US to ensure that South Sudan conducts referendum in January 2011 – Envoy
By James Gatdet Dak
August 19, 2009 (JUBA) – The United States Special Envoy to Sudan said his country works to make sure that the people of Southern Sudan shall exercise their right to self-determination in an internationally monitored referendum in January 2011 as stipulated in the North-South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
The Envoy, Scott Gration, made the remarks during his meeting on Wednesday in Juba with the Government of Southern Sudan’s Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar Teny.
The two partners to the CPA have been locked in endless dialogue over the referendum law that would pave the way for the conduct of the referendum.
The speaker of Sudan’s National Assembly Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Tahir said earlier that his parliament would not facilitate secession through a law.
The SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum warned that the people of Southern Sudan would be forced to declare independence unilaterally if the referendum law is not enacted.
On Tuesday after the meeting of the SPLM Political Bureau, Amum told the press that the party agreed to be prudent and rational in its relations with the National Congress Party until the run of 2011 referendum on Southern Sudan self-determination.
On the sanctions, Gration also said his statement over the future of sanctions his government imposed on Sudan since 1997 was also misinterpreted in the media.
“What I said was the need to unwind sanctions that hurt development in the South,” he told the Vice President.
The Envoy however stressed the need for a good relationship between Washington and Khartoum similarly as enjoyed by Washington and Juba in order to help effect positive change in resolving the Darfur conflict, implementing the North-South peace deal as well as resolving on other challenges in the other parts of the country.
Dr. Machar expressed the need for the ruling party in the South, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the American government to engage in bilateral discussions on the issue of unwinding some of the sanctions imposed on Khartoum.
“We need to discuss with the US what is it [items that hurt the South] that should be unwound in the sanctions,” he said, adding that it should be conducted outside of the trilateral talks involving the NCP.
He however said the SPLM would like to see a prosperous Sudan without sanctions but expressed concern that Khartoum would abuse the good initiative of the US government.
He explained that the attitude of the dominant party in the North; the National Congress Party (NCP) has been that of “taking in and not giving out” on issues of peace and democratic transformation in the nation.
Dr. Machar further explained that NCP is reluctant to enact laws that would make democratic transformation possible as well as the referenda laws for Southern Sudan and Abyei and for popular consultations in the Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile regions.
The US Envoy said he understood the need to be cautious in the US approach towards Khartoum.
Dr. Machar also said the SPLM’s approach towards ending the conflict in Darfur is through unifying the warring factions in Darfur and engaging the government in peaceful dialogue.
They also discussed the need for assistance from the US government towards strengthening law enforcement agencies such as the police in the South in order to effectively deal with the mounting insecurity in the region.
Machar and Gration also discussed the issue of corruption in Southern Sudan. The fight against corruption, he explained, has been stepped up by empowering the anti-corruption body with the necessary teeth in the South to prosecute any official found to have involved in the practice.
(ST)