US toughens stance against Sudan national security law

US toughens stance against Sudan national security law
January 8, 2010 (WASHINGTON) — The US administration today warned Sudan that the National Security law in its current form may hinder the conduct of fair and free elections scheduled for next April.
The Sudanese national assembly passed the National Security Act last month by the mechanical majority of the dominant National Congress Party (NCP) despite objections by the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) and other smaller opposition parties that voted against the law.
Critics say that the bill enacted grants sweeping powers to the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) including the powers of arrest, search and seizure.
The SPLM chairman and First Vice president of the country Salva Kiir vowed not to sign it and urged president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir to do the same.
Marking the fifth anniversary of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ending Africa’s longest civil war the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the NCP “must recognize that, as the dominant political party, it bears greater responsibility in ensuring the full and successful implementation of the CPA”.
“The NCP therefore must use its executive authority to suspend elements of the national security and public order laws that are incompatible with free and fair elections,” Clinton told reporters in Washington today, flanked by the special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration.
“There must be no efforts to restrict freedom of speech and assembly and there must be no prohibitions on peaceful protests,” Clinton added.
The White House echoed the position in a separate statement today describing the security law as “repressive”.
“Time is limited, the stakes are high, and there is much work yet to be done to secure a lasting peace and prevent the resurgence of a deadly war. Recent setbacks, including violent clashes in the South, the Khartoum government’s passage of a repressive National Security Act, the government’s violent
suppression of peaceful protests, and the failure of the two sides to come to agreement on critical issues such as border demarcation, do not bode well for the region or for the people of Sudan”.
The US top diplomat hailed “positive” made since the CPA was signed but warned that “they are not enough to secure lasting peace” adding that “threats to progress are real”.
“Reform of key institutions has been sporadic, and true democratic transformation – envisioned in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement – remains elusive. Violence in the South is rising and tensions continue in border areas. So today, the parties in Sudan have a choice. They can revert back to a dark era of conflict or they can move forward together toward a lasting peace” she said.
She further said that the US is concerned with the increasing interethnic and tribal violence in South Sudan particularly ahead of the 2011 referendum in which Southerners will decide if they want to establish their own state. “In Southern Sudan, no matter the outcome of the referendum, Southern Sudan
must increase its institutional capacity and prepare to govern responsibly, whether as a semiautonomous region within Sudan or a newly independent nation,” Clinton added.
The US special envoy stressed that Washington does not want to see any delay in the elections beyond April because of the rains season after that.
“We would like those elections to take place in April because the rains start right after that. And we believe that if they are delayed, the rains will be a problem. In some areas the rains, as you know, will keep people from being able to get to the polling places” Gration said.
“We start registration for the referendum in Abyei and in the South in July, and it would be good if we cold separate those two events. We believe that the election gives us an opportunity to practice those elements that will be so important in the referendum. If we can get it right on how to do voter
education, get the laws passed, get the commissions up and running and funded, to get the processes out just in terms of the logistics and admin of printing ballots, making sure that the system has security so people can come and go freely, to make sure it’s transparent, and to make sure that those results are passed out in a way that everybody recognizes that this is credible” he added.
Gration said that he is in contact with former South African president Thabo Mbeki who is chairing an African Union (AU) panel that oversees the implementation of a Darfur roadmap endorsed by the pan-African body and the CPA.
He added that they are looking at what the new UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari will be doing while voicing support to the Doha peace talks between Khartoum and the Darfur rebel groups.
However, Gration made no mention of the joint AU-UN mediator Dijibril
Bassole who sources say is not in good terms with the US special envoy.