Letter from Abyei Community in New York to South Sudan Govt
To SOUTHERN SUDAN GOVERNMENT
May 20, 2008 — We are the Abyei Community of New York State asking the Vice President of National Unity and the President of southern Sudan Mr. Salva Kiir and the Vice President of Southern Sudan, Dr. Riek Machar for a solution to situation in the Abyei area. We are asking you to solve the clashes between the Abyei people and the Northern Sudan Army. Thousands of civilians have run away from town and are displaced, and your leadership is occupied with the SPLM National Convention in Juba. We are members of the SPLM-A and we fought during twenty-two years in the SPLA against Northern Sudan troops. Without civilians it was not easy to operate the SPLM/A. The Northern Army and Missaryia are attacking civilians. That means a violation of the CPA by the Northern troops 131 unit. The comprehensive peace agreement was signed on 01-09-2005 in Nafasha Kenya between the SPLM/SPLA and the National Congress. Until now there has been nothing implemented in the Abyei area, and we are still waiting for National Unity to implement it. Also, the Northern Army is still attacking us recently as five days ago. Now the rest of Missaryia arrived in Abyei focusing on the strongest attack. We need this situation to be solved right away. The Sudanese government has been using the Missaryia tribe as their weapons. The need of displace people of Abyei. In this moment, the displaced people of Abyei are very important is to call the international community to be aware of the situation. The important things are international human rights to give the Sudanese government advice about creating a new war in Sudan again. The displaced people of Abyei need emergency help from the international community, and the international Red Cross.
The SPLM National Convention might wait days, but the Northern Army and Missaryia are not going to wait for killing the civilians in the Abyei area, and the SPLA Army is waiting for your permission until they can help people in Abyei. This attack has killed more than 100 people. The children were drowning in the river, and some of them ran away from their parents. Some of them are missing for days; thousands of people are living outside in the rain. This situation does not need days for a decision. The United Nations workers were there when the attacks were happening and they are witnesses. The town has been burned and the SPLA high commanders are waiting for a decision or permission from the Southern Leadership. At moment we need the military to protect those civilians.
The president Omer Al Bashir said, there is no room for traitors and they will not negotiate with Darfur JEM. Why do we have room for negotiation with the National Congress Army and Missaryia? On the other hand, we heard days ago a statement from the Southern Sudanese President Mr. Salva Kiir saying that SPLM supports Sudan’s security operations against Darfur JEM. We fought 22 years looking for our rights and our freedom. Why not the Darfurians? The Darfur is marginalizing like us and they have a right to fight for their freedom, even though we’re not helping them. If we are working in CPA each Sudanese should have rights. The Sudanese National Congress government is working hard to destroy our state Abyei because they are getting interested in the oil in our area, even though some of our brothers don’t want our freedom also. There are some ID’s that were found on the Abyei ground and those ID’s belonged to the
Shandi State Army of North Sudan, and they are calling themselves Missaryians. One of the Abyei members called his brother in Abyei, and some Arab picked up the phone from Abyei, and he said there is no Dinka in the town. Imagine what happened to that person on the phone. The Sudanese are looking at the oil in the area only, and they don’t look at us as humans. Abyei needs some solution as soon as possible. The Nation Congress Army force is violating the /CPA/ which is displacing the people of Abyei out in their land, and gives the land of Dinka people to the Missaryia tribe. This land has fertile soil and is a very rich oil area.