Southern official insists on self-determination

A senior figure in the pro-government South Sudan Coordination Council (SSCC) has stated that the Libyan-Egyptian joint initiative on Sudan is weak because it ignores the issue of self-determination for the south and the ties between state and religion, AFP reported on Wednesday. “I strongly feel that any initiative aimed at resolving the Sudanese issue cannot succeed fully if the problem of the south is not addressed,” it quoted SSCC Deputy Chairman Theophilus Ochang as saying. Ochang complained that the Libyan-Egyptian initiative ignored the south’s right to self-determination and the need to identify the relationship between religion and state, the report said. Despite his misgivings, Ochang said he welcomed any initiative that tried to solve Sudan’s chronic problems, and he urged all the southern political parties and factions to settle their differences before working for an agreement with the northern parties. Within the government, southern Sudanese unhappy with the omission of the right to self-determination - accepted by Khartoum in the 1997 Khartoum Agreement and various other forums - may form one “locus of discontent” with the Libyan-Egyptian initiative, according to regional analysts. The concept of self-determination for the south had been accepted in the regional peace initiative of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which involves the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), the analysts. However, the nine principles of the Libyan-Egyptian initiative make no reference to self-determination and, indeed, reaffirm the unity of Sudan as a fundamental. Libya and Egypt have repeatedly declared their opposition to self-determination. The opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance had agreed in principle to the Libyan-Egyptian initiative, and to attend a proposed follow-up conference, but had introduced three additional recommendations on: the separation of religion and state; respect for the right to self-determination of southern Sudan; and, the need to unify the Egyptian-Libyan and IGAD initiatives on Sudan, the sources added. Meanwhile, President Umar Hasan al-Bashir on Wednesday repeated the commitment of his government to Shar’iah (Islamic law) and the Islamic project in Sudan, insisting that his assertion to that effect in Wad Madani, south of the capital, Khartoum, last week was not (just) a passionate speech. “We have come to set up Shar’iah, and I say - for the second, third and fourth time - that the [National] Salvation [Revolution] Government will never change” its principles and Islamic basis, AFP quoted Bashir as saying at a passing-out parade of military students in Shambat, Khartoum.