Sharia law for the north post referendum – presidentSudan’s president has vowed to more deeply entrench strict Islamic Sharia law in the northern half of his country if the predominantly animist and Christian south votes to secede in a Jan. 9 referendum.
President Omar al-Bashir’s comments on Sunday appear to reflect his anger at the strong likelihood that the south will vote overwhelmingly in favor of independence from the mainly Arab and Muslim north in the long-awaited referendum. The vote is a key provision agreed on in the 2005 peace accord that officially ended more than two decades of north-south civil war.
Al-Bashir will meet the leaders of Sudan’s two most powerful neighbors – Egypt and Libya – in the capital Khartoum Tuesday to discuss the future of his country ahead of the referendum. Al-Bashir is wanted on an international indictment for war crimes in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.
With only three weeks left before the vote, al-Bashir appears to be resigned to the secession of the south and also prepared to do away with key provisions of the 2005 peace accord that recognizes Sudan’s ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity.
Full Washington Post report at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/20/AR2010122001001.html?wprss=rss_religion/wires