URGENT: US PPI declines by 0.2% in May    Egypt secures $130m in non-refundable USAID grants    HSBC named Egypt's Best Bank for Diversity, Inclusion by Euromoney    Singapore offers refiners carbon tax rebates for '24, '25    Egypt's CBE offers EGP 4b zero coupon t-bonds    G7 agrees on $50b Ukraine loan from frozen Russian assets    EU dairy faces China tariff threat    Over 12,000 Egyptian pilgrims receive medical care during Hajj: Health Ministry    Egypt's rise as global logistics hub takes centre stage at New Development Bank Seminar    Blinken addresses Hamas ceasefire counterproposal, future governance plans for Gaza    MSMEDA, EABA sign MoU to offer new marketing opportunities for Egyptian SMEs in Africa    Egypt's President Al-Sisi, Equatorial Guinea's Vice President discuss bilateral cooperation, regional Issues    Egypt's Higher Education Minister pledges deeper cooperation with BRICS at Kazan Summit    Gaza death toll rises to 37,164, injuries hit 84,832 amid ongoing Israeli attacks    Egypt's Water Research, Space Agencies join forces to tackle water challenges    BRICS Skate Cup: Skateboarders from Egypt, 22 nations gather in Russia    Pharaohs Edge Out Burkina Faso in World Cup qualifiers Thriller    Egypt's EDA, Zambia sign collaboration pact    Madinaty Sports Club hosts successful 4th Qadya MMA Championship    Amwal Al Ghad Awards 2024 announces Entrepreneurs of the Year    Egyptian President asks Madbouly to form new government, outlines priorities    Egypt's President assigns Madbouly to form new government    Egypt and Tanzania discuss water cooperation    Grand Egyptian Museum opening: Madbouly reviews final preparations    Madinaty's inaugural Skydiving event boosts sports tourism appeal    Tunisia's President Saied reshuffles cabinet amidst political tension    Instagram Celebrates African Women in 'Made by Africa, Loved by the World' 2024 Campaign    Egypt to build 58 hospitals by '25    Swiss freeze on Russian assets dwindles to $6.36b in '23    Egyptian public, private sectors off on Apr 25 marking Sinai Liberation    Debt swaps could unlock $100b for climate action    Financial literacy becomes extremely important – EGX official    Euro area annual inflation up to 2.9% – Eurostat    BYD، Brazil's Sigma Lithium JV likely    UNESCO celebrates World Arabic Language Day    Motaz Azaiza mural in Manchester tribute to Palestinian journalists    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Security Council visit leaves Sudan on track for division
Published in Daily News Egypt on 10 - 10 - 2010

KHARTOUM: Sudan remains on course to break up next year after the UN Security Council put new pressure on the government over a self-determination referendum, but the major powers are still fretting over how to avoid conflict.
Council ambassadors spent four days testing independence fever on the red dust roads of South Sudan and the North's opposition to the breakup of Africa's oil-rich biggest nation.
The envoys left Khartoum on Saturday having warned both sides to make sure that a January 9 self-determination referendum in the South was held on time.
The South is virtually certain to choose secession and many neighbors and western nations fear new violence if the vote is delayed.
Britain's ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said the timetable was now "extremely tight", but that if the political commitment shown by the governments in the North and South was followed up the vote could go ahead on time.
The referendum is part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended a two-decade-long North-South civil war in which two million people died.
Vote preparations are way behind schedule and tensions are high. North Sudan demonstrators and police clashed with a small group of South Sudan activists in Khartoum on Saturday as the UN envoys met Sudan's foreign minister.
The South's President Salva Kiir asked the Security Council to deploy peacekeepers along the disputed frontier before the vote when he met them in Juba last week, diplomats said. No promise was made however.
Sudan is already the country with the biggest UN peacekeeping operation.
The rival governments accuse each other of staging a military buildup on the frontier, which has still not been permanently fixed — one of "the key outstanding issues" that Lyall Grant, co-leader of the UN mission with US ambassador Susan Rice, said has to be decided for the vote to go ahead.
The Security Council also expressed concern over an "upsurge" in violence in Darfur, the western region where at least 300,000 people have been killed since 2003, according to the UN estimates.
Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti told the ambassadors his government did not want "war" over the independence vote, but that it would not accept the result if there was "interference" — a veiled warning about secession calls by the South's leaders.
Sudan has taken on added importance on the international agenda since US President Barack Obama spoke at a UN meeting on Sudan last month and said a peaceful vote must be held on time.
On top of the referendum, however, much will depend on any final accord over the frontier, the sharing of the major oil revenues and the citizenship of northerners and southerners who live on the other side of the border.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki is mediating negotiations.
"Mbeki is a kind of divorce lawyer. The North knows what the result of any referendum is going to be so it is holding out for the best deal possible," said one diplomat from one of the UN delegations.
"There seems to be some hopeful commitment by the two sides to make sure the referendum goes ahead. But the problem in the next three months will not be justing keeping the two governments on track," the diplomat added.
"The two armies, the tribes on the borders and the local politicians have all got to be restrained."
While none of the ambassadors says that the south's independence is inevitable, and all say that the result must be respected whichever way it falls, all are preparing for one likely result.
After seeing thousands of new South Sudan police being trained at an academy near the capital, Juba, last week US ambassador Rice told reporters: "All the institutions of state are literally being built from scratch."
The new recruits, many of whom have moved back from northern Sudan, were equally certain of the result.
"This is a vote for our freedom. Our fathers fought the north in the civil war, many of them died. Now this is our right," said David Diine, a former fighter in the south's rebel army and now a sergeant in the South's new police.


Clic here to read the story from its source.