Kiir says Gaddafi would back independent S.Sudan

JUBA, Sudan, June 30 (Reuters) - South Sudan president Salva Kiir said he had secured a promise from Libya's leader to support his region if it voted for independence in a referendum, a statement that is likely to infuriate Sudan's north.

Sudan's oil-producing south is due to vote in January 2011 on whether to secede in a referendum set up under a peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war with north Sudan.

The vote is a highly sensitive issue in Sudan, and Khartoum is likely to be suspicious of any signs of external influence, particularly from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who has had a troubled relationship with successive Sudanese governments.

The report of Gaddafi's comments comes a day before the Libyan leader was due to host a meeting of the African Union, which he chairs, that will be attended by the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

South Sudan's Kiir told a church congregation on Sunday Gaddafi had called him in for a 3 a.m. meeting on a visit to Tripoli last week and assured him of Libya's support if South Sudan decided to split from the north.

"He (Gaddafi) said 'If southerners want to vote for independence they should not be frightened of anybody ... I will stand with them'," said Kiir, in a recording of his address heard by Reuters on Tuesday.

Sudan's ministry of foreign affairs declined to comment on what Kiir said Gaddafi had said. There was no immediate comment from Libya or confirmation of the remarks.

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During the address at St Theresa's Roman Catholic Cathedral in the south's capital Juba, Kiir said Gaddafi had told him it had been a mistake to keep south Sudan's people unified with the north at the end of British colonial rule in 1956.

"(Gaddafi said) they should have been separated either to become an independent state or join any country in east Africa," Kiir was heard saying on the recording.

Kiir said Gaddafi had promised to send Libyan experts to south Sudan to help rebuild infrastructure and agriculture.

Successive governments in Sudan have had a troubled relationship with Libya, complicated by Gaddafi's plans to extend his influence in the Arab world and Africa.

Libya was accused of arming the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in the early 1980s, to try to undermine Sudan's then president, Jaafar Nimeiri, and of building up arms and influence in Sudan's Darfur region as part of a project to build up pan-Arab solidarity across the Sahara.

Gadaffi, who in 2007 dismissed Sudan's Darfur conflict as fight over a camel, was, however, one of the first leaders to come out in support of Bashir after the International Criminal Court issued his arrest warrant for this year to face charges of orchestrating atrocities in Darfur.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the north-south civil war set up a coalition government in Khartoum and a semi-autonomous government in the south. As well as the referendum, it also promised national elections, scheduled for February 2010, and divided oil revenues between the two sides.

Southerners are widely expected to choose independence in the referendum, but analysts have warned there is a risk of a return to conflict if the north blocks the vote or refuses to hand over control of the south's lucrative oil fields.

Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HEA047047.htm