SIX MONTHS BEFORE CRITICAL REFERENDUM SUDAN IS ALARMINGLY UNPREPARED

Ahead of major summit, new report warns that inadequate preparation is harming chance of credible referendum

With six months until a referendum on Southern independence, Sudan is alarmingly unprepared according to a new report published on 14 July by a global coalition of 26 humanitarian and human rights organisations. The report calls for urgent action from African heads of state who will meet shortly at a major summit of the African Union in Uganda from 19 – 27 July. Ahead of the summit, international Sudan envoys will meet in Khartoum on 17 July.

In their new joint report Renewing the Pledge: Re-Engaging the Guarantors to the Sudanese Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the global coalition warns: “The clock is ticking fast towards what might be the most important date in modern Sudanese history – two referenda in Sudan that are likely to result in the breakup of Africa’s largest state.” In addition to the referendum on Southern independence, another vote will be held simultaneously in the area of Abyei, to determine whether or not it will join Southern Sudan.

A range of states and multilateral organizations, called Guarantors, pledged to help Sudan implement the CPA. The report warns that the Guarantors have only six months to fulfil that promise.

While timelines slip in the South, violence has intensified in Darfur and human rights are being trampled in the North. The report warns that, over the past year, “international attention has focused on Southern Sudan, neglecting the most important lesson of the past years: that Sudan’s multiple conflicts are best addressed holistically.” The focus on Southern Sudan has come at the expense of other important issues such as democratic transformation, the unresolved conflict in Darfur, and other marginalized parts of Northern Sudan, including Eastern Sudan and the Three Areas. 

Darfuri teenager killed himself after being informed - wrongly - of deportation', Robert Verkaik, Home Affairs Editor at the Independent, 3 June 2010

'Abdullah Hagar Idris had been counting the days to his release from prison so he could start a new life in Britain after fleeing persecution in his Darfur homeland.

But on Christmas Eve 2007 a prison officer handed the 18-year-old a document making it clear that the Home Office had decided he was to be kept behind bars pending deportation.

The news came as a cruel shock to the young man who could not bear the thought of returning to Sudan where he knew he would be hunted down and murdered by the feared Arab militia....

Sophie McCann, director of Waging Peace, a charity that campaigns against the violence in Darfur, said: "What makes his story really heartbreaking is that contrary to the Home Office's automated letter, he would in all likelihood have been able to appeal against the deportation, but no one helped him to understand his situation.

"The fear of being sent back to a country where he had escaped genocide is undoubtedly what led to his death. Joker was let down by the institutions that are meant to safeguard young, vulnerable people in difficult situations. It is especially poignant that by now, Joker would have been eligible for refugee status to live a safe life in the UK."

Click here to read the full article.

'Darfur's Invisible Killing Fields', Rebecca Tinsley, Waging Peace Founder, Anniston Star, USA,  30 May, 2010

A 16th-century English diplomat, Henry Wooton, described ambassadors as men who are “sent abroad to lie for their countries.” Last week, diplomats from around the globe beat a path to Khartoum to attend the inauguration of an indicted war criminal, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan.