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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Sep 08 2010 - 14:26:16 EDT
Clinton calls Sudan referendum 'ticking time-bomb'
Wed Sep 8, 2010 5:56pm GMT
* Clinton says South Sudan independence inevitable
* U.S. increases pressure on two sides to resolve disputes
* Darfur still 'dangerous, difficult, not stable' -Clinton
WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Sudan is a "ticking time-bomb" ahead of a
January vote on possible independence for the south and the international
community must redouble efforts to head off violence, U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday.
Clinton said the United States was working hard with partners to ensure the
January referendum is held peacefully, and to prepare for what she said was
the "inevitable outcome" of independence of Southern Sudan.
"The situation north/south is a ticking time-bomb of enormous consequence,"
Clinton said in response to a question after a speech on U.S. foreign policy
at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.
"The time frame is very short. Pulling together this referendum is going to
be difficult, we're going to need a lot of help," Clinton said. "But the
real problem is what happens when the inevitable happens and the referendum
is passed and the south declares independence."
Clinton said the United States had put "all hands on deck" to help with
referendum preparations, noting that former senior U.S. diplomat Princeton
Lyman had been sent to help the north and the south thrash out key issues on
sharing wealth and power.
Lyman joins the U.S. special envoy for Sudan, Scott Gration, trying to iron
out final questions ahead of the Jan. 9 vote. The plebiscite culminates the
2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended Africa's longest civil war.
Sudan's conflict claimed 2 million lives, mostly through hunger and disease,
and destabilized much of East Africa, and Clinton said the focus now was "on
deals that can possibly be made that can limit the potential for violence."
Analysts agree time is running short especially on defining the border, a
problem similar to the one that sparked conflict between neighboring Eritrea
and Ethiopia when they separated.
Most of Sudan's oil wealth is believed to lie along the disputed north-south
border, and defining the frontier has remained in deadlock for years -- an
issue which could flare again if independence appears imminent.
Activists have criticized Gration in particular for what they say is an
overly conciliatory approach to the northern government in Khartoum, and for
appearing to minimize continued violence in the western region of Darfur,
where an uprising seven years ago sparked a humanitarian catastrophe that
the United Nations said killed as many as 300,000 people.
Clinton said the United States recognized that the situation in Darfur --
where more than 2 million people sought refuge in ramshackle refugee camps
-- was "dangerous, difficult, not stable."
But she said the chief U.S. focus now was on paving the way for a smooth
separation of northern and southern Sudan, a cleaving that is expected to
split Africa's largest country and could destabilize the entire region.
"Even if we did everything perfectly ... the reality is that this is going
to be a very hard decision for the north to accept," Clinton said.
"So we've got to figure out some ways to make it worth their while to
peacefully accept an independent south and for the south to recognize that,
unless they want more years of warfare and no chance to build their own new
state they've got to make some accommodations with the north as well."
(Reporting by Andrew Quinn; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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