KHARTOUM, Nov 03, 2009 (AFP) - Most south Sudanese would choose independence if a referendum were held now, Sudan's Foreign Minister Deng Alor said on Tuesday.

Only a "miracle" can make unity attractive for southerners before they vote in 2011 on whether to break away, said Alor, a former rebel fighter and still a senior official with former rebel group the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement.

"If southerners were asked now they would overwhelmingly vote for separation," he told journalists.

"All of us want unity but unity on a new basis where all of us are equal whether Muslim or Christian, African or people who think they are of Arab origin," Alor said.

The independence referendum, scheduled for January 2011, is the centrepiece of a 2005 peace deal that brought an end to a two-decade civil war.

Asked whether a year is enough time to make unity attractive and avoid secession by the south, Alor said: "There are always miracles."

He defended remarks by southern leader Silva Kiir last week that southerners will be second class citizens in Sudan if they do not opt for independence in the referendum.

"Salva was quoted out of context, Salva was saying under an Islamic system, in an Islamic state if you vote for unity you will be voting for second class citizenship which is true, that is what Islam says. Salva is not inventing this," he said.

Tensions in the restive country remained after the 2005 agreement, which also called for general elections in 2010. Southern officials accuse Khartoum of arming ethnic groups in the south, which have repeatedly clashed this year.

gl/se/anw

© Copyright AFP 2009.

 

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