US group calls for referendum

The US Committee for Refugees (USCR) has urged the UN Security Council to take action aimed at enabling southern Sudan to vote within three years on its political independence. “After 15 years of civil war and an estimated 1.9 million war-related deaths - more deaths than in any war since World War Two - it is time to implement the one solution to which all parties of the Sudan conflict agree: hold a binding public referendum of political self-determination for the five million people of southern Sudan,” USCR’s director Roger Winter said in a statement received by IRIN. “All sides have publicly stated that a referendum is an acceptable solution. So why wait? The time has come for decisive US and UN action to help Sudan move toward the obvious solution,” he added.