Sudanese watchdog condemns Abyei, Khartoum collective murders

January 1, 2008 — The Sudan Human rights Organization Cairo Office is gravely saddened by the massacres of scores of people from the two major ethnicities of Abyei, the Dinka and Misseriya groups, these past days.

The organization is aware that the First Vice President, President of the Government of South Sudan Salva Kiir, “ordered the government of Southern Sudan to facilitate the movement of the nomadic Arab tribes in the south and promote peaceful coexistence in the border region;” as well, the governors of the states of Bahr al-Ghazal and South Kordofan pledged to ensure safe range passages for the Bedouins of both regions in Abyei.

The eruption of escalated armed conflicts between the cattle herders and SPLA soldiers, however, signified the continuous need of both the Government of Sudan and the Government of South Sudan to maintain a sustainable national political solution in Abyi, in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) – an effective instrument to sustain comprehensive peace in Abyei and the country as a whole.

Under the Abyei Area Special Protocol to the CPA (January 2005), the Abyei Boundary Commission was established composed of five representatives, each from GoS and the SPLM, as well as five international experts to determine the exact border. The Organization notes with increasing concern the negative consequences of the GoS flat rejection of the Commission recommendations (which should have been at least nationally considered by all concerned parties, including opposition groups).

At this point, the Organization regrets the publicly announced rejection of the Commission’s recommendations by the President of the Republic who also asked his Peoples’ Defense Forces ‘to be prepared for fight in Abyei,’ which helped apparently among other reasons to induce the escalated armed conflict now taking place in the region, and might well lead to severer results.

Similar to the continuous failures of the Government to combat the Darfur Crisis by selective unilateral and/or bilateral talks, which excluded key rebel groups for partisan reasons, the essence and the magnitude of the crisis surpass the efforts thus far exerted by the two partners of the CPA to control the situation.

SHRO-Cairo asks the GoS and the GSS to consider seriously all recommendations of the Abyei Commission before an urgent national conference, including strong representation of both Ngok Dinka and the Misseriya who have been living peacefully for hundreds of years in the region, to end the escalated conflict with full equalitarian participation by all opposition parties of the country.

Related to the chaotic security of the country in Abyei, as equally evident in the uncontrolled armed conflicts between citizens and government elements in Darfur, the Sudan Human Rights Organization condemns the murdering of American diplomat John Granville and his Sudanese driver ‘Abd al-Rahman ‘Abbas in the streets of Khartoum today, Tuesday January 1st, 2008.

The Organization asks the government to conduct immediate investigation on the murders, ensure appropriate security measures to protect the lives and work of all diplomats and foreigners, and apply strictly the international and national laws prohibiting the illegal use of arms in the National Capital Khartoum and the other residential areas.