Khartoum manipulates Misseriya to control Sudan’s Abyei – HRW
April 10, 2008, (NEW YORK) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed concern that the ongoing militia attacks may be part of efforts by the Khartoum government to ensure that Abyei and neighboring parts of Unity state remain with northern Sudan.
Militia attacks on travelers in disputed areas dividing northern and southern Sudan may reflect a Sudanese government attempt to skew a crucial census registration, the rights watchdog said on Thursday.
HRW investigations in oil-rich Unity state have found that since December 2007, armed nomadic Arab militias from the Misseriya ethnic group have carried out dozens of attacks against people trying to return, resulting in deaths and injuries, and also detained travelers at roadblocks.
In March, Victims of recent road ambushes near Bentiu town in Unity state said that robbery was not the motive of the attackers because the heavily armed Misseriya militia opened fire on travelers without any apparent interest in theft. The location of the attacks – on the roads, rather than in villages – has had an immediate impact on movement in and through the area.
Misseriya militia also attacked 600 people travelling from Khartoum in late March 2008 on their way to Western Bahr el-Ghazal state in southern Sudan. Roadblocks in the oil-producing area of Heglig in Upper Nile State in southern Sudan in late March have discouraged people from returning.
The attacks are deterring displaced people from returning to the disputed areas to register for the national census, which is important for future elections, a referendum on independence for the south, and resource distribution between Khartoum and southern Sudan.
The census is a critical element in implementing the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended the 21-year war between the northern-based Sudanese government in Khartoum and the southern Sudanese rebels. The nationwide census is scheduled for April 14-30, 2008.
In the past the Sudanese government in Khartoum has provided weapons and other support to the Misseriya. The increasing insecurity is preventing Southerners, originating from these areas but displaced by war to Khartoum, from returning to their homes to be counted in the April census.
(ST)