US says could take Sudan off state terror list by July

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 Posted by Noor

Source : Al-Arabiya

WASHINGTON/Juba, SUDAN (AlArabiya.net, Agencies)
As south Sudan’s voting enters its fourth day on Wednesday, Washington said that Khartoum could be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism as early as July if it recognizes the results of the referendum on independence for the south, a U.S. official said late Tuesday.

“Should the referendum be carried out successfully and the results are recognized by the government, President Obama would indicate his intention to begin the process of removing them,” Princeton Lyman, the head of the U.S. negotiation support unit in Sudan, told AFP.

“It is a process that takes some time, but by beginning the process in the wake of the referendum, the hope is if they meet all the conditions it can be done by July,” Lyman said.

Sudanese on Sunday began seven days of balloting in the referendum on independence for southern Sudan, a predominantly Christian region that fought a bloody civil war against Arab rule in the north from 1983 to 2005.

Results are expected around the end of the month, U.S. officials said.

Another key condition for removing Khartoum from the state sponsors of terror list is that it not “directly or indirectly” support terror groups, said Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, adding that being removed from the list would be an “enormous incentive” for Khartoum.

Countries on the list of state sponsors of terrorism are not eligible for American aid or for U.S. arms purchases, and bilateral trade is restricted. As of now the list includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

The United States has banned virtually all trade with Sudan since 1997.

Calling for calmWorld leaders, meanwhile, called for calm after a deadly ambush targeted south Sudanese returning from the north for the independence vote.

On Monday, 10 south Sudanese civilians were killed and 18 wounded in an ambush by Misseriya Arab tribesmen near the border with the south as they were returning from the north, south Sudanese officials said.

There has been an upsurge of violence in the district in recent days in which the two sides reported losses totaling at least 33 dead since Friday.

State Department officials said that the U.S. was worried about recent clashes in Sudan’s Abyei region but said they have had no impact on a referendum on independence for southern Sudan.

Ambassador Princeton Lyman, the lead US negotiator with Sudan, acknowledged recent clashes in the Abyei region, but said “nothing in these unfortunate situations is impacting on the referendum.”

“Nevertheless, this is a worrisome situation,” he told reporters here.

The Abyei region on its northern border also was supposed to have had a referendum at the same time but it has been indefinitely postponed over an impasse over who should be eligible to vote.

The region is settled by the pro-southern Dinkas, but the Arab Misseriya who have an annual migration to Abyei to find water and pasture for their livestock say they also should be eligible to vote.

“This is also a historically tense time within Abyei, as the migration begins,” said Lyman.”And because the migration hasn’t been fully worked out between the Ngok Dinka and the Misseriya, there’s a lot of tension on the ground.

“And some of the violence that we’ve seen and some of these clashes is a product of that tension,” he said.

Abyei’s violenceU.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday condemned the latest violence, and the U.N. Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said it had intensified its patrolling activities in Abyei and was on standby to reinforce its peacekeeping presence if needed.

The head of UNMIS, Haile Menkerios, was in Abyei on Tuesday for consultations with local leaders, a U.N. spokesman said.

Western governments continued to voice their concern over the situation. A statement from British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on leaders there to exercise restraint.

In the south, referendum organizers said Sunday’s and Monday’s huge turnout had been repeated across the region, and that polling hours were being extended by an hour for the remaining five days of voting.

Huge crowds still queuing to cast their ballots at the end of the original 8:00 am to 5:00 pm voting hours had left many polling stations struggling to cope over the first two days.

The referendum commission’s number two Chan Reec, citing figures from less than half of polling stations, said nearly a million of the 3.75 million people registered in the south had already voted.

The prospect of secession by the south had sparked fears of a wider break-up of Sudan, which has experienced other rebellions in the war-torn western region of Darfur and also in the east, where a 12-year uprising ended with a still-fragile peace agreement in 2006.