Norway warns of sluggish preparations for south Sudan referendum

September 20, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – Efforts to organize south Sudan’s referendum on possible independence from the north are “too slow,” said Norway’s foreign minister yesterday, cautioning that postponing the emotive plebiscite will “send a very wrong signal.”

North and south Sudan fought decades of civil war, which ended in 2005 with a peace deal known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Under the CPA, the south was given a semi-autonomous rule with a chance to secede in a referendum scheduled to take place in January 2011.

It is widely expected that southerners, the majority of whom are ethnically Africans and Christian, will opt for secession from the Arab, Muslim-dominated north.

“The major thing about Sudan is that time is short, and that the ninth of January is a target date which we need to understand the full meaning of,” said Norway’s foreign minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which rules south Sudan, has ardently opposed any delays to the referendum date. It even threatened to declare unilateral independence if the ruling the National Congress Party in the north attempts to obstruct the referendum.

Preparations for the referendum have fallen well behind schedule due to bickering between the NCP and the SPLM over the composition of the referendum commission, the body tasked with organizing the plebiscite.

Stoere, whose country helped broker the CPA along with US and Britain, said that progress had been sluggish. He further said that the north and the south “have to do their active work of preparing for the post-referendum issues.” He stressed that the two sides need to thrash out key issues between now and January.

The NCP and the SPLM North are already engaged in talks tackling post-referendum issues, including the borders, shares of oil revenues, citizenship and foreign debts. However, the talks have made little progress so far.

Norway’s minister warned that failure in organizing the referendum would “have implications far beyond Sudan.” He declared that postponing the referendum would send a “very wrong signal.”

Civil war between north and south Sudan claimed the lives of more than 2 million people, according to estimates by humanitarian organizations.

(ST)