WASHINGTON: United States suggested for the first time Tuesday that it might not be possible to organize a referendum January 9 in the Sudanese region of Abyei, and suggested north and south weigh an "alternative."
"Discussions continue on Abyei, and we will continue to hold the parties to their obligation to a referendum on Abyei… unless they arrive at an alternative that is mutually agreeable to both sides," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.
The Sudanese town is on the fault line between north and south. It is is slowing reemerging from the ashes of its destruction two years ago but aid groups are bracing for more violence as a vote on its future looms.
Around 100 people were killed in the May 2008 clashes between northern and southern forces and 50,000 fled their homes.
An estimated 8,000 have returned as reconstruction work has seen Abyei get its first tarmacked street, electricity pylons alongside its straw huts and the reopening of its clinic.
But as a referendum looms in January that will decide whether Abyei and the oil resources of its surrounding district remain part of north Sudan or join an autonomous or independent south, there are also fears of a return to fighting.
"While it is theoretically possible that the referendum could still go on schedule regarding Abyei, we recognize that that is increasingly problematic. We are not relieving the parties of their obligation. Today, they’re obliged to cooperate and schedule a referendum on Abyei on January 9," said Crowley.
Yet "we recognize that given that there is no agreement between north and south on the details of that referendum, if they, you know, are able to arrive at a different course of action, this is up to them, but it has to be a mutually agreeable alternative," Crowley added.
"It is up to the parties to decide, you know, you know, to arrive at a mutually agreeable solution to Abyei. And it’s their responsibility, first and foremost," he stressed.
