From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Aug 25 2009 - 17:14:18 EDT
South Sudan says Khartoum is reneging on CPA deal
Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:04pm GMT
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A southern Sudanese government official accused the
Khartoum government on Tuesday of trying to sabotage the right of south
Sudan's people to self-determination through a referendum.
Deng Ajack, the south's minister for cooperation, said the north's National
Congress Party (NCP) was trying to undermine the terms of the 2005 peace
deal that ended a 22-year war between Sudan's Muslim north and mostly
Christian south.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) provides for a January 2011
referendum in southern Sudan on whether its people want an independent
country.
"The Government of South Sudan (GOSS) would like to express its deep concern
at the danger coming to Sudan as a result of the NCP's dangerous attempt to
sabotage and betray the right of the people of south Sudan to
self-determination," Ajack told a meeting of the African Union's (AU) Peace
and Security Council.
"GOSS and south Sudan's people will not entertain any delay of the
referendum ... which is a clear violation of the CPA."
He gave no details, except to say that the "signals" coming from the NCP
were that it was trying to renege on the deal.
Ramatane Lamamra, AU commissioner for peace and security, said the
implementation of the CPA was crucial for the stability of Sudan and the
wider region, and he urged both governments to work together on all issues.
Northern and southern Sudan fought each other for more than two decades in a
civil war that was fuelled by a mixture of religion, ideology, oil and
ethnicity. The conflict is separate from the fighting in Sudan's western
Darfur region.
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