South Sudan Vice President travels to Khartoum to defuse tensions with the North
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May 27, 2011 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s Vice President, Riek Machar, will
travel to Khartoum on Saturday to defuse the escalating tensions
between North and South over the Abyei crisis.
JPEG - 14.9 kb
Southern Sudanese regional vice president Riek Machar (L) listens to
Sudan’s Second Vice President Ali Osman Taha during a meeting in
Khartoum on July 10, 2010 (Getty)
The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) captured the disputed Abyei region
between North and South on Saturday 21 May.
The Northern military said they seized the border region in
retaliation for the ambush on their troops last week by Southern units
near Abyei which they claimed left 197 soldiers either missing or
dead. The SAF convoy was being escorted by United Nations peacekeepers
when the attack took place.
The clashes in Abyei resulted to the displacement of 20,000 people
southwards to Warrap state in the South.
President Omer Hassan al Bashir said his forces will continue to
occupy Abyei until a peaceful solution is reached about the future of
the disputed region.
He has also ordered a blockade on commercial vehicles taking goods
into South Sudan, from the North resulting in food shortages in the
southern states that share a border with the North.
The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday added a new layer
of tension by declaring that they will not recognize the independence
of the South in July unless the North-South border is demarcated.
On Friday the Council of Ministers of the Government of Southern Sudan
held meeting and resolved to dispatch Vice President Machar to the
national capital, Khartoum to reopen peaceful negotiations with the
National Congress Party (NCP) on all outstanding issues including the
Abyei situation.
In a statement to the press shortly after the resolution was passed by
the Council, the minister of Information, Barnaba Marial Benjamin,
said Machar will lead a high level delegation including a number of
ministers to Khartoum. He said he will meet with the Vice President of
Sudan, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and other senior official in the
national government.
Marial explained that the President of the Government of Southern
Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, briefed the Council on the current crisis
in the country. Kiir said that South Sudan will not be drawn into a
war and will pursue peaceful means to implement the outstanding issues
of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
"South Sudan will not go back to war. It will never happen under my
leadership and I have said this before," president Kiir told
journalists at a well-attended press conference on Thursday.
He said if any body thinks that South Sudan will “retaliate by
attacking Abyei or anywhere in Sudan that will not happen.”
Kiir also appealed to the southern population to remain calm and
ensure that the events in Abyei do not scupper the smooth preparation
for the long-awaited independence of the region.
South Sudan, which will formally become independent on July 9, voted
overwhelmingly for secession from the rest of Sudan in a
self-determination’s referendum conducted in January this year. This
is in accordance with the 2005 North-South peace deal which ended 21
years of civil war.
Both North and South need each other in order for their respective
economies to prosper at least for the years immediately following
separation in July.
(ST)
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