electoral bickering could quickly degenerate into something far more serious<\/a>. The South has a long history of inter-ethnic conflict, with many groups used as proxy forces by Khartoum during the war. Many of these militias, still controlled by powerful political figures, were never properly demobilized or fully re-integrated into the official standing armies. \u201cAmong the Khartoum-backed militia members who subsequently declared allegiance to the SPLA [Sudan Peoples\u2019 Liberation Army], long-standing grievances against the Southern army and the GoSS [Government of Southern Sudan] remain,\u201d said the Small Arms Survey.<\/p>\nQuite apart from southern electoral politics, and allegations of the north and southern factions deliberately destabilising areas for political ends, relations between and within the varied communities and regions in Southern Sudan are often strained by competition for natural resources such as water, grazing and land; as well as by cattle-raiding, local power rivalries, disputes over marriages and vendettas.<\/p>\n
In 2009, inter-ethnic clashes claimed more than 2,500 lives in Southern Sudan and displaced almost 400,000 people. At least 400 have died so far in 2010, displacing some 60,000, according to the UN.<\/p>\n
The Small Arms Survey report warned that \u201canger at what is seen as an exploitative, corrupt, unrepresentative, and ill-performing Juba government is widespread and growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe SPLM needs to put a lid on the instability, or else the NCP could use it as an excuse to try to postpone the referendum, and if that happened, the SPLM has threatened to unilaterally declare independence,\u201d warned Claire Mc Evoy, manager of the Survey\u2019s Sudan project and co-author of the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could easily lead to another armed conflict between north and south,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
httpvhd:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3kfBkDJtUpY<\/p>\n
Sudan’s election<\/h1>\n
The Irish Times\u00a0– Wednesday, April 28, 2010<\/p>\n
THE ELECTION of Sudan\u2019s President Omar al-Bashir in the country\u2019s first multiparty election in 24 years was the foregone conclusion to a race that had precious little democratic credibility. In truth, it was merely a sideshow ahead of a referendum scheduled for January which, if it happens, is likely permanently to divide the country in two through the almost inevitable secession of the south.<\/p>\n
Mr Bashir, who seized power in a coup in 1989 and is currently wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity in Darfur, received 68 per cent of the vote, though international observers said the election was marred by intimidation, gerrymandering and fraud. Before the voting started in mid-April, several of the top opposition parties abruptly dropped out of the electoral race, leaving the path clear for Mr Bashir.<\/p>\n
In southern Sudan, Mr Bashir\u2019s scarcely more democratic counterpart, Salva Kiir, prevailed as well, winning 93 per cent of the vote to remain president of the semi-autonomous region. He is leader of the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement which has led the fight for secession for decades through two bloody north-south civil wars, and is now the junior partner in the national government under the terms of a 2005 peace treaty. The north is predominantly Muslim, while the south, a third of Africa\u2019s largest country, is mainly Christian and animist and bent on independence since Sudan itself became independent in 1956.<\/p>\n
The treaty commits both sides to the referendum but Western powers fear a reluctant Mr Bashir may have second thoughts, and observers suggest their restrained silence over the dubious election reflected a calculation it would make Khartoum less likely to renege on the strategically crucial poll.<\/p>\n
At stake, as well as independence for the people of the south \u2013 though one fears, on the basis of Mr Kiir\u2019s election, not democratic rights \u2013 is control over some 500,000 barrels of oil a day, mostly from the south or along what is a contested potential border line between the two parts of the country. The oil has been enough roughly to double Sudan\u2019s per capita income in the last 10 years. Though its benefits have been unevenly spread, it has contributed to the country\u2019s recent economic growth and Mr Bashir\u2019s relative popularity in the north. Some suggest he had no need to rig the election.<\/p>\n
Sudanese authorities began marking the border yesterday in preparation for the poll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
httpvhd:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Rw3Dgk1v6NI Analysis: Dangerous divisions in Sudan JUBA\/KHARTOUM, 23 April 2010 (IRIN) – This month\u2019s\u00a0chaotic elections have widened divisions within the Sudan Peoples\u2019 Liberation Movement (SPLM), according to analysts, who warn of risks to a referendum on southern secession, to future relations between two potentially independent states, and to the very stability of Sudan as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":17044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[207,154,155,256,226,153],"tags":[257,3766],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/ethiopianism.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/072.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ethiopianism.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ethiopianism.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ethiopianism.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ethiopianism.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ethiopianism.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ethiopianism.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ethiopianism.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ethiopianism.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ethiopianism.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ethiopianism.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}