South Sudan unlikely to vote for unity -SPLM official

South Sudan unlikely to vote for unity -SPLM official
Mon 30 Jul 2007, 13:47 GMT

By Simon Apiku

KHARTOUM, July 30 (Reuters) - The reluctance of Sudan's dominant
northern party to implement key aspects of a north-south peace deal is
pushing southerners toward backing independence in a 2011 vote, a
southern leader said on Monday.

"Chances of unity are nil practically given the non-implementation and
the lack of confidence," Pagan Amum, secretary-general of the former
southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), told
Reuters.

The SPLM signed a deal in January 2005 with the National Congress
Party (NCP) ending Africa's longest civil war -- a bitter 20-year
conflict that claimed 2 million lives and drove more than 4 million
people from their homes.

The deal mandated power and wealth sharing, and granted south Sudan
the right to decide in a referendum in 2011 if it wanted to remain
united with the north.

But the SPLM accuses the NCP of stalling on the implementation of
important elements in the agreement such as the protocol on the
oil-rich Abyei region, border demarcation, security arrangements and
disarming of militias.

"What we are seeing is unity being made very unattractive because that
unity is being presented as unity to pursue narrow egoistic interests
by the elite in the north," Amum said.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir says implementation of the 2005
agreement is going well, and denies any foot-dragging over the deal.

CONTROL OF OIL REGION

One of the agreement's key tasks was to demarcate borders of the Abyei
region, establishing control of its lucrative oil fields.

The NCP has rejected the findings of the independent Abyei Border
Commission, formed by the 2005 deal, saying it exceeded its mandate.
The SPLM accepted the commission's report.

"Definitely the entire peace process is in danger by Abyei not being
implemented, by SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) maintaining forces which
is an act of war in the south, claiming that they want to protect the
oil," Amum said.

The United Nations earlier this month said the SAF had missed a July 9
deadline to move its troops to the north under the peace deal and a
senior U.N. official in the south said SAF was still paying illegal
militias based in the south.

Under the agreement, only joint units should police the oil areas, but
these north-south units are not yet functioning.

For this reason the SPLM says it has also not withdrawn its troops
from the central Southern Blue Nile and South Kordofan, where joint
units are supposed to take over.

"If they maintain militia groups against the south when we have signed
peace, then we are in for war," said Amum.

A border committee formed in 2005 to agree on the frontier has yet to
complete its work.

Demarcation of the north-south border is crucial for a census due to
be held in November, elections expected to be convened in 2009 and the
referendum in 2011.

"I see things unfolding in the direction of intense struggle to ensure
the (north-south deal) being implemented," said Amum.

The SPLM on Monday marked the second anniversary of the death in a
helicopter crash of charismatic leader, John Garang.

Amum said Garang's death had left a void, but Garang's successor,
Salva Kiir, was strong enough to lead the movement.