Sudan north-south peace deal lagging – monitor
July 12, 2006 (KHARTOUM) – An agreement to end more than 20 years of civil war in south Sudan has been violated and its implementation especially in the oil-rich Abyei region is behind schedule, a commission monitoring the deal said on Wednesday.
“There is a growing sense of frustration and disappointment among the people about what they perceive as a lack of progress in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA),” Assessment and Evaluation Commission Chairman Tom Vraalsen told reporters in Khartoum.
“I don’t think any of the two parties when they signed the CPA … (in) January last year, fully recognised the challenges ahead of them,” said Vraalsen, who refused to appoint blame for the CPA’s slow implementation and violation.
He highlighted the deadlock over the status of the Abyei region, which contains one of Sudan’s two largest oil fields. Sudan pumps around 500,000 barrels per day of crude.
The region has a special autonomous status with the right to vote in a referendum on joining the north or a possible separate south in 2011.
The dispute over whether it will go to the north or the south has created instability in the area and hampered aid efforts.
“On some issues of great importance the parties are in clear violation of the CPA. I am referring to the question of Abyei and the petroleum commission,” Vraalsen said.
The north’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) ended Africa’s longest civil war in January 2005 by signing the CPA.
The deal ushered in a south Sudan government, and guaranteed posts for SPLM politicians in the Khartoum government.
Commissions meant to implement the agreement have not been formed or have not started work, violating CPA deadlines. Senior SPLM politician Deng Alor has said the NCP has refused to meet the petroleum commission to avoid sharing oil revenues fairly.
The Oil Ministry was not immediately available for comment.
Analysts have said another obstacle to the petroleum commission’s work is the lack of SPLM representatives with in-depth oil industry knowledge. The commission’s mandate includes examining oil output and oil contracts.
(Reuters)