Border Demarcation Process Is Far Behind Schedule, Says Official

27 July 2010 - (Khartoum) – The North-South Border Demarcation Committee says that border demarcation cannot be completed before the referendum in 2011 as it has suspended its activities until the end of the rainy season.

The GOSS representative at the technical committee of the border demarcation, Riek Degor says it will be difficult for the demarcation of the border to be completed before the coming referendum in the south.

[Riek Degor]: “Border demarcation cannot be possible. No it cannot be. This is because there are two issues; one is that for the areas that we already agreed on that could be processed in demarcation on the ground. The field has been suspended until the end of the rainy season. Now it is rainy and whatever work is on the ground will start in October if the rains stop early and November if the rains delay. So I really don’t think we will have done enough work to complete that part before the referendum. Leave alone the disagreed area that needs some measures from the presidency that we go through and need some directives on how we should go about it.”

Reacting to remarks by the NCP that the referendum in the south will not be conducted before the border demarcation work is completed; Degor said that there is no link between the conduct of the referendum and the border demarcation exercise.
He said that the border demarcation is a continuous process that takes time to come to complete.

[Riek Degor]: “People may say that the referendum cannot be done without the border demarcation but this is a political issue. The referendum cannot be imprisoned because of the border demarcation. Why should it be tied to the border demarcation? The effectiveness of the border is not to be tied with one single issue. Border demarcation is a continuous process. It cannot be stopped because of the referendum. I think it’s not logical to tie the referendum to the border issue. We have freed the census, we have freed the elections from border demarcation, we have freed the security arrangements, this is clear so we also feel that we can free the referendum from the border demarcation.”

Riek Degor the GOSS representative was speaking to SRS from Khartoum on Tuesday.