AU-UN talks on Sudan begin in Ethiopia
November 6, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – Officials from the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (UN) on Saturday commenced talks at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to discuss the upcoming referenda on south Sudan independence.
North and South Sudan are deadlocked over another referendum vote due to take place at the same time in January 2011 on the future of the oil-producing central area of Abyei. The previous round of Addis Ababa talks failed to yield a consensus on this issue.
The two plebiscites are the final phase of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between north and south Sudan.
The AU commissioner for Peace and Security, Ramtane Lamamra, addressed the opening of the meeting and underlined the urgency of the tight timeframe.
“There are just 66 days to go before the referendum in southern Sudan, and nine days before the registration of the voters will begin. There is no time to waste,” he was quoted by AFP.
Sudan’s foreign minister Ali Karti is attending the meeting which is also devoted to discussing the situation in Somalia.
The chief of the UN’s peacekeeping operations, Alain Le Roy, said that the two sides needed to compromise on issues of dispute and urged the government to address the situation in the troubled region of Darfur.
“The government must commit to significant concession in the negotiation, and in the meantime implement measures inside Darfur including addressing the problem of informal militias, arbitrary arrests, excessive powers afforded under the emergency law,” Le Roy said.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki is attending the talks. Mbeki is also the head of the AU Panel on Sudan.
A large AU-UN peacekeeping mission known as UNAMID is stationed in Darfur region , where a seven –year conflict between rebels and the Sudanese government brought the region’s name to the fore of international agendas.
The UN and the AU have the largest hybrid peacekeeping operation in the world stationed in Darfur region, known as UNAMID.
(ST)
CatBlue
AU-UN talks on Sudan begin in Ethiopia
Whatever the discussion in Addis Ababa will be, I hope the outcome must be south Sudan must to separate with the Northern Sudan. Southernese people are fed up with being togather with Arabs. Southern Sudanese want independence. And this should not being rejected by any party. I wish Southern Sudanese people safe journey to referendum, ” promise land of new Sudan, a land which we expect to be a land of justice and equality, regardless of gender, tribes, and religion.