir lifted newspaper censorship in the run up to April's elections, but newspapers have complained it has made a comeback since the poll.

"We are back to square one," said Mirghani, adding he had been forced to scrap Tuesday's print-run of Al-Tayyar because there had not been enough time to remove the offending article about tribal clashes in the south.

Editors at daily Al-Ahdath said they also received a late call from state security and pulled their Tuesday edition, which had contained an article about clashes between south Sudan's army and a renegade militia leader.