Kerry: Bashir is trying to impose Islamic rule in war-torn regions
US Secretary of State accuses Bashir of repressing people of South Kordofan
and Blue Nile regions, trying to impose Islamic rule on them.
26/05/2013
ADDIS ABABA - US Secretary of State John Kerry Saturday accused Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir of repressing the people of the South Kordofan and
Blue Nile regions and trying to impose Islamic rule on them.
In both regions "you have people who for a long time have felt that they
want their secular governance and identity respected," Kerry told reporters
on the sidelines of an African Union summit.
The US top diplomat insisted people in the war-torn areas -- where rebels
are battling government troops -- did not want independence or to "break
away from Sudan."
"Unfortunately President Bashir is trying to press on them through
authoritarian means and through violence an adherence to a standard that
they simply don't want to accept with respect to Islamic" law, Kerry added.
Khartoum was also showing "a rigidity with respect to their identity", he
said.
"So that's the fundamental clash, and what is critical here in my judgment
is for President Bashir to respect what the people in South Kordofan and
Blue Nile are trying to achieve," Kerry said.
But speaking ahead of talks in Addis Ababa with the Sudanese Foreign
Minister Ali Ahmad Karti, Kerry also acknowledged that South Sudan's alleged
support for the SPLM-North rebels fighting in the two regions worried Sudan.
South Sudan separated from Sudan in 2011 after decades of bloody civil war,
but still unsettled issues over border areas and oil have continued to flare
into clashes.
Kerry announced after talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam
Desalegn that he would soon appoint a new US envoy to Sudan and South Sudan
to replace Princeton Lyman.
"I think North and South are in a very delicate place right now.... It is
important to build on the peace process, and build on the independence of
the young state and put the focus and energy on the people and developing
the future and not fighting the issues of the past," he said.
South Kordofan is part of Sudan but its people fought alongside the now
independent South Sudanese army during the 1983-2005 civil war.
More than 200,000 people have fled the war zone for South Sudan and Ethiopia
as refugees, while an estimated one million more have been affected inside
South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where renewed fighting broke out nearly two
years ago.
Kerry also called for all residents of the flashpoint zone of Abyei, which
straddles the border between Sudan and South Sudan, to be allowed to vote in
a long-delayed referendum.
Abyei's status is the most sensitive issue left unsettled by the peace
treaty between the two states.
The territory was to hold a referendum in January 2011 on whether it
belonged with Sudan or South Sudan, but disagreement on who could vote
stalled the ballot.
"Abyei presents a special challenge and I think we agree that it is critical
that Abyei be able to have a referendum," Kerry said.
Kerry to Bashir: Respect what people are trying to achieve
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Received on Sun May 26 2013 - 17:16:22 EDT
