Sudan works with rebels for peace

Sudan works with rebels for peace

KHARTOUM (AFP): The Sudanese government and two splinter rebel factions will conclude a peace agreement shortly, yesterday's newspapers quoted parliament speaker Hassan Abdallah al Turabi as saying.

Turabi made the announcement Saturday, telling a seminar that the parties that signed a political charter last April had agreed to sign a final peace agreement "very soon," the official Al Sudan al Hadith reported.

The official Sudan News Agency said Turabi said the agreement would be signed on Thursday, a year after the charter was signed with the two rebel factions led by Riak Machar and Kerbino Kuanyen.

They broke away from the main rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), which is still fighting for freedom of the mainly Christian and animist south from the yoke of the Arabized and Moslem north.

Turabi said the peace agreement would be followed by declaration of a permanent constitution.

"The agreement will resolve all questions of rule, economy and justice, and south Sudan will...be free to choose its system of government while the constitution will guarantee freedom to all citizens without discrimination," Turabi said.

Parliament deputy Ibrahim al Sanousi said at the same seminar that the peace agreement "provides for application of Islamic Sharia (law) only in the northern states and allows for Christian and Islamic preaching in the south."

State Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told the panel that his government's foreign policy would remain based on "principles of the cultural orientation even if those principles contradicted international interests."