Sudan’s Joint Defence Board to discuss Abyei’s joint units
June 10, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Military officials from the northern and southern Sudan armies are set to hold a meeting tomorrow in the capital Khartoum to discuss the deployment of a battalion of new joint integrated units (JIUs) in the disputed area.
According to the security arrangement included in the Abyei Roadmap Agreement signed last Monday to resolve their row on definition of Abyei area border, the Sudan Armed Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army have to deploy a new battalion before to withdraw their respective troops from the area.
In Thursday’s meeting, the Joint Defence Board has to adopt the troops’ composition and modalities for the deployment of their troops before the June 18. The JIUs should not include troops from the former units.
According to the roadmap, the UNMIS peacekeepers should also be deployed in the disputed area.
A police force also should be deployed in Abyei after consultations between the national ministry of Interior and southern Sudan interior ministry.
The implementation of these security measures should precede the return of the displaced population by the end of the month.
Heavy fighting erupted in the last two weeks of May in the oil rich contested area between the SAF and the SPLA, resulting into hundreds of civilian casualties, destruction of the whole town and displacement of up to 90,000 people, according to the United Nations.
Since the signing of the peace accords in 2005 between the NCP and the SPLM to end a two decades of civil war, the Abyei Protocol remained unimplemented due to the rejection of the findings of an international commission to define and demarcate the border of the area by the NCP.
(ST)