South Sudan: SPLM condemns sentencing of Sudan girl to 50 lashes by a sharia court in Khartoum

From SRS - Sudan Radio Service, 30 November 2009:

(Juba) - The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement has condemned the sentencing of a sixteen-year-old southern Sudanese girl to fifty lashes by a sharia court in Khartoum.

The teenager, Selifa, was arrested last week because she was wearing a knee-length skirt.

The SPLM secretary-general, Pagan Amum, told Sudan Radio Service in Juba on Monday that the arrest is contrary to the provisions by the CPA. Southerners living in Khartoum are not supposed to be subject to sharia law. It is the interpretation of this law by the Sudanese authorities which has led to the flogging of women who are deemed to be dressed inappropriately.

[Pagan Amum]: “We in the SPLM condemn this humiliation of under-age girls and women. It is not part of Sudanese culture to beat small girls and women and it is wrong for any government to start condemning girls to 50 lashes. We say that this is wrong. It is a contravention of the peace agreement and it's against the constitution.”

Amum urged southern Sudanese in the north to report any form of humiliation or violence against them to the human rights commission in Khartoum.

In September, journalist Lubna Hussein was arrested by the public order police in Khartoum. She was charged with dressing immodestly and sentenced to be flogged with a group of southern Sudanese girls who were arrested with her.

She was imprisoned but later released after her case attracted international attention. She is currently living in France. The other girls were flogged.