Sudan: Postponing the referendum on self- determination until 2004
Sudan, Politics, 2/1/2002

The Sudanese daily al-Rai al-Am said on Wednesday that a council of representatives of both the government and former rebels in charge of supervising the areas divided by the war in the south, decided to postpone the referendum on self-determination for the area to the year 2004.

The paper added that the coordination council in southern Sudan adopted a proposal provided for extending a four- year provisional period that expires in March this year for other two years and this means the referendum will be postponed until march 2004 instead of March this year.

The paper continued that members of the council which takes the city of Jouba as a headquarters considered conditions as inappropriate to make the referendum. The paper quoted the chairman of the council Galwak Ding as saying that this proposal complies with a presidential decree that states to extend the provisional period or to shorten it according to circumstances."

The Sudanese government in 1997 signed an agreement with seven of the rebellion groups and this resulted in founding the council in March 1998, under the condition that the referendum will be held after 4 tears. Leader Rabak Mashar is considered is one of the main signatories on the agreement, but he pullout from it accusing al-Khartoum of not keeping its promises, He, however, joined the People's Army For the Liberation of Sudan,led by Col. John Garang. Since 1983, a civil war has been taking place in Sudan between the successive governments in the northern Arab Muslim part and the rebellions of the People's Army For the Liberation of Sudan in the south.

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