The World - News from April 17, 1985

Southern Sudanese rebel representatives opened talks with the new regime on representation in a proposed civilian government. However, a southern leader, Samuel abu Bol, said the region will not accept a continuation of controversial Islamic law unless flogging and maiming are abolished as punishments. “We consider the cutting off of limbs and flogging inhuman and a declaration of hostility,” he said. The northern Sudan is Islamic while the south is predominantly Christian and animist. The southerners are insisting that the new regime accept the south as an autonomous region federated with the north, Abu Bol said.