SPLM maintains inclusion of Abyei in South Sudan’s draft constitution
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By Ngor Arol Garang
May 13, 2011 (ABYEI) — A senior member of the South Sudan’s ruling
party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), on Friday said
his party maintains its position of including the contested region of
Abyei in the draft transitional constitution of South Sudan
JPEG - 52.4 kb
A Sudanese celebrate the decision of the Permanent Court of
Arbitration on Abyei, central Sudan, July 22, 2009. (Photo Mckulka -
UNMIS)
The South Sudan will become an independent state on 9 July 2011, after
southerners overwhelmingly last January opted for secession from north
Sudan. However, the failure to hold a referendum over the status of
the Abyei region fuels tension and controversy not only between the
north and the south but also among the ruling party and opposition
forces in Juba.
In order to ease tension in the region after recent bloody clashes,
Sudan’s first vice president and head of south Sudan government, Salva
Kiir Mayadrit pledged in a meeting on 5 May with UN, US envoys and a
member of AU panel on Sudan, to remove Abyei from the draft
constitution of the would be Republic of South Sudan.
"The recommendation by the Constitutional Review Committee represents
position of the SPLM on Abyei. The inclusion of Abyei in the
transitional constitution of South Sudan has permissible terms", said
Michael Makuei Lueth, minister of parliamentary affairs in the
Government of South Sudan (GoSS) in an interview with Sudan Tribune on
Friday.
Makuei explained that the permissible terms which the technical
constitutional review committee quoted in the inclusion of Abyei in
the draft constitution of South Sudan was the existence of the
presidency, which Abyei falls under the jurisdiction of, prior to
declaration of the independence state of South Sudan.
"The inclusion of Abyei in the draft interim constitution of South
Sudan was necessitated by the fact that parties to the Comprehensive
Peace Agreement agreed that Abyei would be administered through the
presidency with dual citizens in both North and South during the six
years of interim period until when a referendum for citizens of the
area to decide where to go is held", explained Makuei.
The senior member of the SPLM further argued that it was from this
background that the technical committee found it a constitutional
obligation to include the region in the draft constitution of the
independent state of south Sudan as done by Khartoum in her new
interim constitution.
"It was the Sudanese National Assembly which became the first to
include Abyei in their interim constitution without consulting joint
political committee of the two parties on what would be constitutional
status Abyei under the pretext that it would still be administered
through the presidency without considering that the presidency would
not be there after the end of interim period. The article 183 of the
interim constitution of Sudan includes Abyei under jurisdiction of the
presidency", explained minister Makuei.
While the SPLM maintained its position to include Abyei in the draft
constitution of south Sudan, 18 southern opposition political parties
argued that Abyei should be removed from the constitution until a
political resolution was reached through the post-referendum
negotiations recommend that Abyei shall join the south Sudan.
"If the status of Abyei is resolved, through a referendum on self
determination as provided in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement or
through political resolution through the post referendum negotiations,
and the decision is that Abyei shall be in South Sudan, then the Abyei
area will automatically be included in the territory of south Sudan",
explained leaders of the opposition parties in a document obtained by
Sudan Tribune.
The opposition parties reacted vigorously against definition under
article 2 of part 1 of the draft transitional constitution of South
Sudan which includes Abyei.
"The territory of the Republic of South Sudan comprises all lands and
air space that constituted the three former southern provinces of Bahr
el Ghazal, Equatoria, and Upper Nile in their boundaries as they stood
on January 1, 1956, and Abyei Area, the territory of the nine Ngok
Dinka chiefdoms transferred from Bahr el Ghazal province to Kordofan
province in 1905 as defined by the arbitration Tribunal Award of July
2009", reads part of the draft constitution of South Sudan under
article 1-2.
The inclusion of Abyei in the draft constitution of South Sudan
generated heated discussions with some seeking removal of the
constitution from South Sudanese political circles, Some went to
allege that the National Congress Party (NCP) of north Sudan has a
hand in the proceedings. But, there is no evidence to back up such
claim.
"I honestly do not understand what these so called south Sudanese
political parties are up to. I do not really understand any single
sense in their arguments because it appears they are using Abyei as a
bargaining tool for SPLM to compromise on some of their demands," said
Deng Thiep Akok, a senior member of the SPLM.
"They are failing to understand that Abyei belongs to the South by all
sources of justifications", Akik emphasized, in a separate interview
with Sudan Tribune from Juba, on Friday.
The north Sudan ruling party, including President Omer Al- Bashir,
have voiced strong opposition to the inclusion of Abyei in the South
Sudan constitution, claiming the region belongs to the north and that
Khartoum would not recognize independent state of south Sudan should
the south unilaterally decide to include it.
(ST)
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