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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Feb 01 2011 - 07:57:37 EST
Sudan says accepts south secession vote-VP
Mon Jan 31, 2011 5:46pm GMT
* Sudan VP negotiated the north-south peace deal
* First official results confirm 99 pct for secession
* Abyei region, border still disputed
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Sudan's vice president said on Monday he
accepted the oil-producing south's split after the first official results
showed a 99 percent vote for independence in a referendum hoping to end a
bitter cycle of civil war.
The Jan. 9 vote culminated a 2005 north-south peace deal, which aims to put
an end to the conflict which claimed 2 million lives and destabilised much
of east Africa. The south will likely celebrate independence on July 9.
"We announce our agreement and our acceptance of the result of the
referendum announced yesterday," Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha told
reporters in the north's first reaction since the results.
"We wish our brothers in the south good luck and a fruitful future in
organising the issues surrounding the new country."
The comments end speculation that hard-line elements in the Khartoum
government would delay recognition of the referendum to garner leverage
ahead of talks on how to divide the country's assets and liabilities.
Taha negotiated the 2005 accord with southern rebel leader John Garang who
died three weeks after taking office in the coalition government formed
under the deal.
The south is now looking to the international community to recognise its
independence, which will likely happen once the final results are confirmed
next month.
"We expect this outcome to be confirmed by members of the international
community," South Sudan's President Salva Kiir said at an African Union
summit in Addis Ababa.
"We have no interest in returning to the bitterness and divisions of the
past. We desire the democratic transformation of Sudan. Today the ballot box
has triumphed over the bullet."
Observers have urged the north and south to resolve outstanding disputes
over the border -- along which much of the country's oil wealth lies -- and
the status of the central Abyei region claimed by both.
Both Taha and Kiir said on Monday they were ready to engage. "Resolution of
all outstanding issues is essential to maintaining stability and progress
throughout Sudan and the region," Kiir said, offering reassurances to
northern nomads that they will maintain grazing rights in the south post-
secession.
Sudan's civil war was fuelled by differences over oil, ethnicity, religion
and ideology.
(Additional reporting by Richard Lough and Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa)
C Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved
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