South Sudanese resent northern troops in oil areas
April 13, 2007 (BENTIU) — Troops from northern Sudan have outstayed their welcome in oil-producing Unity State in the semi-autonomous south and are violating a north-south peace agreement, the spokesman for the state said on Friday.
Under the agreement signed in January 2005, ending 21 years of war between north and south, the northern troops should redeploy from the south by July 9.
But James Lily Kuol, spokesman and minister of information in the local state government, told Reuters he saw no sign this would happen and that their presence was frightening off 50,000 people who want to return to their homes in the state.
“SAF (central government) forces have increased since the signing of the (agreement). They are threatening people in this area because of the oil,” he said.
“The Khartoum government does not want the state government to have responsibility for the oil. … We don’t think they (the northern troops) will go and there are more than there are allowed to be,” the official added.
There was no immediate comment from the government in Khartoum.
Oil was one of the factors behind the long war, which divided the Muslim and Arabised north from the black African south, where most people are either animist or Christian and do not speak Arabic as their first language.
Unity State lies close to the north-south border and is a potential powder keg because of its oil wealth. Kuol said the presence of the northern troops at their current strength was already “a complete violation” of the agreement.
Under the agreement at this stage in the transitional phase, the Khartoum government should have withdrawn 72 percent of the northern forces from the south as a whole.
Another worry, Kuol said, is that northern troops and troops from the former southern rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, have not integrated their units in the area, as they were meant to do under the peace deal.
The two armies are living in separate barracks and taking separate orders. “There is fear from the people. What would you feel if there were two armies staying together but taking separate instructions? Something can occur,” he said.
Kuol said the southern government should try to persuade the Khartoum government of national unity to redeploy the northern troops and renegotiate control over the oil fields.
“They should let the people of Unity State have their own responsibility for the oil areas and let citizens return to the places they were before the war,” he added.
(Reuters)