INTERVIEW: Pagan Amum outlines south Sudan’s “ransom” to break Abyei deadlock
By Muhammad Osman
October 30, 2010 (NAIROBI) – The secretary-general of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum, has outlined what he termed as “the ransom” that south Sudan is offering to north Sudan in order to break the deadlock over the future of the contested oil-producing area of Abyei.
Civil war raged for over two decades between the Arab, Muslim-ruled north Sudan and the mainly Christian, African south before it ended in 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The CPA was made between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of north Sudan and the SPLM of south Sudan.
Under the deal, the south was given an autonomous rule with a chance for full independence in a referendum vote set to take place in January 2011. All prognoses indicate that southerners will vote overwhelmingly for the independence of their own state.
The CPA also provided for the conduct of another referendum at the same time in January 2011 in Abyei area to determine whether it should remain in the north or join the south in the event of its secession from the north.
Whereas preparations for south Sudan referendum have proceeded haltingly, the Abyei referendum is increasingly becoming a remote possibility as north and south Sudan remain deadlocked over who is eligible to vote in the referendum.
Talks between the two sides have so far failed to settle the dispute on whether members of the north-associated nomadic tribe of Al-Missiriyah, whose members traverse the borders into Abyei on seasonal basis to graze their cattle, should be eligible to vote in the referendum together with members of south Sudan’s Dinka Ngok tribe.
Pagan Amum, who also serves as a minister for Peace and CPA implementation in the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), told Sudan Tribune that the NCP was holding Abyei hostage and demanding a ransom for its release.
The trouble is, according to Amum, the NCP is not seeking ransom only from south Sudan but also from the US Administration. He later explained that the NCP wants the US Administration to lift economic sanctions imposed on Sudan and normalize bilateral relations.
Pagan Amum said that the south would need to offer a development package to Al-Missiryah, one that includes guarantees to their rights in grazing as well as water resources and pastors in their homelands even after the area goes to the south.
He also revealed that the south would need to give the NCP a percentage of the oil produced from Abyei.
In response to a question on what option could south Sudan resort to if the referendum is hindered by the north, Amum said that if the south realizes that the referendum is being “politically obstructed,” the south would to article 1.3 of the CPA which says that the people of south Sudan have the right to self-determination through the referendum “among other mechanisms.”
According to Amum, one of those mechanisms is to exercise the vote through south Sudan parliament.
On the front of south Sudan referendum, Amum expressed confidence that the referendum could go ahead as planned in January 2011, adding that GoSS was doing everything in its capacity to assist the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC).
Amum stated that the Government of Sudan and the International Community have not yet fulfilled their pledges towards the referendum but he later said he was sure the UN and the international community is committed to supporting the exercise.
Pagan Amum stressed the importance of creating good relations between north and south Sudan even if the latter decides to form an independent state.
“Even if the choice of south Sudan people is secession, it should not be a secession that leads to severing relations between the north and the south, but leads into a new era of cooperation whereby we expect to have continuation of relationship in the area of trade, movement of people, goods and services between the south and the north and cooperation in all fields.”
He later revealed that the south would continue to export its oil through the north’s pipelines even after secession.
“In the area of economy, the south will continue to export oil through the north, paying fees for the use of pipelines and other services including the ports” he said.
Most of Sudan’s proven 485,000 barrels of oil per day lie in the south, but downstream facilities like pipelines, storage and refinery are in the North.
Amum went on to promise that south Sudan secession would not have a negative impact on northern or southern citizens residing in both sides of the country.
“All northern Sudanese who are working in the oilfield will continue to work in the oil field and all southern Sudanese who are working in northern Sudan will continue to work in north Sudan, and all northern traders who are working in southern Sudanese will continue to work and given residence.”
Concerning the tentative borders between north and south Sudan, Amum said that the two sides must be able to demarcate the borders as they stood on January, 01 1956, the date of Sudan independence from Anglo-British Condominium rule.
Much of north-south borders have not been decided, raising concerns of a possible return to violence if the borders are not decided before the referendum.
But according to Amum, the two sides “agreed that no dispute on borders will take us back to war.”
Furthermore, Amum stressed that south Sudan referendum is “not conditional” on the demarcation of north-south borders.
He explained that they would ask for the assistance of the United Kingdom in demarcating the borders “so the borders are demarcated without any conflict arising from territorial ambitions by from the north or the south.”
Pagan Amum said that south Sudan is in supporting the deployment of UN peacekeepers along hotspots on north-south borders in order to prevent the two sides from sliding back to war.
“We don’t want return to war and it will be in the interest of both north and the south to station international UN forces between the north and the south and create a buffer zone and cooperate it is an important mechanism to prevent a return to war.”
North Sudan has ardently opposed the deployment of UN peacekeepers in borderlands.
“In this historical moment, our strategic objective is to ensure that we sustain peace and ensure that we enter Sudan into an era of just peace and good relations between the south and the north and avert a return to war” Amum concluded.
(ST)