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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sun Aug 15 2010 - 14:55:12 EDT
INTERVIEW-S.Sudan independence vote body divided-chief
Sun Aug 15, 2010 4:13pm GMT
* Time running short for Jan. 9 south independence vote
* North-south divisions plague referendum commission
* Commission chief threatens to resign if divisions continue
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Aug 15 (Reuters) - The head of a commission organising a vote on
independence for southern Sudan said southern members were undermining
preparations by working to exclude representatives of the north from a key
post.
"If things continue like this I will just excuse myself that's all," Mohamed
Ibrahim Khalil told Reuters in an interview.
Divisions have left referendum preparations at a standstill with no schedule
to begin complex voter registration, which according to the law should have
already been completed.
Khalil said the five southerners in the nine-member commission were voting
together to block any attempt to allow any northerner to take the key post
of secretary-general, a principle he said he could not accept.
The secretary-general controls the funds and budget of the commission and
south Sudan's ruling party has warned the deadlock could derail the vote --
the climax of a 2005 landmark north-south peace deal which ended Africa's
longest civil war.
"This (commission) can only work if we can get people to be cooperative to
have mutual trust ... and to approach things objectively from a national
point, not from the point of view of north and south," the lawyer and former
foreign minister said in an interview.
"With things as they are, all resolutions would be a foregone conclusion,"
he said. "The five (southern) members are determined to vote as a block --
to me this is just not acceptable, it makes a nonsense of the whole
process."
Aid agencies estimate some 2 million people died in Sudan's north-south
conflict over oil, religion, ethnicity and ideology. The war destabilised
much of east Africa. Khalil said of the 63 positions outlined in the
Referendum Law, 59 had already been filled by southerners. He said he had
left the problem for the presidency to decide.
"I am not prepared to head a commission that works this way. With things are
they are, all resolutions would be a foregone conclusion," he said.
The former rebel turned south Sudan's ruling party Sudan People's Liberation
Movement (SPLM) blames the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) for years of
delay leaving the commission with just six months to prepare for the
emotional vote which most analysts believe will create the world's newest
nation.
The SPLM has warned if the referenudm is delayed, the southern parliament
would decide another plan for southerners to exercise their right to
self-determination. (Editing by Ralph Boulton)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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