Word: nimeiri
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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...
...When Nimeiri was ousted in a bloodless coup last year by his Defense Minister, Abdul Rahman Suwar al Dahab, it seemed peace might be restored. But before long, the fighting resumed. In May the first national election since 1968 brought to power Sadiq el Mahdi, leader of the moderate Muslim Umma Party. Making peace his top priority, the Oxford-educated Sadiq lost no time in arranging a meeting in Ethiopia with Garang, who holds a doctorate in agricultural economics from Iowa State. Yet the two leaders could not concur on terms for a cease-fire. Last week Sadiq agreed...
...forces, supported, the rebels claimed, by 13,000 Libyan troops gathered on the border. Though Sadiq denies any ties to Tripoli, there seems little doubt that he is drifting politically leftward. In early August the new Prime Minister visited Libya, which had been an enemy of the pro-American Nimeiri, and later he traveled to Moscow. Said Information Minister Mohammed Tewfiq Ahmed: "We cannot afford to have bad relations with any of the superpowers. In the past the Soviets built some hospitals and factories. If they can help with agriculture, education and health facilities, we don't want...
...neither side has shown much interest in a negotiated settlement. That stirs uneasy memories of the 17-year civil war, in which 500,000 people were killed, and the failure of the last democratically elected civilian government to resolve the conflict. The result: the 1969 military coup that brought Nimeiri to power...