US official urges Sudan former foes to resolve Abyei dispute
April 06, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The top US diplomat in Sudan called on the North-South peace partners to settle the issue of Abyei.
“There is alternatives other than both sides stick to the Abyei protocol or reaching a compromise between the National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM)” Fernandez said.
The top US diplomat denied that Washington made any new proposals to resolve the crisis between the NCP and the SPLM.
The Abyei protocol is part of the Naivasha agreement that ended two decades of the civil war between the North and the South.
Under the protocol a commission known as the Abyei Boundaries Commission (ABC) was to “define and demarcate the area of the nine Ngok Dinka Chiefdoms transferred to Kordofan in 1905, referred to herein as Abyei Area”.
However the 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 the ABC report and that the latter is of no value to them.
The SPLM chairman Salva Kiir on his end insisted that the Abyei Protocol is binding to the NCP.
Fernandez said that the meeting he held in Abyei were “useful and interesting” and that it included meeting with leaders of the Arab Misseriya tribe and Ngok Dinka.
He also disclosed that he met with army and security officials and UN team in the area. Fernandez asked the natives to “adhere to patience and wisdom to achieve reconciliation and not to provoke the other side to avoid dire consequences”.
The US diplomat further said that the USAID assistance allocated to Abyei will be increased.
Last year the US proposed a set of “confidence-building measures” to Kiir. One of the proposals was that China, Saudi Arabia and the US would mediate between the NCP and SPLM to formulate a “package deal” to solve the impasse around Abyei and north-south border demarcation.
But Kiir rejected the proposal saying that he is satisfied with the agreement reached with the NCP at the time resolve the outstanding issues in the peace agreement.
But the situation in the oil rich region has deteriorated ever since with military clashes becoming more frequent.
Sudan’s ruling party on Sunday accused SPLM of stoking tensions in oil-rich Abyei by unilaterally appointing a governor in the disputed state, saying it violated the north-south cease fire.
The charges by the NCP came after the former southern rebel group last week accused the northern army of sending troops into Abyei town, capital of the state disputed by Sudan’s north and south.
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)