There is a growing expectation and the tension just a few hours in seven days of the referendum that will decide the future of the largest African country. After 22 years of civil war, fourteen months of difficult negotiations, a peace agreement that has held a real genocide with two deaths and four million refugees, Sudan is preparing to live the most important stage in its history.Signed on 9 January 2005 in Nairobi between the Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al Bashir and John Garang, the founder and leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement / Army (SPLM / A), the Comprehensive Peace Agreement had set for January 9, 2011 a referendum in which 8 million southern Sudanese, mostly Christian and animists in Africa and 40 million of the north, Arab Muslims, would decide how to continue to live in the future.
The consultation was one of the main objectives pursued by the southern separatists, and only a slow and steady negotiation, supported primarily by the U.S. and Britain had managed to snatch the radical positions of the National Congress Party (NCP) of Al Bashir. For each of the nine months to a year in a row, tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, wrapped in the flag of a separatist, with singing and dancing, to exorcise their fears and invite people to cast their vote.
The commitment of Jimmy Carter, through his foundation, and that of George Clooney, both part of two days in Juba, has attracted the attention of the international community and the United Nations itself. All forecasts estimate that the eve of the referendum will mark the division. The outlook is not enthusiastic about Al Bashir.
Two days ago he went to Juba and pledged to accept the popular response. But yesterday, the eve of the polls, went back to railing against the specter of a split in the country. "The South - said the head of state a year ago, hit by an arrest of the Criminal Court in The Hague for violence, murder and genocide, but not yet implemented - does not have the ability to provide for their citizens or even to give life to a state or authority.
" Dozens of NGOs is concerned about the future of the south of the country and they fear a resumption of hostilities. A well-founded fear. In the morning the militia Gatluak Gai, head of a rebel group in southern Sudan, supported by the Khartoum government, attacked a military post of the SPLA, which has lost six soldiers.
But the will is stronger than the secessionist violence. The game is looking more divided Muslims and Africans, Arabs and blacks. There is an entire region that wants to break away from the rest of the country. The South Sudan will focus on 70 percent of oil reserves (6 billion barrels) that are within its territory.
But also water and pasture land, two elements vital to setting in motion an economy that does not exist. The referendum will not solve the many problems of Sudan. There are still defining the boundaries, including the strategic region of Abyei, rich in oil, that Al Bashir will not give up.
There derimere by the contrasts between the three ethnic groups in the southern division of the lands and pastures, which could weaken a state devoid of experience. The voting will last one week, then there will be a trial period only and will be enshrined next August, the division of Sudan.
Many argue that North and South will eventually work together because each needs the other. Others point to the complete detachment to stop all hostilities. But only time will be the true judge of a process that will change the geopolitical balance and the course of history itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment