South Sudan tells of plot against referendum

The Southern Sudanese government on Thursday accused their counterparts in Khartoum of sabotaging independence referendum scheduled to take place in their region next year.

The referendum is meant to give people in the south an opportunity to choose whether they should separate with their fellow Sudanese in the north or should remain as one nation.

This is part of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement between the Khartoum central government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which is the ruling party in the government of Southern Sudan.

However, yesterday, the Head of Southern Mission in Kenya John Andruga Duku said Sudanese President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir had refused to sign the Southern Sudan Referendum Act approved by the National Legislature last December.

“If he does not sign the law, the referendum may not place,” Mr Duku told a press conference in Nairobi.

He said since the law is not there, a Referendum Commission, which is supposed to start preparing people for the voting exercise cannot be established.

The commission, he explained should be making preparations for fresh registration of voters. And the voter registration is also meant for the general elections the country is holding in April this year.

He warned that if formation of the commission is delayed further, the referendum, which is scheduled for January next year, might not take place.

“I know the government in Khartoum does not want the referendum to take place and that is why they are dragging their feet. They know that the southerners want to remain on their own,” Mr Duku said while answering questions from reporters.

He said the referendum is the last thing that people of Southern Sudan have as their destiny.

“People have suffered for years as they feel that they are not part of Sudan. So if the referendum does not take place, they will suffer heavily,” the official said.

For several years, people in Southern Sudan have been struggling to separate from their fellow Sudanese in the northern part of the country.

They accuse the northerners who are mainly Muslims of Arab origin from dominating them.

Most of the southerners are black and majority are Christians.

Mr Duku said the Southern Sudan government now wants to involve Igad to assist in addressing the problem.

“We are only appealing to Igad to assume its responsibility and convene a meeting to try and resolve the problem,” he said.

This is why the Southern Sudanese President, Salva Kiir was in Kenya.

According to Mr Duku he had come to brief President Kibaki about the state of his country regarding the referendum and general elections since Kenya is currently holding the Igad chairmanship.