KHARTOUM, (Islamweb & Agencies) -Visiting Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi announced Wednesday his intention of creating a fund for the rehabilitation of southern Sudan, which has been torn by an 18-year civil war.
During a meeting with Sudanese officials in Khartoum, Kadhafi pledged Libya would be the first contributor to the fund and said he would urge other African countries to contribute.
"Experts will in the near future be sent to southern Sudan via Uganda to explore fields of investment there," Kadhafi said.
Kadhafi, who arrived in Khartoum Tuesday for talks on the Egyptian-Libyan initiative aimed at restoring peace in Africa's largest country, told his Sudanese counterpart Omar el-Beshir that there was "a foreign conspiracy" aimed at continuing the civil war in south Sudan.
The Libyan leader and leading advocate of African unity described it as "an imperialist programme for weakening Sudan and the African continent by instigating wars and conflicts."
John Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Army, the rebel force in the mainly animist and Christian south, has been fighting successive Arab and Muslim governments in Khartoum since 1983.
Kadhafi vowed to find a solution to the southern Sudanese problem "during this transitional year of the African Union," and urged southern politicians to assist him in this matter.
The Libyan leader said he had discussed proposals to that effect with Kenyan, Ugandan and Nigerian leaders during his recent African tour.
"All those leaders have have expressed their oppostion to the war and have blamed (rebel leader) John Garang for insisting on continuing the war," Kadhafi said.
He also voiced his opposition to the right for self-determination that the National Democratic Alliance, an umbrella grouping for the SPLA and northern opposition have been pushing for and want to include in a revised version of the joint peace initiative.
But the Libyan leader also criticised Khartoum for using "provocative" calls to Jihad (just war) against the rebels and slammed the government's attempts to impose Arabic language and Islam in the south by force.
"I say on behalf of Garang that Arabic and Islam cannot be imposed with tanks and fighter-bomber planes," said Kadhafi who met with the rebel leader in Kampala Monday.
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Mu'ammar Gaddafi was born in the desert near Sirte in 1942. He overthrew the monarchy in 1969 and launched a cultural revolution to remove traces of imported ideology. He has supported a broad range of militant groups including the IRA and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Alleged Libyan involvement in attacks in Europe in 1986 led to US military strikes against Tripoli. For several decades he tried to portray himself as leader of the Arab world, and has now taken up the mission of uniting Africa. (BBC: Country Profiles).