UN seeks more peacekeepers for Sudan ahead of referendum

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday the UN hopes to boost the number of peacekeepers in Sudan as voters continue to register for a January referendum on whether the south of the country should secede from the north. The plebiscite is the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south conflict -- Africa's longest civil war which killed 2 million people.

There are concerns that delays and cross-border tensions could derail the referenda, scheduled for January 9, and see the country fall back into violence.

Speaking at a high-level Security Council meeting, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it was 'critical' that the vote proceed freely and fairly.

"The fate of 44 million Sudanese depends on their leaders' willingness to work together to resolve these issues," Mrs. Clinton said.

Earlier this week, the Bishops of Sudan called for the development of mechanisms to guarantee the will of the people will be upheld no matter what the results of January ballot measures on the future makeup of the country.

In a statement issued Nov. 14, near the end of a weeklong meeting, the bishops also called for calm after the results of the votes are announced and appealed especially to young people "to refrain from being drawn into political violence and to heed the call for peace and restraint in order to build the future they desire."

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