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From sudaneseonline.com Latest News
Bashir's party raises doubts on south Sudan referendum Most southerners are expected to back independence President Omar al-Bashir's party has said the referendum on whether south Sudan should secede cannot take place until the internal border is decided. A vote on a possible new country without a clear border would be a recipe for a new war, the NCP says. But the former rebels in charge of the south have angrily dismissed linking the two issues. The SPLM fought the north for two decades before a 2005 peace deal which paved the way for January's referendum. The BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says some in the south see the National Congress Party's statement as an attempt to delay the vote, or possibly to press the SPLM to back down over areas in dispute. He says there are several areas of dispute about the boundary, including near lucrative oil fields. The two parties are officially in coalition but tension is growing ahead of the referendum. Both north and south have accused the other of delaying the demarcation process.  A senior NCP official, Ibrahim Ghandour, told the BBC he did not want Sudan to follow the example of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1991, but the two countries are still arguing and have fought over the precise border. Southern minister Barnaba Benjamin told the BBC that linking the border issue with the referendum was "illogical and unacceptable". He agreed that the border must be demarcated but said if this was not done by January, the referendum should still be held as planned. A majority of southerners, who are mostly Christians or followers of traditional religions, is expected to vote for independence from the mainly Muslim and Arabic-speaking north. © Copyright by sudaneseonline.com |