20110107
New Vision

PRESIDENT of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, has said that Sunday's referendum on the future of southern Sudan will be an opportunity to enhance security and stability in East Africa.

Speaking to the BBC's Joseph Warungu, Mr Museveni suggested the union of southern and northern Sudan had been based on inequality.

The Ugandan president is known to be a key supporter of southern Sudan.

During the Sudanese civil war he backed the southern rebel movement, the SPLM, while the Sudanese government supported the Ugandan rebel group, the LRA.

From January 9 to January 15, the black Christians and animists in the autonomous region of Southern Sudan will vote on whether to declare independence from a northern government dominated by Arab Muslims.

The two sides fought a war that killed 2 million people from 1983 to 2005, when a peace treaty set the stage for the upcoming vote.