Khartoum unwilling to self determination in South Sudan - MP

Tuesday 21 August 2007.

August 20, 2007 (FREETOWN) — An MP from Southern Sudan has told a Sierra Leone audience that the situation in his country is rapidly deteriorating. He further said that Khartoum seems unwilling to the self determination as it is provided in the CPA, the Freetown based Concord Times reported.

Dr. Peter Adwok Nyaba, a senior representative of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Khartoum told journalists yesterday that the ongoing situation in Southern Sudan is worsening.

Nyaba, who is on a week’s visit in Sierra Leone as a guest of the Africanist Movement, said his mission to West Africa is to help other Africans understand the crisis in Sudan and its implications for the rest of the continent.

"The situation is South Sudan is that of marginalization, exploitation, racial oppression and political exclusion by the north," Nyaba said, adding that the key to the solution of Sudan’s problems is the granting of the right to self-determination to all Sudanese.

He explained that relative peace is being experienced in South Sudan due to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), but the Khartoum government appears unwilling to sincerely allow the Southern Sudanese their right to self-determination as provided in the CPA.

"According to the CPA, the South will have to decide in an international referendum whether they should remain with the north or secede in favor of self-determination," he stated and added that, "key to our struggle is for justice, equality, social reconstruction and democracy for everyone in the Sudan. If we have these, there is no point of struggle." The referendum to determine whether the South will split from the North will be held in 2011.

Earlier in the programme, Africanist leader Chernoh Alpha M. Bah said his group is hosting the visit on the basis of international solidarity.

"We believe in a free, united Africa and African people everywhere," he said, adding that the question of South Sudan is highly complicated and requires discussions and a more profound understanding.

The President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ibrahim Ben Kargbo said this is the first visit of an official of the SPLM in Sierra Leone.

"I think it is a significant step because Africans need to know about each other’s struggles," he stated.

(Concord Times)