Envoy Warns of Civil War over Abyei

New York, United States

Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations has warned that carrying out the January 9 referendum in disputed Abyei district without settling voting rights for the region’s contending tribes and border separation would lead to another war.

Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told the Security Council on Monday during a debate on Sudan that any attempt to conduct the referendum before achieving an acceptable settlement between two parties would mean a return to war.

Osman said that reinforcement of UN peacekeeping troops on the north-south border would be a waste of resources and wouldn’t ease the piling tension.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, in his report to the Security Council has expressed his deep concern about events in Abyei where he said that continued lack of progress is worsening the already tense and volatile situation. He called for the referendum commission to work extremely quickly if it’s to get the exercise ready on time.

Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Senator John Kerry has revealed that he has received a written pledge from the Khartoum Government on its commitment to hold the referendum on time and to abide by its outcome.

Kerry told reporters during his state visit to the country that the US would be able to forge a new relationship with Sudan, if the government keeps its word.

Local residents from Abyei will vote on a separate referendum along with the south’s on independence, on whether the region should be part of north or south after the January 9 referenda.

Last week’s talks between south’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and north’s National Congress Party (NCP) in Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa failed to reach an agreement on possible border demarcations and what would qualify as Abyei’s citizenship. New US-brokered talks scheduled for Wednesday this week have been called off.

The oil-rich region is inhabited mainly by the Dinka Ngok- who support south’s secession- and Misseriya- Arab nomads, whose voting fate is yet undecided. The Misseriya have threatened to carry out acts of violence in the region if they won’t be allowed to vote.

SPLM has accused the government of settling the Misseriya from central Sudan to influence the vote, allegations which it denies.

The referendums on South’s independence and Abyei region are part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended two decades of north-south conflict in which over two million lives were lost and thousands displaced.

President Omar Al-Bashir earlier said that he is still committed to hold the polls but insisted first on two sides settling differences on border division and how to share oil, debt and the Nile river water.

Kigali, Rwanda

Opposition Leader Faces Terror Charges

Opposition Leader in Rwanda Victoire Ingabire was arraigned in court on Monday with charges of conspiring with a terrorist group to threaten national security.

Ms Ingabire, leader of The Unified Democratic Forces party (UDF), was arrested earlier this month and charged with colluding with an ex-officer of a Hutu militia to buy and distribute weapons for propagation of ethnic division. She termed the charges as being fabricated and politically motivated.

She was earlier arrested in April on the same charges- collaborating with a terrorist group and threatening national security- but she was released on bail.

Her arrest again earlier this month followed the capture of Maj Vital Uwumuremyi-once a senior police officer with the FDLR- who was trying to cross the border to Democratic Republic of Congo where the group is based.

Maj Uwumuremyi who appeared as a prosecution witness told the court that he had been communicating with Ms Ingabire while she was on bail and had had earlier connections with her.

The court is yet to decide on whether she should be granted bail on the charges which carry a life sentence if found guilty.

The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic Hutu militia group was among the major perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which over 800,000 people-mainly Tutsis-were massacred.

Ingabire was barred from running in August’s election following her return from exile in January this year to contest. Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party’s Paul Kagame was re-elected for second term following his landslide win with 93 percent.