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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Aug 12 2010 - 14:25:40 EDT
Commission deadlock threatens Sudan independence vote
Thu Aug 12, 2010 8:44am GMT
* South Sudan referendum commission in deadlock
* Progress needed in weeks or vote will not happen - SPLM
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Aug 12 (Reuters) - South Sudan's referendum on independence will
not happen unless a deadlock within the commission planning it is broken
within weeks, south Sudan's main ruling party said on Thursday.
Pagan Amum, Secretary-General of the former southern rebel Sudan People's
Liberation Movement (SPLM), also said unity had not been made attractive to
southerners by the northern ruling National Congress Party (NCP) since a
2005 peace deal ended Africa's longest civil war.
"The referendum commission clearly seems to have reached a deadlock in the
process of selection of the secretary-general. The commission is now
paralysed, it is not working," Amum said.
The secretary-general is the main executive position and will manage the
budget for the commission.
"If the referendum commission within the coming two weeks, if they are not
able to resolve all the issues facing them now the referendum will be
assassinated," Amum said.
The Jan. 9, 2011 plebiscite was contained in the accord that ended a civil
war between northern and southern Sudan, fought on and off since 1955. Aid
agencies estimate 2 million were killed, mostly through famine and disease,
and 4 million driven from their homes, destabilising much of east Africa.
Amum said he feared members of the commission were stalling to derail the
independence vote.
The NCP and SPLM have bickered over implementing almost every part of the
deal. Observers say the NCP is reluctant to implement it while the SPLM
often lacks the capacity to, frustrating the process and threatening a
return to conflict.
OIL REGION
Amum said southerners would vote to secede because Sudan had failed to
transform itself into an equal, democratic society as envisioned by the
peace deal.
"The Sudanese state lacks the critical ingredients for a united country
because the ... basis around which the state is founded is faulty -- this
basis cannot sustain unity and the Sudanese edifice must come down as a
result," he said.
Mainly Christian and animist former SPLM rebels fought the Islamist Khartoum
government for equal rights in a conflict fuelled by oil, ethnicity and
ideology.
Amum said postponing the vote was impossible. "The hopes and expectations
... of the people of south Sudan ... are so pinned on that date that it
would be dangerous to postpone it because the level of frustration and
disappointment would be so high for anybody to manage," he said.
The referendum should happen alongside a vote on whether to join the south
or north for the disputed central oil-producing Abyei region. But the NCP
and SPLM are in deadlock over creating that referendum commission, and the
borders of the region, decided by The Hague-based Permanent Court of
Arbitration, have yet to be demarcated on the ground.
The SPLM also accuses the NCP of helping to settle pro-unity Arab Missiriya
nomads inside the northern border, displacing the native Ngok Dinka and
hoping to influence the referendum vote, a policy the NCP denies.
"This is threatening the emergence of ethnic cleansing," Amum said, adding
the SPLM had asked the United Nations to intervene. (Editing by Janet
Lawrence)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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