Sudanese president decides to hold a referendum on Darfur administrative status

March 29, 2011 (DOHA/KHARTOUM) — President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir signed today a presidential decree providing to hold a referendum to determine the administrative status of Darfur region, as the talks with the rebel groups failed to reach an agreement on the issue.

The voters should decide on whether Darfurians support to maintain the current administrative division of their region or prefer the establishment of a regional authority to lead the work of the existing states.

President Bashir and his deputy Ali Osman Taha received respectively the leaders of Fur and Rizzaigat tribes to discuss the creation of two new states in Jebel Marra and south east Darfur. The meetings also meant to mobilize their support for the current administrative status.

“The permanent status of Darfur will be determined through a referendum to be held simultaneously in three Darfur states,” said the decree. It further added that voters will choose between two options: maintain the existing status of the states, or establish an authority in Darfur Region besides the states.

Presidential adviser Ghazi Salah Al-Deen announced the referendum for the first time on 2 March when he returned from Doha where the government and rebel delegations failed to agree on this thorny issue.

The Sudanese official who is in charge of Darfur file, said the referendum should be held one year after the general elections of April 2010 in accordance with Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) signed with Minni Arko Minnawi. He further stressed that the absence of a peace accord with the rebels in Doha leads the government to enforce the 2006 deal.

Sudan adviser at the International Crisis Group (ICG), Fouad Hikmat, recently told Sudan Tribune that the move poses the question of whether the DPA is still a valid reference to the ongoing peace talks between Sudan and rebels in the Qatari capital of Doha, noting that main groups involved in the talks, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), reject the DPA.

Hikmat suggested that the decision to organize a referendum in Darfur is a “purely political” one whose purpose is to “put a ceiling to the demands of rebels in Doha”. “It seems to me [it is] a pure political decision rather than a decision to move Darfur towards a lasting sustainable peace,” he further said.

President Al-Bashir was expected to travel Tuesday to Doha but his trip was delayed to Thursday for unknown reason. The presidency said he will discuss the ongoing process to end Darfur conflict with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. But Ghazi was not announced among the members of his delegation.

The presidential decree issued today did not specify a date for the referendum, only it mandated the National Elections Commission to organize the plebiscite and to determine the necessary rules and procedures.

It is believed that technical preparations and registration for this vote might need time several months; also the security situation in the troubled Darfur is not seen as favorable for such operation which might push rebel groups to perturb the vote.

Darfur rebels groups participating in the Doha process reiterated that today’s decree on the referendum violates the framework agreements signed with the government last year. They also said they will not acknowledge its outcome.

Tadjadine Bechir Niam, LJM top negotiator, said “we reject totally this referendum and the creation of additional states in Darfur because it violates the agreements we signed last year”.

Gibreel Adam Bilal, JEM spokesperson, rejected the referendum pointing out it shows Khartoum’s intention to circumvent the Doha process and enforce their strategy of peace from inside Sudan.

“The administrative status will be determined here in Doha; and we want the reestablishment of the old administrative system with six regions in north Sudan, including one region in Darfur. We can keep the states but there should be one region in Darfur, he emphasized.

The two rebel officials said the government wants to undermine the Doha process and implement another internal process supported by the former South African president Tambo Mbeki.

They explained that this referendum will be used by the government to manipulate the will of Darfur people and impose its option, despite the pledge of allowing international observers to monitor the vote.

Asked separately whether they will boycott the Doha process to protest the presidential decree, Gibreel and Niam said their groups are committed to the peace forum and they do not consider this option for the moment.

The issue of Darfur status was one of the cause that led two rebel groups JEM and Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdel Wahid Al-Nur to reject the signing of the DPA. Rebels consider that the regional authority will allow better development but also to protect land ownership and tenure.

(ST)