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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Oct 19 2010 - 11:55:04 EDT
Sudan minister says referendum delay may be needed
Tue Oct 19, 2010 2:29pm GMT
* Minister says security of civilians important
* Says fate of oil-rich Abyei area must be resolved first
(Edits, adds details of simultaneous referendum, Abyei votes)
By Marwa Awad
CAIRO, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Sudan's defence minister said on Tuesday a
secession referendum in the oil-producing south may have to be delayed until
border and security issues are solved.
The comments by Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein are the strongest so far from a
senior member of north Sudan's dominant National Congress Party suggesting a
delay in the Jan. 9 vote may now happen. They are certain to anger
southerners.
Africa's largest country is less than three months away from the scheduled
start of two votes -- one on whether its south should declare independence
and the other on whether the contested oil-rich area of Abyei should join
the north or south.
Both votes were promised in a 2005 peace deal ending decades of war between
north and south Sudan. The row about the timetable has raised fears Sudan
could slide back into war.
Asked if there were indications the secession vote should be delayed,
Hussein told reporters in Cairo: "According to the reality on the ground,
yes. Border issues and Abyei must be resolved within the framework of one
nation ...
"What is important is security and stability of citizens. Everything must be
sacrificed to ensure there is security and stability before the referendum
takes place."
Preparations have fallen far behind schedule and northerners and
southerners, led by the junior partner in government, the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement, are at loggerheads over key issues, such as the course
of their shared border.
Northern officials have already said it would be impossible to hold the
Abyei vote on time and they were open to a delay, an option Abyei's SPLM
administrator dismissed as "unacceptable." (Writing by Edmund Blair and
Marwa Awad; Editing by Diana Abdallah)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
South Sudanese agree on post-secession elections
Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:48pm GMT
* South political parties end unifying conference
* Agree on inclusive post-secession government
* Conference agrees both unity and secession as options
(Adds renegade commends conference, amnesty paragraphs 7-9)
KHARTOUM, Oct 18 (Reuters) - More than 20 southern Sudanese political
parties have agreed to hold a fresh census, new elections and rewrite the
constitution if the south secedes as expected in less than three months.
The five-day conference in the southern capital Juba also agreed a
broad-based, post-secession interim government would be headed by South
Sudan President Salva Kiir until new elections.
"The transitional government shall be charged...with the duty to conduct (a)
population census and general elections for a constituent assembly which
shall promulgate the permanent constitution," according to the conference's
final communique sent to Reuters on Monday.
The conference, attended by political parties, civil society and religious
groups, specified a constitutional review commission would decide the length
of the interim period before new elections if southerners voted for
secession in a Jan. 9 referendum.
If unity was the result of the vote, the communique said, the south would
ensure the region maintains representation in the national government.
The conference included southern opposition politicians in an effort to
preserve the unity of the semi-autonomous region. Kiir had previously
granted an amnesty offered to militia leaders who had been fighting the
southern government over alleged fraud in April elections.
Southern rebel leader George Athor told Reuters on Monday he welcomed the
amnesty and had sent a delegation to the conference.
"We have accepted the amnesty as a step in the right direction," he told
Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location. "We have announced
also on our side a ceasefire and we have sent a small delegation to Juba so
that we can prepare for negotiations," he added.
Other southern rebels have announced reconciliation talks with Kiir's
dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). Athor was a senior
figure in the SPLM's army before turning renegade after the April polls.
Some analysts have said southern ethnic tensions could erupt into clashes if
secession goes ahead as the loss of a common enemy in the northern
government would reveal their divisions.
During the north-south civil war, southern ethnic tensions split the
rebellion, with intra-southern violence claiming tens of thousands of lives.
The conference also agreed that the southern referendum on independence
should take place as scheduled on Jan. 9, 2011 and that both options --
unity and independence -- be given equal air time on state and private media
throughout Sudan. (Reporting by Opheera McDoom; Editing by Jon Boyle)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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