Mbeki meets with VP Taha to defuse tensions between North & South Sudan
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March 14, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The ruling National Congress Party (NCP)
announced today that Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, Vice
President Ali Osman Taha and South Sudan president Salva Kiir will
convene on Thursday to discuss the explosive situation in the
North-South border region of Abyei.
JPEG - 32.6 kb
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, head of the African Union
High Level Implementation Panel (AFP)
Abyei has seen deadly clashes in the run up to and since the South
Sudan referendum with scores killed. The NCP has maintained that the
Arab Misseriya tribe, who enter the region with their livestock for
part of the year, should be allowed to vote in the self-determination
referendum for Abyei.
But the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) have rejected this,
claiming that the southern-aligned Dinka Ngok are the only legitimate
constituency in Abyei.
At least 70 people were killed and three villages razed in clashes
earlier this month between fighters from the Misseriya and the Ngok
Dinka.
The NCP warned last week that more violence may ensue unless the SPLA
withdraws its police from Abyei.
The head of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP)
Thabo Mbeki held talks with VP Taha where he briefed him on the
post-referendum talks, mediated by him, that took place in Addis Ababa
between the NCP and the SPLM.
The NCP political officer Ibrahim Ghandour said in press statements
that Mbeki will head to Juba to continue discussions he had in
Khartoum with the South Sudan government on ways to defuse tensions
and provide a roadmap for future dialogue between the two sides.
Over the weekend, the SPLM Secretary general Pagan Amum said that the
South decided to suspend talks with the NCP on post-referendum
arrangements “until it stops its policy for obstructing stability in
South Sudan, and until after the Security Council’s investigation is
concluded,”.
Amum was referring to his allegations that the NCP is aiding forces
loyal to renegade General George Athor which on Saturday attacked
Malakal, capital of the south’s oil-producing Upper Nile state before
being repealed by SPLA.
The NCP denied the charge saying that the divisions in the South are
behind the unrest.
(ST)
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