US urges Sudan's north and south to mend rift - Financial Times

US urges Sudan's north and south to mend rift
By Barney Jopson in Nairobi
Published: January 12 2010 02:00 | Last updated: January 12 2010 02:00
The governments of north and south Sudan must act "now" and make crucial decisions on how they will live together if the south chooses independence in a referendum due next January, the US has said.
Scott Gration, the US special envoy to Sudan, told the Financial Times that the former rebels who govern the south and the Arab-led regime in Khartoum must resolve the potentially incendiary disputes between them.
"We have to come to grips with the sharing of resources, whether it's grazing rights, water rights or oil rights," he said in a telephone interview from Washington.
"We have to come to grips with the border. It has to be demarcated and delineated. We have to come to grips with citizenship, and the rights of people on both sides of the border. Those things need to be done now."
Sudan is entering a year of flashpoints and aid agencies warned last week that war between the north and south could reignite if the referendum on southern independence did not take place as planned.
 
Read more.