الامام الصادق يؤيد الانفصال الـطوعى للجنوب

Quote: JUBA (Sept 3, 2009) Leader of Sudan's Umma Party Imam Sadiq El Mahdi said on Thursday that his party would support the secession of the South if that was the will of Southerners. El Mahdi made the statement shortly after arriving in Juba at the start of a four-day visit for talks with SPLM leaders, which was expected to cover a number of issues of bilateral and national interest. "We think that there is no room in Sudan except for voluntary unity or voluntary separation," El Mahdi told reporters at Juba International Airport. Under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended more than two decades of war between the SPLM/A and successive regimes in Khartoum, Southerners will decide in a referendum in 2011 if they want to continue living in a united Sudan or secede. El Mahdi said it was still possible to maintain Sudan's unity, but suggested that in order for unity to be attractive, it must be on a new basis of justice and equality for all in a new Sudan that will accommodate all citizens. "We are here because it is necessary now for all Sudanese political parties to define in no uncertain terms what they mean by just, New Sudan," said Imam El Mahdi. But should Southerners opt to break away, "we respect that independence," he added. It will essentially be a choice between a "just unity or brotherly neighborliness," according to the Umma Party leader. Senior officials of President Omar El Bashir's NCP have been on record as saying they would do everything possible to ensure that Southerners do not get an easy ride on the road to referendum, something El Mahdi strongly condemned. "We stand against any attempt to play politics with Self-Determination," he stated. The Umma, added Imam El Mahdi, was in favor of making Self-Determination "easier, simpler and more straight forward." The visit was the twice prime minister's first to the South in decades and according to El Mahdi, it was in response to an invitation from the SPLM leadership. Imam El Mahdi was expected to address Friday prayers at the Grand Mosque in Juba on September 4. The SPLM and Umma Party were also scheduled to hold a series of meetings, culminating with the signing on September 5 of a memorandum of understanding between the two parties.