December 21, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir has laid the groundwork for a “new Taliban state” through his speech in which he declared that after the secession of the South, the North will adopt a full Islamic constitution which would also make Arabic the official language, an opposition leader said today.
“If god forbids, the South separates [then] the constitution will be amended [and] a lot of things relating to the South will go away,” Bashir said last Sunday.
“But the opaque talk [about] the Sudanese people I don’t know what…is multi-racial and multi-religious, the [Islamic] Shari’a will be the main source for lawmaking….and Arabic language will the official language of the state as will be stipulated in the upcoming constitution,” Bashir added.
The largely Christian and animist south is to vote on January 9 on whether to remain united with the Muslim north or break away to form an independent country.
The referendum is the key plank of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) deal that put an end to two decades of civil war between north and south. Mubarak Al-Fadil who leads the Umma Reform and Renewal Party (URRP) said that Bashir’s speech reflects “bankruptcy that brings us back to square one”.
“There was never any Sharia’a to start with. Their religious slogans were purely for tactical purposes and not strategic. The National Congress Party is just using religion to support the police state and step up the oppression of the population” Al-Fadil told Sudan Tribune.
The URRP leader said that Bashir wants to deflect accusations from voices in the North that under his rule the country has split into two.
“Al-Bashir is a military man who swore an oath to preserve the territorial integrity of Sudan and now he has to let the South go away. He cannot swallow that” he added.
Al-Fadil, who was one of Bashir’s challengers in April presidential elections, said that the NCP is concerned over a possible uprising should the economic situation in the North deteriorate because of losing oilfields in the South after secession.
The separation of Sudan into a two states will deny the North billions of dollars in revenue generating from vast oilfields in the south of the country. Currently the North and the South are splitting the proceeds of crude in accordance with the CPA.
About 75 per cent of Sudan’s proven reserves of 6.3bn barrels are in the south but the pipeline that carries the oil to export terminals and refineries runs through the north.
“As it stands now there is lot of injustice, corruption, unemployment. widening gap between rich and poor, soaring food prices, agricultural sector has collapsed. The NCP has devoted most of the money for security and political functions,” he said.
“So when the government no longer has the amount of cash it received through oil it will fear social unrest so they will have to resort to force to suppress any dissent. They will use Sharia’a as cover for these measures,” Al-Fadil added.
He slammed Bashir’s talk on the irrelevance of cultural and ethnic diversity in the post-secession Sudan.
“Sudan will remain diverse even after the South becomes an independent state. There are tribes in the North, East and West that do not speak Arabic and have their own language. There are also Southerners in the North who we expect that they will continue to live with us. This will be the only hope that even after the South’s separation we can both come back as one country,” Al-Fadil said.
In recent months NCP officials have made remarks saying that Southerners in the North will be immediately stripped of their citizenship rights after the referendum outcome points towards secession.
But Al-Fadil argued that this would be a violation to the constitution.
“The Sudanese constitution since 1998 recognizes dual citizenship. There are many ministers in the cabinet with European and American passports. So why should Southerners be denied this right?” he said.
The opposition figure also warned the NCP against going ahead with seeking to implement Sharia’a law. The current constitution recognizes the “multi-ethnic,” “multi-cultural” and “multi-faith” status of the Sudanese state, and is based on both Shari’a, or Islamic law, and the “consensus” of the population.
“We are for a citizenship state that forms the basis for rights rather than religion. We strongly oppose a religious state. There is not even a universal agreement among Muslims on Sharia’a law. There are multiple views on this subject between extremists and the moderates,” Al-Fadil said.
He said that one of the messages Bashir wanted to send is to the West warning that North Sudan will move towards extremism if the South breaks away. The Sudanese leader this week accused the West of encouraging secessionist sentiments in the South.
In the 1990’s Sudan housed a number of Islamic militant groups and Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. In 1993, the U.S. placed Sudan on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
(ST)