South Sudan army threatens to stay in disputed Abyei
May 16, 2007 (JUBA) — The army of the south Sudanese government is refusing to withdraw its forces from an area in southern Sudan unless the Khartoum government abides by a ruling saying that the province controls many oil fields.
The SPLA is the armed wing of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the former rebel movement which formed a national coalition government with the northerners after signing a peace deal in January 2005.
The agreement ended more than two decades of north-south civil war and ushered in a south Sudan regional government run by the SPLM, with the SPLA as its army.
One of the deal’s key tasks was to demarcate borders of Abyei province, establishing control of its lucrative oil fields.
But the Khartoum government has rejected the findings of an Abyei Border Commission, welcomed by the SPLM, on the grounds that the commission altered its mandate without consulting the presidency.
The commission ruled that many oil fields would fall inside the southern province.
The peace deal also stipulated that SPLA forces were to redeploy from Abyei and two other “transitional” areas six months after the formation of integrated north-south military units.
But the integrated units — originally scheduled for deployment in April 2006 — have not been formed, and Kuol said the SPLA would not redeploy from the South Kordofan State transitional area until the units had been set up.
Kuol was also sceptical of Khartoum’s ability to redeploy its forces from the south by an agreed July 9 deadline.
“We doubt if they can withdraw all troops within the remaining three months,” said Kuol. “If they were committed they would have begun a long time ago.”
Pascal Ngoga, senior political affairs officer for the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), said that there had been a gradual movement of Khartoum’s forces out of the south, but probably less so in areas closer to the north.
“It is very difficult to predict whether the SAF (northern Sudan Armed Forces) are going to meet their deadline or not,” Ngoga said.
(Reuters)