Gathafi, Mubarak in Sudan ahead of southern vote

Libyan and Egyptian presidents discuss 'ways to help' Sudanese reach agreement on outstanding issues.

Middle East Online

By Guillaume Lavallee - KHARTOUM

Concern in neighbouring states Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moamer Gathafi arrived for talks with northern and southern Sudanese leaders on Tuesday ahead of a landmark vote on independence for the south. Both leaders arrived in Khartoum in mid-afternoon, with Mubarak landing about 20 minutes after Gathafi, for talks with President Omar al-Bashir and southern leader Salva Kiir. The aim of the talks is to "discuss ways to help the Sudanese partners reach agreement on outstanding issues which prevent the full realisation" of their 2005 peace accord, Egypt's official MENA news agency said. The largely Christian and animist south is to vote on January 9 on whether to remain united with the Muslim north or break away to form an independent country. The referendum is the key plank of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that put an end to two decades of civil war between north and south. Analysts predict that southern voters will opt for independence, and even senior northern officials are beginning to accept the idea of Africa's largest nation being partitioned. The two sides have been discussing since July the issues of future citizenship arrangements, the sharing out of natural resources -- particularly oil -- security and compliance with international accords, notably on water allocation from the Nile. Bashir's National Congress Party and Kiir's former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement, must also find common ground on the disputed oil district of Abyei which had supposed to be holding a simultaneous vote on its own future that has been delayed by disagreements over who should have a ballot. There has also been concern in neighbouring states that a vote for southern independence might trigger renewed efforts by ethnic minorities in other regions of Sudan to break away, particularly in the western Darfur region where the Khartoum government has been fighting a seven-year-old rebellion. The head of the most militarised of the Darfur rebel groups -- the Justice and Equality Movement -- is currently based in the Libyan capital Tripoli. Khalil Ibrahim was forced to abandon his former rear-base in neighbouring Chad earlier this year after a rapprochement between Khartoum and Ndjamena. Egypt has a particular interest in agreement being reached between north and south on the future sharing of the waters of the Nile on which its agriculture depends. Although it receives 90 percent of its share from the Blue Nile and the Atbara -- Nile tributaries that will be unaffected by the outcome of next month's referendum -- Egypt has repeatedly insisted that the current international treaties should not be changed. Those treaties, dating back to 1929 and 1959, allocate Egypt 55.5 billion cubic metres and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic metres of the waters of the Nile, representing 87 percent of the total flow of the river as a whole. The presence in Khartoum of both Egyptian and Libyan leaders is a major boost for Bashir's government after the Sudanese president was forced to abandon plans to attend an African Union-European Union summit in Tripoli late last month amid strong European opposition. In March 2009, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Bashir's arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with his government's conduct of the conflict in Darfur. In July this year, it added a charge of genocide over accusations the Sudanese leader personally gave orders for the annihilation of the region's Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. Although Bashir has visited both Egypt and Libya since the ICC arrest warrant, it is the first time that either leader has returned the compliment.