“What is happening in Sudan could become a contagious disease that affects the whole of Africa,” Gathafi said at the opening of an Arab-Africa summit in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte.
“We must recognise that this event is dangerous,” he said in reference to a January 9 referendum on southern Sudan independence which could see Africa’s largest country split in two.
“The partition of Sudan is likely to change the map of the country. But other (African countries) will change too,” the Libyan leader told the gathering, which is being attended by Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir.
On Saturday, clashes erupted in Khartoum as opponents of Sudan’s potential breakup after the referendum protested during a visit to the capital by UN Security Council ambassadors.
The referendum is a central plank of an accord known as the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended two decades of civil war in Sudan, a north-south conflict in which two million people died.
In a summit draft declaration seen by AFP, the Arab and African leaders stress the need to “respect Sudanese sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.”
The draft “Sirte Declaration” also affirms the leaders’ “complete rejection of any attempt to undermine its (Sudan’s) sovereignty, unity, security or stability.”
“The importance of completing negotiations on questions pertaining to issues in post-referendum south Sudan” is also underlined in the draft.
According to the document, the leaders also “reject resolutions by the International Criminal Court against the Sudanese president.”
Bashir, the first sitting head of state to face arrest warrants issued by the ICC, denies masterminding war crimes and genocide in Sudan’s war-wracked western region of Darfur.
The gathering is also set to discuss establishing a strategic partnership between Arab and African states in areas such as energy, trade and food security.
Source: Middle East Online