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."