Misseriya urge Dinka Ngok not to abandon ancestral ties

By Ngor Arol Garang

July 26, 2009 (ABYEI) — Leaders of the Misseriya tribes have on Sunday 26 urged Dinka Ngok not to abandon their ancestral ties after the recent Abyei ruling.

In a message addressed to the chief administrator and his deputy, the two largest tribes of the Misseriya expressed their satisfaction and willingness to cooperate with the international technical committee for border demarcation.

The leaders, who sent a letter written in Arabic received by Deputy Chief Administrator today, stated that Misseriya chiefs have accepted the ruling and announced their compliance for it implementation without any hindrances from their sides.

The two page message signed by Misseriya paramount leader Mukhtar Babu Ahmad, read out to Abyei residents by deputy chief administrator, underlined complete acceptance of the court’s decision by Messeriya tribes without reservations.

The leaders continued to say in their letter that if you win a land, do not lose your brothers adding that land dispute should not be allowed to betray their relationships. “Land is not important. What is important is human relationship,” the letter stated.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Abyei’s award confirmed that the boundary of the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms transferred to Kordofan in 1905 are part of southern Sudan based on tribal understanding of the Abyei Boundary Commission (ABC) panel of experts.

It also said that their eastern boundary in 1905 does not extend to line of Upper Nile border and attributed the oil rich area of eastern Abyei to northern Sudan.

The borders of Abyei are particularly important to southerners because Abyei residents have been promised a referendum on whether to join southern Sudan in January 2011, under the terms of the peace deal

On Thursday 23, Hamdan Ahmed Ali, a Misseriya tribe member calling himself “The Emir of the Mujahedeen” said that most of the tribe reject the ruling.

Ali said that his tribe does not care about the oil as much as they care about the land.

“Oil means nothing to us and it cannot be a substitute to the pastures, water and the land owned by our brothers among the Dinka Ngok” he said.

Ali blasted the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) accusing the latter of betraying them for the sake of oil.

However, he ruled out any return to war or bearing arms against any party but cautioned that they will choose joining the South in the 2011 Abyei referendum.

He was stressed they will not die again in defense of others but will live with our kinsmen the Dinka Ngok whom we are historically bound. We have now learned more from Khartoum’s deceptions than at any time before.

(ST)