Sudan poll a challenge to Africa’s colonial borders
ANALYSIS |
JUBA — A referendum on independence for south Sudan on Sunday raises tough questions about the legitimacy of Africa’s colonial borders and sets a precedent for existing secessionist movements, analysts say.
“There is an uneasiness in Africa toward this independence because it breaks with a tradition (of borders being inviolable) and because it seems to be taking place under US pressure,” says Roland Marchal, Sudan specialist and senior researcher at the Institute of Political Sciences in Paris.
“This is seen as if it were a Berlin II, with the colonial powers carving up Africa again,” he said, referring to the 1885 Berlin Conference where European powers divided and colonized Africa among themselves.
A peace accord in 2005 between the mostly Arab Muslim north and the largely Christian African south ended a 22-year civil war in Sudan, with an agreement that southerners could vote for independence after six years..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110106com3.html
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