EU Team Visits Sudan Ahead Of Referendum

EU Team Visits Sudan Ahead Of Referendum

A UN Security Council delegation is in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, on its way to Sudan later in the week, to prevent any obstruction of a January referendum.

The Security Council diplomats are accompanied by journalists, on the trip, meant to oversee preparations for a scheduled referendum that will determine whether of not, Africa's largest nation will split.

They will meet Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni , whose nation holds the Presidency of the 15 -nation council this month and tour the major air base servicing UN peacekeeping missions in neighbouring Congo and Sudan.

The UN delegation will also visit Sudan's western Darfur region, southern Sudan and the capital, Khartoum.

No meeting with Bashir

Reports say they are however, not likely to meet Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has been charged by the International Criminal Court with war crimes and genocide.

Commission fixes voters registration date

November 14 th has been set for the start date for voters' registration in the historic vote on independence for the South.

Deputy Chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, Chan Reec said ''the timeframe was a really big problem and he would do what is humanly possible."

Reec said the deadline would still be met even if there were ‘unseen reasons' that delayed it, he was confident the vote would go ahead.

He said registration will start on November 14 and continue for three weeks, to end on December 4 while campaigning is due to start on December 7 .

Under a 2005 peace agreement that ended the country's civil war, the south is to vote on January 9 on whether to become independent or to remain part of a united Sudan.

The president of the south's autonomous regional government, Salva Kiir, had said the January 9 date is "sacrosanct" and called on people ‘not to loose the hard-fought opportunity to vote for independence.'

AP/Yinka