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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sun Dec 05 2010 - 16:22:13 EST
Egypt says south Sudan secession looks inevitable
Sun Dec 5, 2010 11:43am GMT
* Egypt prefers unity, would not oppose referendum delay
* Cairo worried about access to Nile waters
CAIRO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Egypt's foreign minister said a break-up of Sudan
looked inevitable because northern and southern officials had made no real
effort to keep Africa's biggest country united.
A referendum on independence for south Sudan, promised under a 2005
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended decades of civil war, is due
to take place on Jan. 9, but preparations are falling behind schedule.
[ID:nN02244501]
"Since the signing of the CPA there have not been real or serious efforts
from either side to remain together," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul
Gheit said in an interview broadcast on state TV late on Saturday.
"All indications point towards an inevitable separation," he added.
Southern leaders have been making increasingly separatist statements and
analysts say most southern Sudanese, embittered by the civil war and
perceived northern exploitation, are expected to choose independence.
The north's dominant National Congress Party, led by Sudanese President Omar
Hassan al-Bashir, is campaigning to persuade southerners to choose unity.
Disagreements remain over key issues such as security, the border and the
fate of the oil-producing Abyei region straddling north and south.
Egypt proposed a looser confederation last month as an alternative to
secession, and Aboul Gheit said Egypt would not object to a referendum delay
of several months. [ID:nNLDE6A327]
U.S. embassy documents published last week by Wikileaks showed Egypt lobbied
last year to delay the secession vote by four to six years, fearing an
independent south would fail and the division would threaten Egypt's access
to Nile water.
Wikileaks published another U.S. embassy cable from April 2009 quoting
Egypt's spy chief, Omar Suleiman, as telling Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman
of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, that "Egypt does not want a
divided Sudan".
"Egypt spoke to both sides to make unity an attractive (option) and has
tried to convince both parties to resolve their differences before the
referendum of Jan. 9", Aboul Gheit said. (Reporting by Marwa Awad, editing
by Tim Pearce)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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