Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Sudan’s Foreign Minister, Deng Alor, accused northern Sudan of fighting “proxy tribal wars” in the south and asked how southerners could be expected to vote in a 2011 referendum to remain part of Sudan.

“How do you think those people would vote for unity,” Alor, a member of the former rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, or SPLM, told a meeting about unity and self-determination today in Khartoum, the capital. Alor serves in a coalition government between the SPLM and President Umar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party.

Clashes sparked by ethnic tensions and cattle rustling in the south have claimed the lives of at least 2,000 people this year, according to the United Nations.

The referendum is part of a 2005 peace agreement that ended a two-decade civil war between the mainly Muslim north and largely Christian and animist Southern Sudan that killed as many as 2 million people.

Presidential adviser Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani, speaking at the same meeting, said the coalition partners should look to the future instead of focusing on the past.

Alor also criticized the congress party’s support for Islamic Sharia law.

“If we are talking about an Islamic state, we can’t be talking about unity,” Alor said.

Atabani said there had been no mention of Sharia law by the government.

Alor said the choice was between “the new Sudan or the hard way of separation,” urging that all Sudanese be treated the same.

Voter Registration Begins

Sudan began voter registration on Nov. 1 for its first presidential, parliamentary and regional elections in almost a quarter century next year.

The Atlanta-based Carter Center, which is monitoring the elections, criticized the preparations for the vote in a statement yesterday on its Web site.

The center “expressed concerns about the obstacles facing election observers, including delays in finalizing their accreditation procedures and delays in election preparations, as well as continued reports of harassment of political party and civil society activity.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Maram Mazen in Khartoum via Cairo at mmazen@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 3, 2009 09:58 EST