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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Oct 25 2010 - 17:02:58 EDT
Sudanese Envoy Warns of War if Referendum Goes Ahead in Abyei
Margaret Besheer | United Nations 25 October 2010
Sudan's U.N. ambassador is warning the country could slip back into civil
war if a referendum goes ahead in the oil-rich Abyei region in January
without consent from Khartoum. Meanwhile, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said
more international troops will not be able to prevent a return to war, only
a political settlement could accomplish that.
Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told the U.N. Security
Council that his government is committed to holding a credible, impartial
and transparent referendum on whether the south will secede from the north.
"The referendum is not an end in itself but a means leading us to
buttressing peace, stability and ideal co-existence. Not to war, which we
never accepted willingly. We accepted self-determination with a view to
ending war once and for all," he said.
In the oil-rich Abyei region, there are still numerous issues to settle
before the vote, including who is actually eligible to cast a ballot.
Ambassador Osman warned these issues must be resolved or conflict could
erupt. "It is evident that any attempt to conduct [the] plebiscite before
achieving [an] acceptable settlement by the two parties will mean only
returning to war," he said.
When the Security Council visited South Sudan earlier this month, President
Salva Kiir asked for more U.N. troops to patrol the border area between
north and south to prevent violence during the referendum.
Briefing the Security Council, U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said the
United Nations is considering several options, including increasing
peacekeepers from the U.N. mission, known as UNMIS, in high-risk zones along
the border, especially in traditional migration zones. "An option could be
to redeploy to the border troops based in other areas of south Sudan. This,
however, would weaken UNMIS's capacity to assist in the preparations for the
referendum and to provide security for the process. Another option would be
to request an increase in the number of authorized troops, and to deploy
additional contingents near identified zones - those that are identified as
sensitive," he said.
The United Nations has 10,000 troops in south Sudan, but Le Roy warned that
with even more peacekeepers, UNMIS could not prevent or contain a clash
between the armies of north and south, and he instead urged progress on
political talks to resolve outstanding issues.
In his latest report to the Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon has expressed his deep concern over election preparations being
behind schedule.
The votes scheduled for January 9 on Abyei and southern independence are key
parts of the 2005 peace agreement that ended Sudan's two-decade-long
north-south civil war.
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