Dallaire: Does last week’s creation of a Southern Sudanese state point to secession as the solution to other African conflicts?

By:
Roméo Dallaire
/
19 July, 2011
By: Roméo Dallaire
Canadian Senator and retired Lieutenant-General

During the Rwandan genocide, I was at one point convinced that both sides were posturing on the battlefield to essentially split the country in two and create a Cyprus type of situation. Although not the best option, it might have been a reasonable interim option as the country as a whole catches its breath after a civil war, patches its wounds after the genocide, and permit a possible political evolution to some sort of federation. The fly in the ointment was that the Hutu side would have had to be the moderates I was negotiating with, and not the extremists who were running the genocide.

So separation into two states is a possibility, but not an essential or only solution.

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