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KHARTOUM, June 20 (AFP)-Libyan leader Mohammad Gadhafi has denounced Islamists as heretics and criticized all sides in Islamist-led Sudan for balking at his reconciliation bid, press and other reports said. Gadhafi made the hard-hitting statements against Islamist movements during a satellite closed circuit dialogue with students and staff of the University of Khartoum. "The Islamist movements are heretic movements that have changed and exploited Islam," Gadhafi was quoted as saying, charging, "the Islamists are the murderers in Egypt, Sudan, Algeria and Libya." He recalled that during the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. instructed its Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to recruit Muslims against the then Soviet Union "under the guise of defending Islam." "The leaders of the Islamist movements are until now being protected and financed by America," Gadhafi reportedly said. The Libyan leader blamed both the Islamist Sudanese government and the opposition for delaying their response to a reconciliation bid sponsored by his country and Egypt. "The Sudanese government has pursued a diplomacy of gaining time to divide its opponents and has not sought a quick solution," Gadhafi was quoted by Tuesday's newspapers, including Akhbar Al Youm, as saying. The Libyan-Egyptian "initiative has become a victim of procrastination and differences in viewpoints among the opposition factions," Gadhafi was quoted as saying. He noted that the situation had led to a split in the Sudanese opposition and to the northern Umma Party's withdrawal from the National Democratic Alliance umbrella. He also reprimanded the opposition Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang for failing to respond to the peace initiatives, according to the press reports. He said he was not against coordinating the Libyan-Egyptian initiative and another pursued by the African Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) "so long as both are seeking a solution to the Sudanese problem." Libya and Egypt have been trying to organize a peace conference aimed at ending a 17-year war between the Islamist government in Khartoum and southern opposition who have allied them with the northern opposition. |
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