South Sudan sends census monitors back to Khartoum

JUBA, Sudan, April 28 (Reuters) - South Sudan has ordered up to 170 census monitors to return to Khartoum, accusing them of interfering with the vital count that will help determine how wealth and power are shared in Africa's largest country.

The monitors, part of a team of national and international and observers whose leader was appointed by the presidency in Khartoum, were mostly from the north of Sudan, a senior southern census official told Reuters on Monday.

"(Khartoum) sent a recognised team of 25 (monitors). The others we don't know," Adwok Chol said. "State officials have told them to report back."

Sudan's first census since a 2005 north-south peace deal that ended Africa's longest civil war began last Tuesday. Due to take two weeks, it will lay the groundwork for a 2009 poll that will be the country's first democratic election in 23 years.

North and south bickered over the content and logistics of the much-delayed count, with the south reluctantly agreeing to a start date but saying it may not be bound by the results.

Chol declined to say if the 100-170 unrecognised observers were being detained but said local authorities from the 10 southern states would be sending them back to Juba, the capital of semi-autonomous South Sudan.

"For their own safety and security they should not move around and should go back to the north," he said.

Chol said the south had not been informed of any census observers other than the 25 agreed, adding: "They (the monitors) should stop interfering with the census, report back to Juba then go back to Khartoum".

Some 2 million people died in the north-south war that was fought over ethnicity, religion and oil and is separate from continuing violence in Sudan's western Darfur region.

The road to peace has been rough and suspicion and tension over oil revenues, the location of a north-south border and delays in the redeployment of troops remain high.

Under the terms of the 2005 peace, the south will have a chance to vote for independence in 2011