US prospects ways to resolve row over Sudan’s Abyei
May 20, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — The US State Department said Tuesday it was trying to find a way to help end an outburst of heavy fighting in Sudan that could sink a 2005 north-south peace agreement.
“It’s something that certainly has our attention,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters as fighting took place in Abyei, an oil district whose status remains contested three years after the end of civil war.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to her African affairs expert Jendayi Frazer “to see how we might be helpful in resolving one of these final pieces of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement,” McCormack said.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) gave the south a six-year transition period of regional autonomy and participation in a national unity government until a 2011 referendum on independence.
Aid workers said fighting went on for at least five hours between government troops and southern ex-rebels, who fought Africa’s longest civil war until reaching a fragile power-sharing peace agreement with Khartoum in 2005.
Impasse over Abyei — whose oil wealth is bitterly contested by Sudan’s mainly Arab north and mainly Christian and animist south — has been one issue delaying implementation of the peace deal.
Without resolution, the fighting could sink the agreement, analysts say.
“Previously the Sudanese had wanted to — within the framework of the presidency that was established by the CPA — resolve this” contentious issue over Abyei, McCormack said.
“We think it’s important for the implementation of the CPA and it moving forward that it be fully implemented. This is a piece of that.
Omar al-Beshir is President and Salva Kiir is First Vice President under power-sharing arrangements.
(AFP)
Manyang
US prospects ways to resolve row over Sudan’s Abyei
We prevailed during the last 21 years of struggle and we can do the same now. By: Manyang Deng
I do not believe what the current American government is doing to resolve the current conflict in the Sudan. American government played a key role in pushing the warring parties (SPLM and NCP) to reach the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)in 2005. After the signing of the CPA the American softened their pressure on the NCP terrorists regime.
After the CPA, two measure events unfolded. The US government started high level cooperation with NIF regime in Khartoum. The NIF spy chief Salah Gosh made numerous visits to Washington. The founder leader of the SPLM/A Dr John Garang died in the high sophisticated air crash that claimed the life of all people on board. After the crash, the US government and others sent their aviation experts for investigation. The crash was soon blamed on poor weather. The investigation was not referred to the UN as it was done with the case of the Lebanese former prime Rafik Ariri who was assasinated in Beirut. The US government governmnet immediately pointed the finger of blame on Syrrian’s government.
I mentioned the above events for the readers to be aware of the US government policy towards our country. US is not serious about the full resolution of the sudanese conflict. The US government is now almost to reach an agreement on the normalisation of ties with NIF regime. Since the signing of the CPA, US government is aware of the NCP intention to abrogate the CPA but it decided to keep silent on the issue. Now NCP has mobilised missiriah and baggara arabs along with SAF to fight in Abyei and beyond. The US government will not do anything to resolve the Abyei issue.
My message to the marginalised people of the sudan is to stand firm against NCP and their oil minded allies who are working hard to throw the whole CPA into the toilet and flushed it. We prevailed during the last 21 years of struggle and we can do the same now.
Long live Abyei!
Long live the marginalised people of the sudan!
Long live SPLM/A
Long live new Sudan!
Long the sudanese people!
By: Manyang Deng ([email protected])
Mr Point
US prospects ways to resolve row over Sudan’s Abyei
The US has a problem in trying to find a way to help end the fighting.
It played a key role in getting all parties to sign the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the second civil war in 2005. The US brought the parties to agree to set up the Abyei Boundaries Commission an to agree the procedure for setting the Abyei boundary.
The simple fact is that one party has persistently failed to keep the commitments it made under the US-sponsored CPA. Previously it failed to honor the commitments made for an Abiyei referendum in the Addis Ababa agreement that ended the first civil war in 1972.
The US problem: how to broker peace when one party consistently breaks every signed agreement..
Toposa Boy southerner
US prospects ways to resolve row over Sudan’s Abyei
Your evil men silver kirr read this report i hope you will sleep nice when your own tribes as been kill like animals
The New Sudan Vision (NSV), http://www.newsudanvision.com
May 20, 2008 (Abyei NSV) – The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF)’s 31st Brigade demolished the only major bridge linking Abyei and Bhar El Ghazal on Tuesday, eyewitnesses told NSV.
“Sudan armed forces went with armored Land Cruisers and tanks towards the bridge, shortly after they returned to the town of Abyei after 11am,” an eyewitness said.
Fierce fighting resumed on Tuesday at around 4 am and ended at 8am, claiming several lives. “Dead bodies are everywhere including [at] our trenches,” said Ahmed Abdalla Sherif, SAF soldier from the ruins of the town.
SPLA shelled the town over the night from across the direction of Bonton where SAF thought to have been returning from the bridge. SPLA detachment retreated back southwards from the bridge that SAF demolished with some mortars believed to be from the tanks that rolled towards the bridge. The bridge over Kiir River was the only link between Kordofan and south Sudan through Abyei enclave. Built in 2005, the destruction of the bridge is seen by SAF as strategically cutting off SPLA from recapturing Abyei town.
Among the dead within SAF soldiers on the morning of 20th May, included that of a notorious Meseriya security officer who is believed to have been responsible for the murders of several Ngok youths and intellectuals during the revolution in the 1990s.
In another development, Dinka Ngok and entire SPLM leadership in Abyei will be in mourning mood after one of their leaders, a young revolutionary leader who faced NIF policies in Abyei during worse moments in Abyei is believed to have been shot at Bonton when SAF went to destroy the bridge on Tuesday morning.
Sources from Abyei confirmed that the Ngok youth leader was carried by SAF together with four others. Their fate is unknown. “They shot him in the neck; chest and shrapnel littered his face. They brought him in Abyei naked!” a soldier who seeks anonymity claimed.
Both SPLM and NCP leadership are silent about Abyei destruction. Citizens of Abyei numbering more 50, 000 are in dire humanitarian situation. Some have already reached Wau since 18th May.