Sudan's progress on organising a key referendum on the future of the south is too slow according to those instrumental in ending decades of civil war in the country.  

The referendum will decide whether the south will remain as a part of Sudan or become an independent state.

Scheduled to take place in January, the vote was promised as part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended two decades of civil war in which two million people were killed.

Could the vote go either way or is it just a formality before the declaration of independence for the south? What will the results mean for the rest of the country? And are both sides ready to abide by them?

Joining the programme are Lam Akol, the chairperson of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement- Democratic Change (SPLM-DC), Thomas Wani, the head of SPLM parliamentary Bloc, and Douglas Johnson, the author of Root Causes of Sudan's Civil War.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Monday, September 20, 2010.