Disarmament to top agenda of Abyei authority – chief administrator
August 10, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The newly appointed Chief administrator of Abyei area said restoration of security and disarmament of civilians will be among the top priorities of his interim administration.
Last Friday President Omer al-Bashir appointed Arop Mayak Mony Toc of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) as Chief Administrator of the interim Abyei Area Administration and Rahama Abdel-Rahman Al-Nour of the National Congress Party (NCP) as Deputy Administrator.
Arop Mayak said that his administration would focus efforts during the three first months to collect arms form civilians as important measure if confidence building among the citizens who suffered a lot because of the fighting the area witnessed recently.
Speaking to Akhbar al-Youm in Khartoum following his designation, the Chief administrator added he would also request the northern and southern Sudanese armies and the UNMIS peacekeepers to evacuate any troops from Abyei.
Ashraf Qazi, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Sudan and UNMIS head, urged in a statement released on Saturday the Sudan’s peace partners to complete “the final withdrawal from the area of the armed forces of the two sides.”
A U.N. official told Reuters today that the northern Sudan army still had a small contingent near the oil areas and that the southern Sudan army also had some military police in the peripheral Agok area.
In a roadmap to end their difference over the findings of Abyei Boundary Commission, the NCP and the SPLM agreed to fully withdraw their armies from the contested area and to deploy new joint units.
Mony Toc said he will ask the two deputies of the Sudanese president, Salva Kiir Mayadrit and Ali Osman Taha to support his efforts to achieve this mission.
He underlined that the demining of the area is one of the crucial elements of the security plan before the return of the displaced population; adding that concerned authorities would be contacted immediately after his return.
The disputed area witnessed fierce fighting last May between the southern Sudan SPLA and northern SAF. Around 50000 people were displaced and 89 killed. Abei row is considered as the biggest threat to Sudan’s landmark 2005 north-south peace deal that ended decades of civil war in Africa’s largest nation.
(ST)