Non-Muslims in Khartoum should be exempt from Islamic law: Garang

CAIRO, April 15 (AFP) — Sudan’s southern rebel chief John Garang has insisted that Islamic Sharia law should not be applied on the non-Muslim residents of Khartoum, an Egyptian newspaper quoted him as saying Thursday.

“Islamic Sharia law will not be applied on non-Muslims, neither in the south, nor in Khartoum or the north,” Garang, who heads the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) told the Al-Ahram daily in an interview.

He said the issue was the main stumbling block to a peace agreement under discussion in Kenya with the Islamist regime ruling the Arab north. “We have reached an agreement on most problems,” he said.

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Tuesday insisted that Khartoum “will have only one legislation.”

The government and the SPLA are holding talks in Naivasha, Kenya to end the 21-year southern rebellion, Africa’s longest armed conflict, which has claimed at least 1.5 million people and displaced four million others.

The two sides have already struck a deal to grant the mainly Christian and animist south the right to a referendum on whether to secede, after a six-year period of self-rule, and an agreement on a 50-50 split of the country’s wealth — particularly revenues from oil.