NCP-SPLM meet in Cairo to discuss Sudan’s unity and Islamic Sharia’a laws

August 1, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — Delegates from Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) will meet in Cairo on Monday to discuss a number of referendum issues and ways to make unity attractive.

This is the second meeting of its kind hosted by Egypt which is seeking a formula that will enable its Southern neighbour to stay united for fears over reallocation of Nile waters and regional instability.

The NCP delegation will be headed by Sudanese presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie and SPLM by its secretary General Pagan Amum.

The minister for cabinet affairs Luka Byong told the London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper that he expects Cairo to present proposals that will discuss movement, ownership, employment and residency for citizens of North and South should the latter decide to secede.

Furthermore, Byong said that the issue of Nile water agreements and the South’s share would be discussed.

SPLM sources told the newspaper that they will reiterate their previous demands that a “voluntary unity” will come only in return for abrogating the Islamic Sharia’a laws in the country, something which the NCP has staunchly rejected in the past.

Sudan’s oil-producing south secured its own semi-autonomous government, and the referendum on whether it should split off as a separate country, in a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war with the north.

It is widely expected that the Southerners will pick secession.

(ST)