Northern separatists celebrate South Sudan split

July 9, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Supporters of North Sudan’s separatist party, the Just Peace Forum (JPF), took to the streets of the capital Khartoum on Saturday in celebration of South Sudan secession.

On Saturday, 9 July, the predominately Christian-African South Sudan declared full independence from the Muslim-controlled North in line with the outcome of the region’s vote on secession at the start of this year.

The plebiscite was the main stipulation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended more than two decades of north-south civil wars.

South Sudan secession is seen by the majority of people and political forces in the North as symbolising a loss of national pride, in sharp contrast with the JPF which sees it as a positive outcome worthy of celebration.

The party has mobilised its mouthpiece Al-Intibaha newspaper to fulminate against the CPA on the pretext that it gave too many concessions to the South at the expense of the North.

The party and its paper, which claims to be the voice of the “silent majority” in the North, have been waging a rigorous campaign against the presence of “the African element” in North Sudan, and calling for letting the South go in order to preserve the purity of the country’s “Arab and Islamic identity.”

A crowd of JPF supporters gathered in Khartoum on Saturday dressed in white T-shirts written upon it “goodbye to the unity of blood and tears” as they chanted slogans hailing South Sudan secession.

The party’s leader Al-Tayyib Mustafa, who is a close relative of president Al-Bashir, announced to his supporters that the party intends to run in the next elections, expressing confidence that it would achieve a landslide victory in the polls.

Mustafa told his supporters they were perfectly capable to win the vote if they “commit to what they were saying in the last years.”

“The street is now ready to reward you for what you have done because there is a big vacuum no else but you can fill,” he said.

Sudan is due to hold general elections in 2015. President Al-Bashir, whose National Congress Party won the last elections in April 2010 amid credible reports of mass rigging, promised to step down when his current term expires in 2015.

The separatist leader went on to level veiled criticism against the NCP, saying that those who raised the slogan of Islamic Shari’ah did not implement it “the way it is supposed to be done.”

Mustafa urged his supporters to lead the “liberation” of the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, terming them “two pieces left of Naivasha mess,” in reference to CPA negotiations.

The Blue Nile and South Kordofan states lie on the ill-defined borders between North and South Sudan, their population largely fought on the side of the South during the second north-south civil war.

Under the CPA, the two states are supposed to hold popular consultation on the way they wish to be governed within North Sudan, but the process has stalled in the Blue Nile while South Kordofan descended into violence between North Sudan army and forces aligned with the South.

According to Mustafa, 9 July is the date of Sudan’s “true independence.” He added that they were happier than those celebrating in Juba, South Sudan’s capital.

(ST)