Khartoum unhappy with new southern currency

A plan by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to introduce a new currency in the territories it controls will hurt the country's peace process, a senior Sudanese diplomat has said.

The SPLM/A recently announced that it was planning to introduce its own currency for southern Sudan in December.

The currency, known as the "New Sudan Pound", is part of a plan to introduce a suitable secular financial system for the non-Muslim southern part of the country, as opposed to the Islamic Sharia system being utilised in the north, SPLM/A spokesman George Garang told IRIN.

"We need a financial system that is not Sharia based," he added.

Sirajudin Hamid, the Sudanese ambassador to Uganda, however described the SPLM/A decision to introduce the new currency as a "naive move which has no bearing on reality".

He told IRIN that it was technically impossible for the rebel group to introduce a currency into a territory that was not internationally recognised as a state. "You can't have a currency if you don't have a central bank or even a state recognised by the international community," Hamid said.

Hamid said the move was a tactic used by the SPLM/A to exert pressure for more concessions from the Khartoum government at ongoing peace talks in Machakos, Kenya.

"This is not a wise move. It is not helpful to the peace process. It is not going to work," he said.

However, according to Garang, the new currency is in line with the Machakos Protocol, an agreement reached in Kenya in July which recognised three entities in Sudan - the south, the north and the central regions.

Garang insisted that the new currency did not affect the peace process in any way. "This is not an issue of international recognition," he said. "Having two currencies has worked in many countries. We can have two currencies and still remain within Sudan."