South Sudan organizes peaceful procession in support of President Kiir’s UN address
By Julius N. Uma
September 23, 2010 (JUBA) — A peaceful referendum procession has been organized for Juba and other parts of Southern Sudan as citizens show solidarity in full support of their President Salva Kiir, due to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“We need to appreciate the tremendous contributions of these various partners who contributed towards making the CPA [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] a reality as well as monitoring its implementation up to this stage,” Atem Peter, the Chairperson of Jibu Referendum, a civil society organization told Sudan Tribune on Wednesday.
The highly-anticipated special summit on Sudan, expected to be graced by US leader Barrack Obama, among other world leaders, is intended to send a strong signal to north and south Sudan that the world is committed to helping the latter achieve its referendum on self-determination.
Scheduled for early next year, the referendum is a key requirement within the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the accord that ended over two-decades of a bloody civil war between north and south Sudan.
Speaking ahead of today’s NY summit, Samantha Power, the White House Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs reportedly said, “The number one message is that these referendums must go off on time.”
The US, according to Power, remains committed to ensuring that the 2011 referendum is peaceful, and that it must reflect the will of the people of south Sudan.
On Wednesday, members of the southern-ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) were locked up in a closed door meeting as they drafted the party’s position paper that they will present to the UN, non-governmental organizations, diplomatic mission offices and the media.
Efforts to get a comment from Achuil Manith Banggol, a Secretary at the SPLM Southern Sector on details of the party’s paper were futile as he did not pick our phone calls.
However, a highly placed source who attended the meeting hinted that the party took a stand by declaring that whatever will be said by President Kiir at the summit remains the official position of the SPLM and its supporters worldwide.
“Yes, ours is a done deal which required very little contemplation. We took a stand as a party and that remains our official position put on a paper to be delivered to members of the international community,” the source, who preferred anonymity said on Wednesday.
VIEWS FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
David De Dau, the Executive Director of Agency for Independent Media (AIM) lauded peaceful referendum, but appealed to the Government of National Unity, Government of Southern Sudan, armed groups and the international community to respect the referendum results despite whatever options South Sudanese choose.
The Chief Coordinator of Southern Sudan Civic Education Organization, Lokulenge Lole on the other hand urged members of the international community to keep a close watch in the run-up to the referendum, saying the Khartoum-based regimes always employed ‘sinister motives’ to sabotage the process.
(ST)