Mahdi calls for self-determination

Former Sudanese Prime Minister Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, on Monday called on the Egyptian and Libyan governments to support self-determination for the south in efforts to end Sudan’s 18-year civil war, AFP said. Mahdi, head of the northern opposition Ummah Party and deposed as prime minister by President Umar al-Bashir in a 1989 coup, was quoted as saying that denying southern Sudanese the right to self-determination would only harden opposition to unity with the north, and increase demands for immediate separation of the south. Despite accepting the joint Egyptian-Libyan peace proposal in June, senior members of the opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance have reportedly refused to negotiate under the joint initiative unless it incorporates a number of controversial amendments, including self-determination for the south and separation of religion and state. Bashir was quoted as saying by the Sudanese newspaper ‘Al-Ra’y al-Amm’ on 18 August that the principle of separating religion from state was nothing more than a “slogan”. “We are saying it in a loud voice: ‘no’ to secularism,” he said.