Kampala is willing to pay any price, including the possibility of a flare-up of insurgency and poor diplomatic relations, to ensure the secession of oil-rich Southern Sudan from the North should next year’s referendum decides in its favour — as it is widely expected to do.

This determination was evident when President Yoweri Museveni began his address to a United Nations Security Council meeting in Entebbe, Uganda last week, by asking the UN not to delay the referendum.

The Ugandan leader’s position is by far the strongest show of support by a head of state yet for the break-up of Sudan.

In a closed session, Museveni told UN Security Council envoys, “Uganda will cope with the fallout from the referendum the way it has coped since 1955 but for a brief 10-year lull.”

The closed-door meeting also discussed the Somali crisis and the recent UN report published early this month detailing alleged atrocities committed by the Rwanda and Uganda armies in Congo.

Uganda’s position on the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan is so far the boldest in the region, and that firmness is likely to boost calls on Khartoum and the international community to expedite the preparations for the referendum.

Kampala was the major sponsor of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army/ Movement that is currently ruling in Southern Sudan.

“The referendum is very crucial and delaying it is highly risky. It is better to involve the UN in the organisation rather than waiting to see what happens after the results,” Museveni was quoted as saying by his press secretary Tamale Mirundi.

The Council’s 15-member delegation, which included diplomats from Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, were in Kampala for consultations.

After the Wednesday meeting, the delegates headed to the conflict-wracked Darfur region, then on to Southern capital Juba and the capital Khartoum on a fact-finding mission.

Museveni’s position on Sudan is widely interpreted to mean that Uganda expects that self-determination by South Sudan through a free and fair referendum in Sudan (slated for January 2011) could bring stability in Africa’s largest country.

But the Uganda leader did not rule out accepting the outcome of the referendum should the Southerners vote for unity with the North.

This is possibly the reason he pointed out that the African Union did not support the International Criminal Court’s indictment of President Omar al-Bashir because they thought it would jeopardise the peace process in Sudan.

So, though the referendum does not imply an automatic secession since the South could still choose unity, Museveni believes the difference would be that the choice would have been achieved democratically as opposed to through coercion.

However, there are fears the world over that a break-up of Sudan could spark a new conflict after nearly 50 years of civil strife that ended with a 2005 peace accord.

The referendum on self-determination in Southern Sudan and the small region of Abyei are currently slated for January 9, 2011.

So far, preparations for the voting are seriously behind schedule, heightening fears of a unilateral declaration of independence and possible conflict if there is a delay.

Voter registration has not started and cannot be ready on time for a January 9 vote, according to diplomatic sources. There is not even a North-South border.

Some diplomats suspect President Omar al-Bashir has been deliberately dragging his feet over the referendum.

But President Museveni argues that such laxity is all the more reason the UN should become more involved in assuring a transparent process, instead of waiting till things go wrong.

UN officials have been saying privately that they expect the referendum could be “messy’ and “delayed” but that there are signs that Khartoum is already resigned to losing the South and neither side wants a new war.

Reported by Charles Kazooba and Julius Barigaba