KHARTOUM - Sudan's government has rejected a demand by the southern and northern opposition for the capital Khartoum to be ruled under secular rather than Islamic laws, an official said in remarks published Thursday. "Islamic Sharia laws in the national capital cannot be abrogated because the majority of its population that constitutes one-fifth of the country's population are Muslims," presidential peace Adviser Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani was quoted by SUNA news agency as saying.
| That's why no peace agreement is going to work in Sudan... |
The status of the capital "has already been resolved in the Machakos agreement which provided for application of Islamic Sharia in the north and Khartoum is part of the north," Atabani said. He was referring to an appeal for a secular capital made by three opposition leaders — Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani, John Garang and Sadeq al-Mahdi — in Cairo on Saturday. Garang is the leader of the southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), which has been waging a 20-year war against the Islamist government in Khartoum. Mirghani and Mahdi head two northern opposition groups. "The status of the national capital cannot be reconsidered, otherwise the entire Machakos agreement will be reconsidered," Atabani warned. The ruling National Congress (NC) party issued a statement reinforcing the government stand. "The exemption of the capital from Sharia, as suggested in the tripartite (opposition) meeting, is absolutely rejected and will hinder and take the peace process back to square one," NC secretary general Ibrahim Ahmed Omar was quoted by Al-Anbaa daily as saying. |