Egypt Makes Strong Plea for Sudan Unity
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Mubarak is worried about the consequences of dividing Sudan |
CAIRO,
August 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak Thursday, August 1, sent a strong message to his Sudanese
counterpart Omar el-Beshir to preserve Sudan’s unity while pursuing
a peace deal allowing for self-determination in the south.
“Egypt
stands firmly behind Sudan’s unity,” Mubarak was quoted as saying
in a message to Beshir through visiting Sudanese Information Minister
Mahdi Ibrahim, according to Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
“Egypt
supports this unity in the context of one country in which all people
have their own rights and enjoy the fruits of national wealth,”
Mubarak was quoted as telling Ibrahim.
“Mubarak
had asked the Sudanese information minister to transmit this strong
and clear position to President Beshir,” Maher said at a press
conference with Ibrahim following their meeting with Mubarak.
The
message comes amid reports of Egyptian concern at the Machakos
protocol signed between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan
People's Liberation Army (SPLA).
Under
the terms of the protocol signed in Kenya on July 20, southern Sudan
will be granted a six-year period of administrative autonomy and will
not be subject to the Islamic law applied in the Arab north.
At
the end of the six years, the animists and Christians who form a
majority in the south, along with a Muslim minority, will decide in a
referendum if they wish to remain part of Sudan or secede.
Beshir
sent Ibrahim to brief Mubarak on the peace process.
Egypt
fears that the creation of a new state would increase competition for
the Nile waters as well as make it easier for Islamists to dominate
northern Sudan, which could be a security threat for Egypt’s secular
government, diplomats and analysts say.
The
war, which began in 1983, and related famine have killed up to 1.5
million people and displaced more than four million others, according
to humanitarian sources.
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