With peace, a new currency for south Sudan
RUMBEK, Sudan, July 19 (AFP) — When peace accords ending 21 years of conflict between northern and southern Sudan finally do go into effect, any peace dividend is likely to be paid out in a new currency, the New Sudan Pound.
Under the provisions of the July 2002 accords signed, and still being negotiated, between Sudan’s Muslim, Arab north and its animist Christian south, the south of Sudan will benefit from a six-year interim period of autonomy before its citizens vote on whether or not to remain part of Sudan.
Along with its own flag, license plates and a system of collecting taxes, the New Sudan, as it is often referred to, will also dispose of its own currency, the New Sudan Pound or NSP.
“It is a sign of liberty for southern Sudan,” said an employee of the Nile Commercial Bank in Rumbek.
“Hundred and two hundred notes of the NSP have already been printed and 10, 20 and 50 NSP coins are ready,” said Samson Arap, manager of the bank.
Currently, transactions in the southern part of the country are conducted in Kenyan and Ugandan shillings and American dollars, but never in the Sudan dinar, the legal tender of the northern part of the country.
Very few countries allow the circulation of more than one currency, the very symbol of national sovereignty.
“We are going to be like China,” said Arap, explaining that the Hong Kong and Taiwanese dollars and the Chinese yuan are all accepted currencies in the world’s largest country.
The Nile Commercial Bank opened its doors in Rumbek on May 30, the first bank to conduct operations in this ruined city since 1986. Rumbek is likely to become the capital of the autonomous southern Sudan.
So far the bank has no computers, telephone lines or electricity, but 60 people have opened an account here.
The war in Sudan erupted in 1983 when southern-based rebels, the Popular Army for the Liberation of Sudan (SPLA), rose up against the capital, Khartoum, to end Arab and Muslim domination and marginalisation of the black, animist and Christian south.
Together with famine and disease, the conflict has claimed at least 1.5 million people and displaced four million others.
On July 19 the Sudanese government and rebels, meeting for peace talks in Nairobi, said they would continue negotiating until a comprehensive ceasefire to end Africa’s longest conflict is clinched.
The accords between the north and south do not cover a separate conflict raging in the western Sudan region of Darfur, which erupted in February 2003 when black African tribes rose up against the same Sudanese government, to fight marginalisation.