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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Sep 09 2010 - 18:20:14 EDT
<http://allafrica.com/sudan/> Sudan: Remarks by Secretary Clinton at the
Council on Foreign Relations
9 September 2010
_____
document
Washington, DC - An excerpt from a question-and-answer session following a
<http://allafrica.com/stories/201009090045.html> speech by U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Council on Foreign Relations in
Washington, DC:
QUESTION: How are you, Secretary Clinton? My name is Travis Atkins. I'm an
International Affairs Fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations focusing
on Sudan this year. And my question is if - you mentioned Darfur once in
your talk - if you could elaborate a little bit on our ramped up efforts in
Sudan as we head towards the referendum there in January.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, thank you. Thanks for asking and thanks for your
work on Sudan. We have a very difficult set of challenges in Sudan. Some of
you in this audience, those of you who were in government before like John
Negroponte and others, you know this firsthand - the situation in Darfur is
dangerous, difficult, not stable.
But the situation North-South is a ticking time bomb of enormous
consequence. So we are ramping up our efforts to bring the parties together,
North and South, the African Union, others to focus on this referendum which
has not been given the attention it needs, both because the South is not
quite capable of summoning the resources to do it, and the North has been
preoccupied and is not inclined to do it because it's pretty clear what the
outcome will be. The African Union committee under Thabo Mbeki has been
working on it.
So we are upping our diplomatic and development efforts. We have increased
our presence in Juba, we have sent a - we've opened a - kind of a consulate
and sent a consul general there, we are - Princeton Lyman, whom some of you
know, is - sort of signed on to help as well with Scott Gration and his
team.
MR. HAASS: Until last week, a senior fellow here.
SECRETARY CLINTON: That's right, and Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson.
It's really all hands on deck, so that we're trying to convince the North
and South and all the other interested parties who care about the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement to weighing in to getting this done. The
timeframe is very short. Pulling together this referendum is going to be
difficult. We're going to need a lot of help from NGOs, the Carter Center,
and others who are willing to help implement the referendum.
But the real problem is what happens when the inevitable happens and the
referendum is passed and the South declares independence. So simultaneously,
we're trying to begin negotiations to work out some of those intractable
problems. What happens to the oil revenues? And if you're in the North and
all of a sudden, you think a line's going to be drawn and you're going to
lose 80 percent of the oil revenues, you're not a very enthusiastic
participant, what are the deals that can possibly be made that will limit
the potential of violence? And even if we did everything perfectly and
everyone else - the Norwegians, the Brits, everybody who is weighing in on
this - did all that they could, the reality is that this is going to be a
very hard decision for the North to accept.
And 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. So
that's what we're looking for. If you have any ideas from your study, let us
know. (Laughter.)
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