Post-referendum negotiations continue in Juba on Monday

December 12, 2010 (JUBA) – The meeting between members from the south’s ruling SPLM and their northern counterparts the NCP on post-referendum issues will reconvene on Monday, according to communiqué from the African Union High Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP).

Currently under the mediation of the AUHIP, the meeting was reportedly adjourned on December 08, the lead panel composed of members from both parties requested for more time to deliberate on the key issues.

The questions of citizenship, national debt, security arrangements, resources (oil and water), border demarcation and international treaties, among other legal treaties currently constitute the main issues under negotiation by the two parties’ signatory to the 2005 peace accord, which gave the south the right to secede.

Thabo Mbeki, the former South African President and current chair of the AUHIP has, according to the December 11 communiqué, urged the two parties to apply themselves diligently during these negotiations, describing it as “critical” for addressing the future of the people of Sudan.

The AUHIP, however, remains optimistic that the two parties will reach a compromise on these post-referendum issues under discussion and that the panel will work closely with the parties, regardless of the outcome of South Sudan’s referendum.

South Sudan is due to hold it historic referendum on self-determination on January 09, 2011. The vote is key part of the 2005 CPA, which ended over two-decades of a bloody civil war fought between north and south.

(ST)