Kenya looking forward to a “free South Sudan” – envoy
October 14, 2010 (JUBA) – The former President of the Republic of Kenya, Daniel Arap Moi, said his country was looking forward to a “free south Sudan” after the January 9, 2011 referendum on self-determination.
The Kenyan envoy to Sudan made the remarks during his address to the Southern Sudan Political Parties conference on Wednesday in Juba.
“All signs clearly indicate that your people will vote for independence,” he said, urging the leaders of the southern political parties to rise above their political differences and unite for the common good of the people in the region.
Moi also advised the south’s leaders against tribalism in the region and to instead work to promote good governance.
Kenya which neighbors southern Sudan is the second of the regions neighbors to have declared its support to an independent southern Sudan this week should its people vote for secession.
The Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni recently said his country, which is to the south of southern Sudan, was willing to support Southern Sudan’s independence even if it would result to Uganda severing diplomatic relations [with some pro-unity countries].
Museveni told a visiting United Nations Security Council (UNSC) delegation last week that Kampala is willing to pay any price, including the possibility of a flare-up of insurgency and poor diplomatic relations, to ensure the secession of southern Sudan.
The Libyan leader Muammar Al-Gaddafi, warned recently that the secession of the south would encourage separatist tendencies in other parts of the continent.
Addressing the one-day Arab-African summit held in Sirte, Libya, Gaddafi described Sudan’s likely breakup as a “fever” that will spread throughout Africa.
“This is a foregone conclusion, that Sudan might become divided but this is not the important thing. It is imperative that we remain vigilant and keep in mind that this is not the end, this is the beginning… the beginning of the crack in Africa’s map,” he told the gathering, which was attended by Sudan’s President Omer Hassan al-Bashir.
Reacting to Gaddafi’s remarks, southern Sudan’s minister of information, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, told Sudan Tribune that the vote on secession of the south is “a special case,” and is required constitutionally as a legal provision in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended over two decades of armed conflict between the north and south.
“The issue of the south is a special case because it is a legal demand. This is not a demand without legal bases. It is a demand that has constitutional rights because there is a road map”, said Benjamin.
The minister pointed out the example of the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1991 saying that it had not encouraged disintegration.
“If secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia did not bring continental disintegration of Africa, why would secession of the south from the north through legal processes and procedures encourage regional disintegration if secession of the Eritrea from Ethiopia has not brought it,” asked the minister.
The self-determination referendum in southern Sudan is widely expected to result in the creation of the world’s newest state.
It was agreed in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the SPLM and the National Congress Party (NCP) governing the North.
The Arab and African leaders at the summit in Libya were reportedly in disagreement over the text of a final resolution on Sudan.
Diplomats who attended the closed session told the Saudi-owned Al-Hayat newspaper that some African heads of states wanted to include clauses supporting the separation of southern Sudan contrary to their Arab peers.
(ST)