Word: gaafar
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...Gaafar Nimeiri, 79, had a tumultuous tenure as President of Sudan. After assuming power in a 1969 coup, he became an ally of the U.S. But his 1983 imposition of Islamic law stoked tensions between the country's mainly Muslim north and largely Christian south. While on a 1985 trip to the U.S. to seek aid for Sudan's sagging economy, he was ousted in a bloodless coup...
...substitute for colonialism," charging that it and other international institutions have become "tools of the rich nations to control the economies of poor nations." The fund has been particularly unpopular in Sudan, where a military coup toppled the government three weeks ago. Before his overthrow, President Gaafar Nimeiri had been unable to fashion an economic program that satisfied the IMF. As a result, aid from creditor nations was cut off, and a lack of foreign currency led to shortages of bread and petroleum. When prices of these precious commodities jumped, crowds took to the streets shouting, "We will...
...reason for the impasse was el Mahdi's refusal to lift the state of emergency imposed after the ouster of President Gaafar Nimeiri in 1985. El Mahdi also ignored demands by the predominantly Christian rebels for nullification of the Shari'a, the Islamic law that imposes harsh penalties like amputation and stoning for even minor crimes. Army officers were further angered by el Mahdi's mismanagement of Sudan's economic crisis, which has saddled Sudan with a $13 billion foreign debt...
Perhaps the most intractable of the country's troubles is the war in the south, pitting the local African population, largely Christian and animist, against the predominantly Arab Muslim government of the north. Former President Gaafar Nimeiri, who was overthrown in a popular uprising in 1985, aggravated the existing religious and racial differences by imposing a set of harsh Islamic laws that call for floggings and amputations for criminal offenses even by non-Muslims. Abolition of the laws is a key demand of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, whose antigovernment rebels control much of the rural south...
...country. Since 1983 the insurgents have violently resisted efforts of the Muslim-dominated government in Khartoum to impose its customs on the Christian and pagan south. Led by John Garang, a Christian from the Dinka tribe, the rebels have especially chafed against the "September laws" of former President Gaafar Nimeiri. Imposed in September 1983, the Islamic laws have been applied with unusual severity to all Sudanese, whatever their religion. In 1984 alone, hundreds of people, including foreigners, were given 80 lashes if liquor was detected on their breath. More than 200 others, convicted of theft, had their hands...