NCP ready to accept referendum outcome, says Sudan’s Bashir
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
December 14, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – As Sudan nears a referendum on southern independence, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir says that his ruling National Congress Party (NCP) is prepared to peacefully accept the outcome regardless of the result.
Southern Sudanese are slated due to vote on January 9, 2011 on whether the south will secede to create a new state or remains in a united Sudan.
The Sudanese president made the remarks while addressing international delegates, diplomats and African leaders gathered in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for the 5th international conference on Federalism – which kicked-off late on Monday.
“We are committed to accept the results whether the vote leads to unity or secession as long as the referendum is conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner,” said Bashir.
For over two decades southern rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), fought various Khartoum governments – including the NCP since 1989 – over religion, identity, resources (oil and water) and economic and political marginalization until a peace deal was reached in 2005.
The SPLM has shared power and south Sudan’s oil wealth with the NCP in a Government of National of Unity. Despite the deal relations between the peace partners has remained acrimonious, mainly over the delayed implementation over many key parts to the agreement including demarcating the north-south border and conducting a referendum in the contested oil-producing region of Abyei.
Failure to establish a commission to conduct the plebiscite, originally scheduled to take place parallel to the southern vote, or agree or will be allowed to participate in the vote have raised fears that the dispute of the border area could bring the two side back into conflict.
The NCP are campaigning for a vote for unity, whereas their southern counterpart the SPLM has recently begun calling for a vote for independence.
“In Sudan, we are still awaiting the unity of our country in accordance with the stipulations of Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which calls for the two partners of the agreement to work together to make the unity option attractive,” President Bashir told the conference.
The referendum on south Sudan is the concluding milestone of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that allowed for a six year interim period, where both sides were obliged to attempt to make unity attractive to the south.
However, with unresolved issues yet pending, there are growing concerns of a possible return to war. Bashir However said that his government is working with south Sudan’s SPLM to assure peace and cooperation between the Sudanese people and stressed that there will not be a return to war.
He went on to saying that, regardless of the final outcome, the upcoming ”referendum must not be used as an excuse for a renewed civil war in Sudan.”
“The NCP together with our partners SPLM have already gone too far in setting and coordinating our plans for a mutual and brotherly relationship between north and south, both in case of unity or secession,” he said.
“We have agreed to put behind our backs all issues that might lead to a resumption of hostilities. Sustainable peace is going to be our motto in all cases.”
Last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, first ever to issued for a sitting head of state. Charges of genocide were added this year after an appeal by the ICC’s chief prosecutor.
Sudan president rejects the accusations saying they are an act of “neo-colonialism”. Signatories to the statute that established the ICC are obliged to arrest Bashir if he visits their territory.
However, this year Bashir has managed to defy The Hague-based court by visiting Chad and Kenya, both members of the ICC.
Ethiopia, which has hosted the African Union since the ICC arrest warrant the Sudanese President, is not a signatory to the ICC treaty and does not recognize the warrants.
(ST)