AU mediators detail agenda of Sudan’s presidential summit
June 11, 2011 (JUBA) – Sunday’s summit between north and south Sudan presidents will focus on issues related to the contested region of Abyei, post-secession arrangements and the escalating situation in the flashpoint region of Kordofan, AU mediators said on Friday.
The two-day meeting, moderated by the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel for Sudan (AUHIP) under the leadership of former South African President Thabo Mbeki, will focus on “immediate issues between north and south Sudan,” the panel said in a press release issued on Friday.
The issue of Abyei stands on top of the meeting’s agendas, which will discuss the withdrawal of north Sudan army from the area, the dispatch of an African-led international mission to provide security, the creation of conditions for the speedy return of displaced people and protection of civilians, as well as steps towards a final settlement on the status of the area.
Sudan’s north-south border region of Abyei has been a major point of contention between north and south Sudan since they signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, ending nearly half a century of intermittent civil wars between them.
Under the CPA, South Sudan voted almost unanimously in January this year to secede from the north and form an independent state, whose existence is due to be formally declared in July.
Ownership of the oil-producing region Abyei, in which the north-linked tribe of Messirya overlaps with the ethnically-southern tribe of Dinka Ngok throughout most of the year, was scheduled to be decided via a plebiscite in January. The vote, however, never materialized after north and south Sudan failed to reach an agreement on the criteria of who should qualify to vote as a “resident” of Abyei area.
Following Abyei’s seizure by the north’s Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), President Al-Bashir dissolved the region’s local administration and appointed a new administrator without consulting with Salva Kiir.
“Other items on the agenda for the Summit”, the AUHIP said, “include the speedy establishment of mechanisms for joint security management between north and south, and the forthcoming round of negotiations on post-secession economic arrangements.”
North and South Sudan have been engaged in talks to thrash out a wide-array of arrangements to bifurcate the country ahead of South Sudan independence, including sharing of oil revenues, currency, citizenship, and external debts among others.
The AUHIP also will convene on 12-13 June “a High Level Meeting of representatives of the Government of Sudan and leaders of the [south’s ruling party] Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) from the two areas of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan”.
Violence erupted last week in north Sudan’s border state of South Kordofan between north Sudan’s army and SPLA amid conflicting accounts of who started the fight. The fighting comes after the north demanded that all SPLA soldiers move south or disarm regardless of whether they are northern Sudanese.
The UN estimates that nearly 40,000 people have been displaced by the fighting. No verifiable death toll has been reported yet.
During a meeting he held on Friday with South Sudan President Salva Kiir in the region’s capital Juba, Mbeki stressed the importance of the Addis Ababa meeting to resume peaceful dialogue on Abyei as well as the situation in South Kordofan.
Thabo Mbeki will preside over the summit along with Panel members President Abdusalami Abubakar and President Pierre Buyoya. The release also said that the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi would participate.
(ST)