South Sudan to drop Abyei claims from draft constitution as
unauthorized forces start withdrawal
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May 8, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – South Sudan has pledged to strike claims to
Abyei region off its draft constitution, an AU-mandated panel
announced on Sunday, as north and south Sudan together with the UN
reached an agreement on a timeframe to withdraw all unauthorized from
the hotly-contested region.
JPEG - 14.5 kb
UNMIS peacekeepers patrol Abyei region in the wake of clashes on 15
January (UN Photo Service)
Tension recently flared up between north and south Sudan after the
latter issued a draft constitution laying claims to Abyei, prompting
northern official to threaten to break their earlier promises to
recognize South Sudan independence which was gained via a referendum
held in January as part of the 2005’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement
(CPA).
Following a meeting with Sudan’s second Vice-President Ali Osman
Mohamed Taha in Khartoum yesterday, the member of the AU High-Level
Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP) and former president of Burundi
Pierre Buyoya told reporters that they had conveyed to Taha the
pledges the panel had received from the Government of South Sudan not
to take any unilateral measures regarding Abyei and drop claims to the
region’s ownership from the south’s draft constitution.
Meanwhile, the Abyei Joint Technical Committee (AJTC), which was
established on 13 April to oversee the implementation of the
UN-moderated Kadugli Agreements signed between the parties to Abyei
conflict, on Sunday held its first meeting in Kadugli town.
According to a press release by the United Nation Mission in Sudan
(UNMIS), whose Force Commander Major General Moses Bisong Obi chairs
the ATJC, the meeting had reached an agreement to withdraw all
unauthorized forces from Abyei and beef up the deployment of the Joint
Integrated Units (JIU), a CPA mechanism comprising even number of
troops from north and south Sudan armies, in Abyei.
UNMIS further said that the withdrawal and deployment process had been
scheduled to begin on Tuesday 10 May and be completed by 17 May. The
AJTC is due to visit Abyei region today’s morning to assess the
situation on the ground.
“I believe there has been a commitment from the parties and that has
been reflected in the way the meeting went today,” Maj. Gen Obi said
after the meeting. “There was good will from both sides and we hope to
follow-up on this spirit,” he added.
UNMIS also said that the meeting had agreed that north and south Sudan
would create conducive environment by de-escalating tensions and
speaking to their respective communities on the ground regarding the
implementation of the Kadugli Agreements, and ensuring freedom of
access for UNMIS.
In a related context, the international guarantors of Sudan’s 2005
peace deal, which ended decades of civil war between the north and the
south, have announced arrangements to hold emergency meetings bringing
the sides of Abyei dispute together as well as the AU panel in
Washington and Addis Ababa.
In a press conference in Khartoum on Sunday, the administrator the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Rajiv
Shah, said that his country beside Norway and UK would convene a
meeting during November in Washington to reach a settlement to Abyei
issue.
Also on Abyei, the International Crisis Group on Sunday rang the alarm
bell over the situation in the region.
In a conflict risk alert entitled “Sudan: Abyei at a Dangerous Tipping
Point,” the Brussels-based think tank warned that dangerous tensions
both on the ground and between the leaders of the National Congress
Party (NCP) in North Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement
(SPLM) in the south may lead to escalation of violent confrontation
ahead of the south’s formal independence in July.
The ICG report noted that north and south Sudan armies have deployed
forces in and around Abyei in breach of the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA) and subsequent security arrangements.
“Further escalation and additional tit-for-tat deployments risk
pushing Abyei beyond the tipping point, endangering lives and the
fragile peace in Sudan,” the ICG warned.
The ICG put forward a raft of recommendations including emphasis on
the withdrawal of unauthorized forces from Abyei and allowing UNMIS
“unfettered access” to verify withdrawals.
“The danger of new conflict is real. Failure to halt the downward
trend toward violence in Abyei could unravel the tenuous peace that
has been strong enough to get through the Southern Sudan referendum,
but it could also intensify proxy war in other parts of Sudan, which
will continue to feed the adversarial North-South relationship that
both sides have so well accommodated over the course of the CPA
period,” ICG said.
The latest instance of violence in Abyei, where clashes recently
escalated due to the onset of the migration season, occurred on
mid-February when ten people were killed and several others sustained
injuries as a result of violent confrontations between the
Arab-nomadic Misseriya tribe and local police from south Sudan.
(ST)
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