A former general secretary of the World Council of Churches has warned that tension in Sudan ahead of a plebiscite on independence for the south of Africa’s biggest country could spark mass killings similar to the Rwanda genocide in 1994.
“We know it is possible these people could easily be massacred, if Khartoum is not happy with how the referendum will go,” said Rev. Samuel Kobia, an ecumenical envoy from the All Africa Conference of Churches. “We also wanted to sound a warning, that a situation is brewing up that could lead to another Rwanda and we don’t want the international community to say, ‘We didn’t know’ … As churches, we will hold the international community accountable for what happens.”
Kobia, a Kenyan Methodist, led the Geneva-based WCC from 2004 to 2009.
On Jan. 9, referenda are scheduled in southern Sudan and the oil-rich Abyei border region between the north and south. The result could see people from the south, where Christianity and traditional religions predominate, flee from the north, where most people are Arabs and Islam is dominant. The Abyei region will be choosing whether to join the north or south of the existing country. The referendum is part of a 2005 comprehensive peace agreement that sealed the end of a 21-year-long civil war between north and south in which more than two million people died.
“I thought up to 95 per cent would vote to secede. I want to revise that number upwards and say up to 98 per cent or more,” said Kobia. “For the people of southern Sudan, voting for unity would mean voting to remain second-class citizens in their own country.”
Kobia said there are between a half million and 2.5 million southern Sudanese estimated to be living in the north. He noted reports that Sudan’s minister of information in Khartoum had warned that southerners living in the north will not have any citizenship rights if their kinsfolk vote for separation. – ENI
