Sudan extends cease fire, problems with new law says opposition

The Lifeline Sudan organization, which coordinates the work of humanitarian organizations in southern Sudan, has announced that the Sudanese government decided to extend a cease fire in Bahr al-Ghazal district in Southern Sudan for three months.

In the middle of last July, both Khartoum and the rebels of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army announced a three-month cease fire.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese Cabinet has endorsed a draft law that provides for permitting party pluralism in the country. The newly enacted law is expected to be enforced by the beginning of January next year. The proposed draft law bans any person ever condemned of the charges of "treason or resorting to force or violence against the constitutional system or the public orders for political reasons and other social reasons to become a chairman of a political organization."

An official at the opposition Nation's (Ummah) Party, Salah Abdul Salam, said that his party "categorically refuses" this draft law which is built on an "already rejected constitution" by the opposition.

All political parties have been banned in Sudan since President Omar Hassan al-Bashir assumed power following a coupe in 1989. The new Sudanese constitution, approved last June, recognized vaguely citizens' rights to form political parties.