Sudan’s Bashir reiterates opposition to Abyei report

November 23, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese president has renewed his full rejection of a report present by a panel of experts to define and demarcate the border of Abyei district in 1905.

Omer Hassan al-Bashir told the reporters on Friday in Khartoum at the end of three-day conference of Sudan’s ruling party that Abyei Boundaries Commission exceeded its mandate and their had no power to do so.

The mandate of comission — agreed by both sides before the ABC was appointed — was to define and demarcate the area of the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms transferred to Kordofan in 1905.

The Abyei Boundary Commission is made up of five international boundary specialists and one representative from each of the two parties. The chairman of the commission is Don Petterson, a former US ambassador to Sudan.

The Sudanese president also said that the proposed solution is to establish a joint transitional administration charged of providing service and to ensure security to Abyei population. He added that the National Congress Party had presented more that fifty documents while the SPLM didn’t produce any prove supporting its claim.

Deadlock between Sudan’s former north-south foes over the oil rich Abyei area led the SPLM to withdraw its ministers from the government of national unity on October 11, 2007.

Bashir was also sceptical about a proposal to hold an international meeting in Rome to resolve differences between north and south, saying the peace deal that both sides signed in 2005 provided “mechanisms to solve crises”.

(ST)