UNSC calls for peaceful and credible South Sudan referendum

December 16, 2010 (WASHINGTON) – The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) urged both parties in Sudan to work for conducting a peaceful and credible referendum next January.

The council’s meeting on Sudan was the last before the Jan. 9 referendum, and members heard senior officials from the north and the south reiterate their commitments to a peaceful vote. The council also heard a briefing from U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy who outlined contingency plans “in the unlikely event that the referendum leaders to large-scale violence.”

“The Security Council welcomes the Sudanese parties’ reaffirmations of their commitment to full and timely implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), and reaffirms its strong support for the parties’ efforts in this regard” said the presidential statement read by US ambassador Susan Rice.

Rice said the UNSC also welcomes the conclusion of the voter registration process this month which saw more than three million people across Sudan and abroad. It also called on the North and South to fulfill their financial obligations to the South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC).

She reiterated that the council wants both parties to assure all citizens in the country that they will be treated with civility irrespective of the referendum outcome.

“The Security Council reiterates the urgent need for the parties to provide immediate and ongoing reassurance to the people of all nationalities in Sudan, so that their rights, safety and property will be respected whatever the outcome of the referenda, and the urgent need to focus on the security and protection of minorities including southerners in the north an northerners in the south,” Rice said.

Meanwhile the UN peacekeeping chief told the UNSC that “the days and weeks to come will determine the future of Sudan for the next decades.”

If there is major violence, Le Roy said, “approximately 2.8 million people could be internally displaced and another 3.2 million people may be negatively affected by breakdowns in trade and social service delivery.”

He said that the UN is seeking to increase the 14,700-strong peacekeeping mission in the south to prevent any deterioration in security after the referendum. But diplomats said the Sudanese government has not signed off on a request to deploy an additional 2,000 troops.

Le Roy also expressed concern over lack of agreement on the status of Abyei which lies on the North-South borders.

“The current impasse on the referendum in Abyei is deeply worrying… An agreement has still not been found and tensions on the ground are rising,” he said, noting that political and historical sensitivities are making it even more difficult for one side to consider options that its constituents could view as concessions.

Mutrif Sideeg, Sudan’s state minister for humanitarian affairs, told reporters after the briefing that “we are not in agreement of that extreme scenario.”

The Sudanese official said the government hasn’t held “detailed discussions on this issue” and stressed that even doubling the U.N. force would not be sufficient to curb serious violence.

“So it is not a matter of magnitude of the forces, but it is the will and co-operation of the parties to listen [to] any possible security dangers on the ground,” he said.

“For us, it has been sufficiently said by the two parties that there is no resort to war again,” Sideeg said, noting that Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir and South Sudan’s leader Salva Kiir have repeatedly stated their commitment to peace.

Pagan Amum, the secretary-general of the Sudan People Liberation Movement, said all signs continue to point to a vote in favor of independence and he welcomed recent statements by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) that his ruling National Congress Party “is committed to accept the results of the referendum.”

“We remain committed to a peaceful, stable and prosperous future for the people of Sudan whether as one country or as two separate states,” he told the council.

Both men said they have been trying to reach agreement on a referendum on Abyei but serious differences remain on who should be eligible to vote. But Sideeg said that it is hopeful that an agreement could be reached that is acceptable to the tribes on the ground and to the two parties for a referendum, “maybe after” the Jan. 9 vote on the future of South Sudan.

Amum said if there is no agreement on a referendum, another option would be to transfer Abyei to the south by Sudanese presidential decree “the same way in which Abyei was transferred in 1905 by an administrative order.”

In South Sudan’s capital, Juba, U.N. spokesman Kouider Zerrouk said Thursday that a joint committee from the north, south and U.N. concluded that three bomb attacks in the south this month, made by aircraft from the northern Sudanese military, were “unfortunate and should not be repeated.”

Le Roy said the attacks, near the Darfur border, were allegedly directed against Darfur’s rebel Justice and Equality Movement. He urged both governments “to exercise restraint and prevent the situation from escalating.”

Meanwhile, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay told The Associated Press on Thursday that Sudan’s government is blocking visas for “almost 1,000” human rights and aid workers who need to be in place before Jan. 9 to prepare for possible unrest.

“It just seems deliberate, this holdup on visas,” she said.

Le Roy told the council that the U.N. peacekeeping mission is also waiting for the government to approve visas for 348 U.N. personnel.

“We urge the government to clear the pending visa applications without delay,” he said.

But an NCP official defended the delay in issuing visas.

“This [is] actually practiced everywhere in the world, even if you want to go to the United States of America; they can give you a visa or they can say, ‘No, we are not giving the visa without giving reasons.’ I can say that this is the right of the government to do (grant visas), especially if that government respects its sovereignty and [is] not dominated or affected by any external factors, like our government,” said Rabie Abdel-Aati, a senior official at the NCP.

“We are the people to decide to say, ‘Yes,’ when we want to say according to our benefit and to say, ‘No,’ if we think that something will harm us or even as a precaution, we can say, ‘No.’”

(ST)