Abyei solution could also come from the SPLM

By Isaiah Abraham

June1, 2008 — When Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party was at its crucial meetings (Convention) in Juba, the National Congress Party army (SAF) unleashed its cowardly attacks against innocent civilians in the region of Abyei. Southerners all over the world as usual unite and condemn Khartoum in its failure to protect innocent lives through its ruthless army. Our people further request an immediate withdraw of SAF in that region without any delay or negotiation and the reinstatement of joint forces known as Joint Integrated Units or JIUs. Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) is there illegally. The Abyei Protocol prohibited neither force in Abyei except the JIUs. SAF mobilized, organized and then aggress innocent residences of the town whom they accused of being pro Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). Unbelievably, the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) there at that time watched conspicuously as the Arabs army drives away thousands of innocent civilians from the town and allowed the occupiers to carry away everything their hands laid on. What a shame to that UN body and the international community for failing to condemn killings in Abyei when they had done so with Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) attack in Omduruman (Khartoum).

The truth of the matter is that the world is indifferent and difficult place to live if serious violations are attended with gloves on hands to specific interested groups while others are vehemently condemn to their faces. UNMIS in that region judgmentally failed the test as peacekeepers. Why? Because they didn’t moved quickly in March when it was reported that SAF has entered or about Abyei town with 22 trucks full of soldiers. They didn’t again take it serious then the threat posed by Misseriya in January 2008 that they would wipe out Dinka Ngok people from Abyei land. They refused morevoer to stop SAF from setting fire on structures in Abyei town. The UNMIS therefore must get out of the area and allow capable peacekeepers like those in Malakal to get in there if they aren’t there to protect lives and properties. These men/women are trying to spoil the harmonious three years of UNMIS presence in our land. UNMIS generally has been doing its work satisfactorily but doubts are raise to that particular group in that situation in Abyei. That isn’t pointing fingers, I reckoned.

Let us briefly return to where we got this agreement from. The then American Government Envoy for Sudan Senator John Danforth drafted Abyei Protocol when things were at deadlock and after it became apparent that Abyei solution is no where in sight; both sides in the conflict (the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and the National Congress Party) failed to compromise position in favor of the other. Senator John wielded his Government power and intellect bids to make everything happen. It was reluctantly accepted by the NCP but was accepted by the SPLM albeit with reservations. The process for implementation was to demarcate that land and the Abyei Border Commission per agreement started off and quickly wrapped up it’s work sooner and presented its reports to the presidency. The SPLM again agreed but the NCP rejected it outright. Garang was never disturbed and knew what to do and was even poised to involve the Inter-government Authority on Development (Igad) or International Court of Justice (ICJ) but fate never make it to happen; he was killed in that month. The entire agreement (CPA) though has been on course but slow and bumpy especially on Security and Wealth Sharing Protocols. Abyei status remains dormant and thorny through out that period, as each camp refuse to budge to the will of the other. There have been cases of provocations on the side of the NCP army in Abyei and its surrounding but the SPLM refused to response until this year when it became impossible to contain harassment by security forces to our people in Abyei.

Here we have an agreement (Abyei Protocol) nearly at its knees as the one to the ‘last stroke the broke the camel back’ was Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) attack on the police in Abyei town on May 13, 2008. Do we have enough options really or remedies available to make this agreement it work at this juncture? Yes there are options but for the short run. This is because there is no easy way to assume that the two sides would one day abandon positions in favor of peace without a stiff political or even military resistance. Each sides claims huge stake about the land and the people. The NCP tribal support base known as Misseriya won’t accept to be part of the South and the opposite is also true with Dinka Ngok.

For starters, this protocol did promulgate two keys resolutions that are too bitter to be swallowed by the NCP without an immense pressure internally and externally. First is the land resolution where Misseriya existence in Abyei has been determined or decided. They are no longer bone fide or part takers in the land; the land belongs exclusively to the Dinka Ngok. But their right for grassing has been reserved. The other is the sharing of wealth particularly oil. Southern Sudan is entitled to get 42% share of the oil wealth there but the NCP all along has been after its 100% fraction; they have gone ahead to do it and even driving several millions of barrels of oil reserves in Abyei to the North using simple pumping through huge pipe that is reported to have amassed it to anyone imagination. The belief is that if they could drain oil in Abyei before the end of the Interim Period, why not do it.

To recapture our argument, there is no magical formula better than what Mr. John Danforth put forward for Abyei dispute. The reason why this piece of writing comes at this time however is to piece together our thoughts on how to stop further blood shed and allow our people to go home and rebuild their shattered lives. This is easy said than done; but if we keep on trying without compromising substances in the Abyei Protocol, something could come out for the benefit of our people there and here, at least again in the short run. I know our leaders have been on it and still doing something to make the agreement work, had it not for an intransigency of the NCP. Our President (Kiir) has been talking and pleading hundred times and no one has ears to hear him in the Presidency in Khartoum.

Here we have two tough choices; either the Abyei Border Commission (ABC) is reviewed considering its mandate and scope against the protocol spirit, i.e ignore for time being ABC findings and go ahead with Dr. Machar’s proposal for a joint admin that could run the province until things becomes clearer in 2011. That will practically mean that the joint committee should be formed for the area minus the ABC’s. The ABC could still formed the basis for argument even in court but for the sake of losing everything all together the Presidency should uphold its right to decide Abyei status within its own pace without pushing it through ABC report. That is difficult thing to do I know but we are faced with few options. Perhaps on good gesture again, the SPLM should pull out Mr. Edward unilaterally to ushers in an atmosphere of joint efforts. More importantly as came above, efforts must be made urgently to order out Brigade 31 currently station in Abyei town.

Otherwise there is no tear to shed of anything burn in Abyei town. Nothing was there in the first place. A beautiful agricultural land of Abyei has been reduced to makeshift camp. With all its oil resources, the town is far behind than any other towns in the ravaged towns in the Southern Sudan. Imagine there has been no fighting in that town during the war; what a wreckage town that was? Basically there is no single government or private block built in that town; if there is, this could be the current Northern National Security Office building south of the town where Arabs meets and never allow anyone else an entry including Zacharia Atem, a man who is solo in his decision to stand against his own brothers and sisters. He is on record to have opposed and even condemned ABC experts. He accepted the belief from the NCP Arabs that Abyei is from the town down to Kiir River; Arabs don’t want to accept the fact that two third of Abyei Dinka land lies north of Abyei town including ancestral home for Mr. Deng Aloor, the Foreign Minister. They do it deliberately because that is where most oil from Abyei come from. It’s time therefore for our leaders in Khartoum and Juba to make this matter to rest on the basis of diplomatic approaches other than the military. NCP has an agenda namely land and won’t help our people instead they want them die. Attacking SAF in Abyei shall come on self defense; SAF in Abyei doesn’t know SPLA yet but restrain needs to be applied as anti-agreement sentiments still run high within the ruling party (NCP) and its new found allies/friends (Umma Party & the DUP). Next year (Inshallah) isn’t far for a black man to be heard; New Sudan vision is shaping, at least at its claims and professions.

The author is a Southern Sudanese living in Juba; [email protected]