UN Moots Policing North-South Sudan Border

UN Moots Policing North-South Sudan Border

The United Nations peace keeping force could create limited buffer zones in hotspots along the border of north and south Sudan before a referendum on independence is held in the south of the country.

Security Council diplomats gave the hint on Wednesday, in response to a request by South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, during a UN Security Council trip to Sudan last week, for peacekeepers to be deployed along north-south border.

A council diplomat, who did not want to be identified, told reporters the general belief is that increasing the number of peacekeepers along the border will not work, and the solution will be to police potentially volatile areas along the border.

"Nobody thinks it's realistic to put UNMIS (UN peacekeepers), even if we had masses more troops, along the north-south border in a country that large, but I think one thing we can and should consider ... is looking at augmenting UNMIS in certain hotspots along the border where a buffer presence could be established.'' the diplomat said.

Referendum is based on 2005 peace accord

UNMIS is the 10,000 -strong UN peacekeeping force that monitors compliance with a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of north-south civil war in Sudan.

That accord called for a vote on southern independence and a separate vote on whether Abyei, a disputed oil-rich zone, should be part of the north or south. Both referendums are scheduled for January 9, 2011.

Reuters/AyoKoya