Sudan: No alternative to unity

By on October 14, 2010

Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir warned that he would not accept “an alternative to the unity” of his country, three months before a referendum on self-determination of southern Sudan that could lead to the partition the largest country in Africa.

“Unity is the choice that will prevail for the South if he has the freedom to choose. President Al-Bashir declared that the logic will lead the South to unity, and he promised a fair election, adding that the demarcation of the borders with the South was “a decisive factor in the conduct of a fair and free referendum. In September, the Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha, had stated at the UN in New York that his government favored unity, but also recognized that because of political disagreements and some delays in the voting arrangements are feared in the postponement of the poll. Moreover, in Addis Ababa, negotiations between representatives of North and South on the disputed oil region of Abyei have failed. These negotiations were held under the auspices of Ethiopia and the United States. The citizens of this region must also vote in January to decide their attachment to the North or South. A further meeting will be held, by the end of October, in Ethiopia to discuss the Abyei case in the “broadest and most comprehensive” way the adequate “arrangements” to be considered. The relationship between northerners and southerners has been strained in the run of the poll, and the president of the semi-autonomous southern Sudan, Salva Kiir, has asked the UN to deploy peacekeepers along the border.

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