200809152086 | Powerful minister loses job

Powerful minister loses job

Khartoum - Pagan Amum, a powerful south Sudanese politician has lost his Cabinet position in a reshuffle on Sunday, state media has reported. Pagan, who is Secretary General of south Sudan's dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), was "relieved of his post" as Minister of the Council of Ministers in Sudan's national coalition government, the state Suna news agency said. SPLM officials said the move was as the result of a new party constitution that meant members of its governing secretariat could not stand for Parliament.

"He was not fired," said Ann Ito, the head of SPLM's secretariat in the south. "It is just the new SPLM constitution." A source in Sudan's presidential office confirmed that the move had just been "procedural".

The announcement is likely to be welcomed by many northern politicians who were enraged when Amum was quoted describing Sudan as a "failed and corrupt state" during a public forum in Khartoum earlier this year. He was briefly suspended and faced calls for his resignation.