Sudan church leader to chair electoral group: CEN 6.26.09 p 6. July 1, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church of the Sudan.trackback
The Archbishop of Juba Daniel Deng writes that the long time provincial secretary of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS), Canon Enock Tombe, has been given a year’s leave of absence to take up the post of chairman of the Eastern Equatoria High Elections Committee.
The June 16 appointment of Canon Tombe was “a national honour to the ECS,” Archbishop Deng wrote as “one of our leading clergymen has been chosen” by the government “for this most prestigious appointment.” The current ECS Personnel Secretary, Mr. John Augustino Lumori, has been appointed Acting Provincial Secretary through 2010, the archbishop said.
The Jan 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which formally ended the 21-year civil war between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), called for national elections in July 2009, and a referendum on South Sudan independence to be held by 2011.
In April the Sudan’s nine-man electoral commission postponed the first national elections in 20 years for the national president and parliament, the South Sudan president and parliament, state governors and state assemblies to Feb 2010, saying more time was needed to create the infrastructure to oversee the voting.
However a June 16 report presented to the UN Human Rights Council questioned whether Sudan’s elections would be free and fair. UN investigator Sima Samar stated that “reports of arbitrary arrests, detention, as well as allegations of ill-treatment and torture of human rights defenders and humanitarian workers by security forces, in particular by the National Intelligence and Security Services” were being lodged with the UN mission in Sudan.
“In view of the upcoming elections in Feb 2010, it is imperative that restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly be removed to create a conducive environment for free and fair elections,” Samar told the Council.
The Sudan’s representative to the Human Rights Council dismissed the charges, saying the investigator’s report failed to “give a true picture of human rights” in the Sudan.
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