Abyei chief administrator calls for effective international intervention ArticleComments (12). Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 5, 2011 (ABYEI) – Abyei’s chief administrator, Deng Arop Kuol on Thursday, called for immediate and effective international intervention to resolve the political impasse hindering citizens in the oil producing region from deciding whether they will join South Sudan and or remain in the North. SPLA soldiers gather outside a U.N. base in Abyei May 16, 2008. (Photo: Reuters)The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) contains a provision which allows citizens of Abyei to decide whether to return to South from where they were transferred to Kordofan in 1905, or remain in the north. The peace deal, which ended the over two decades North-South conflict, in which an estimated two million lives were lost and uprooted four million people from their homes, also granted the South the right to secede through a referendum. In January the southern referendum saw an overwhelmingly vote for independence but Abyei’s did not due to disagreement over who could vote. South Sudan’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP), the signatories to the CPA, have failed to reach a consensus on voter eligibility and composition of the referendum commission which would organize vote to decide the fate of the region. The NCP wants the members of Arabic nomadic tribe of Misseriya included in the vote while the SPLM wants the vote limited to members of nine chiefdoms of the Dinka Ngok and other Sudanese residents of Abyei. On Thursday, the chief administrator said the Abyei dispute needs aggressive and focused international attention to break the deadlock. "The talks over Abyei are never shedding light. The National Congress Party is deliberately refusing to the implement the Abyei protocol. It is time for [an] international committee to pay focused and aggressive attention,” said an emotional chief administrator, Deng Arop Kuol in an interview with Sudan Tribune in Abyei town. He accused the Khartoum-based of using force to attempt to annex the region to the north. "The government in Khartoum is no longer interested in seeking peace to settle the issue of Abyei because it feels all attempts and proposals never comes out in their favor so they are resorting to the use of force," said Kuol. The senior official from the area made the statement after forces belonging to the Sudan Armed Forces controlled by Khartoum based government clashed with local police forces in the oil-producing border region, killing 14 and wounding several others on both sides on Sunday. The United Nations Mission in Sudan said it was unclear who started the fighting late on Sunday while officials from north and south traded accusation with SPLM blaming the government of forces of intention to destabilize security of the area. "A convoy with weapons mounted on vehicles belonging to members of Sudan Armed Forced component of the Joint Integrated Unit attempted to enter the town, on Sunday evening. They had no approval of the administration and above of all, the United Nations was not aware. This was a clear attempt to use the force to take the area. They were intending to attack the area and take control," said Kuol. He said the shooting broke out after a convoy commanded by a major in the Sudan Armed Forces refused to cooperate with local police by insisting on entering without approval. "They started shooting when police refused and stopped the convoy […] This was a plan to invade," Kuol said. Sudanese Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamad in a press briefing in Khartoum on Tuesday denied the army initiated the fight. Hamad said southern police forces initiated the attack first on the convoy. He said the convoy had been sent to reinforce the joint north-south integrated force after the southern army had earlier sent more troops to the region, a charge the south denies. "The SPLM brought its component from the joint forces, but when the (northern) Sudanese Armed Forces brought its components it was attacked," he said. The Special representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Haile Menkerios on Thursday met South Sudan President on the issue of Abyei. He was joined by U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, Princeton Lyman and former Burundian President Pierre Buyoya of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel. “The two parties have committed that the Kadugli and Abyei Agreements shall be carried out with the facilitation and participation of the UN. UNMIS will also support the containment and temporary security measures while a solution is being sought. We have agreed here to immediately move on it,” Menkerios said after the meeting. Before traveling to Juba, Menkerios met with Government of Sudan in Khartoum which also expressed their readiness to implement the agreements. In accordance with the Kadugli and Abyei Agreements signed by the parties in January and March of this year, both sides committed to the total withdrawal of all unauthorized forces from the Abyei Area with security to be maintained and provided by only Joint-Integrated Units and Joint-Integrated Police Units. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
