SPLM rejects ruling party’s proposal on Abyei

November 25, 2007 (JUBA) — The southern ex-rebel group Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) said it will not accept the proposals put forward by Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) on the disputed oil rich region of Abyei.

Riek Machar, Vice President of the government of south Sudan (GOSS) told Miraya FM radio that the NCP wants to acquire the oil rich parts of Abyei and leave the rest to the South.

Last week Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir said that the NCP is committed to the Abyei Protocol only with the border of 1905. He further said the government is not concerned with Abyei Boundaries Commission (ABC) report and that the latter is of no value to them.

On 11 October, the SPLM suspended its participation in the government of national unity to protest against the delay in the implementation of the 2005 peace deal.

“They [NCP] want to implement the Abyei protocol minus the areas that have oil because they want to curve them out of south Sudan” he added.

A report issued by the Assessment and Evaluation Commission (AEC) of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) said that the security situation in Abyei remains unpredictable as the two peace partners continue to exchange accusations over military build up in the region.

The SPLM signed a peace deal in January 2005 with the government of the National Congress Party in January 2005 ending two decades of civil war in Southern Sudan. The peace deal made the SPLM, the ruling party in the south and the NCP the ruling party in the north.

In 2011, southerners will be asked to vote in a referendum on whether they want to be independent or remain part of Sudan.

(ST)