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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat Nov 06 2010 - 19:11:15 EST
UN rejects south Sudan calls for peacekeepers
Sat Nov 6, 2010 10:42pm GMT
* UN rejects calls for a buffer zone
* South Sudan to vote on independence early next year
By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA, Nov 6 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Saturday rejected calls
by south Sudan to send peacekeepers and set up a buffer zone along the
country's tense north-south border ahead of a southern vote on independence
next year.
Sudan's oil-producing south is 66 days away from the scheduled start of a
politically sensitive referendum on whether to secede or stay part of Sudan,
a vote promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with
the north.
Sudan's Muslim north and its south have still not agreed on the position of
their shared border and analysts fear conflict could re-erupt in contested
zones, some of which contain oil.
"There will not be UN peacekeepers on the buffer zone, it's unrealistic,"
Alain le Roy, UN Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told
journalists shortly after concluding a meeting with representatives from the
African Union and several other countries in the Ethiopian capital.
"The common borderline is too wide and (it) is not realistic to deploy
troops," he added.
LONG WAR
Diplomats from the UN and the AU have announced that there will be months of
"intensive" talks starting with a five-day meeting in Khartoum that begins
on Sunday aimed at reaching a consensus over the contested oil region of
Abyei.
The U.N. has 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in Sudan, not counting its joint
mission with the African Union in the western province of Darfur.
Most of the 10,000 are in the south and in three former civil war battle
ground areas along the border. More than 2 million people died during the
two-decade long war between Sudan's Islamic north and the south, where most
are Christians or follow traditional religions.
Southern officials have accused Khartoum of arming militias to provoke
conflict and demonstrate the south cannot govern itself ahead of the 2011
secession poll, scheduled for Jan. 9.
Le Roy however dismissed those claims.
"We can't confirm any strong buildup from both sides. They are building up
defensive forces -- they are on a defensive posture, but we haven't seen any
buildup of an aggressive nature from either side." (Editing by Ralph
Boulton)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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