SPLA rejects Khartoum’s proposal of rotating Abyei administration
* Article
* Comments (8)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
June 1, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The South Sudan army says it rejects a
proposal by North Sudan’s government to install a rotating
administration in the disputed region of Abyei until a
self-determination referendum can be held.
JPEG - 31.8 kb
Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers (Reuters)
Phillip Aguer, the spokesperson of the southern army (SPLA) described
the new proposal as a “one-sided” solution to the conflict in the
disputed oil-producing region.
Khartoum’s Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) occupied Abyei on May 21, after a
southern armed group attacked a convoy near the area. The military
intervention triggered international condemnation as it contravenes
the 2005 peace deal that ended decades of North-South civil war.
“First all, we all know that SAF illegally occupied Abyei and as a
result thousands of southerners have been displaced. Now, how can the
same army begin dictating terms yet the issue has not been resolved?”
the SPLA spokesperson told Sudan Tribune.
Aguer said that any form of administration that the north establishes
in Abyei without consulting their southern counterparts totally
contravenes provisions within the Abyei protocol of the 2005
Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Under the CPA, which ended decades of north-south conflict, South
Sudan voted to secede from the North and will become independent on
July 9. A separate referendum was due to be held at the same time to
decide whether Abyei would remain in north, where it was placed by
colonial administrators become part of the south.
Talks over the composition of the electoral commission and who was
allowed to vote in plebiscite between Khartoum’s governing NCP and the
South’s SPLM repeatedly hit the rocks scuppering the vote.
The fertile region was a battle ground during the civil war which
killed two million people between 1983 and 2005.
Under the proposals released by the Sudan News Agency (SUNA) the SPLA
would be allowed to occupy land south of the Kiir river. The SAF would
hold the ground north of the river, which in the north is known as the
Bahr al-Arab, until a referendum can be held to end the dispute.
South Sudan’s vice president Riek Machar announced that a joint
committee would be set up to resolve the crisis, after he travelled to
Khartoum for talks with his counterpart Sudan’s federal vice president
Ali Osman Taha on May 27.
Under Khartoum’s latest proposal the administration of Abyei would be
transferred to a joint north-south committee the day before the south
secedes on July 9. The NCP also proposed that United Nations
peacekeepers would replaced by “more effective troops from the African
Union.
The mandate of the United Nations Mission in Sudan officially ends on
July 9 with the culmination of the peace deal and Khartoum has
insisted it will decide whether or not the mandate is extended.
(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.
