Sudan appoints two members of Abyei arbitration court
August 15, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The government of Sudan has designated two members of The Hague international arbitration court to settle difference over the findings of Abyei Boundary Commission.
In a meeting held in Juba on June 21 the two peace partners agreed last June to refer their dispute over the Abyei permanent boundaries to “final and binding arbitration under the Permanent Court of Arbitration Optional Rules” for arbitrating disputes between two parties of which only one is a state.
They also agreed that each party shall appoint two arbitrators from the list of the PCA. The four appointed arbitrators shall in turn appoint a fifth member to chair the tribunal.
Dirdeiry Mohamed Ahmed, Dirdeiry, GoS agent at the PCA said today in a press statement that Khartoum has appointed the Jordanian Aoun Alhassonah, and Gerhard Hafter from Austria.
Alhassonah is the Vice President of the International Court of Justice and member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration while Hafter is the Vice President of the International Law Commission United Nations and Professor of International Law, University of Vienne.
Khartoum had also appointed as Counsel for the Government of Sudan : Professor James Crawford, S.C., Matrix Chambers, London; and Dr. Nabil Elaraby, Zaki Hashem & Partners, Cairo. Also the government designed a number of Sudanese co-counsel besides them.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement has also appointed two members of the court but their names are not yet published.
On Friday, July 11, 2008, representatives from the Government of Sudan, Dirdeiry Mohamed Ahmed, and the SPLM, Luka Biong, deposited with the Permanent Court of Arbitration an Arbitration Agreement on delimiting the Abyei Area reached on July 7.
The SPLM agents at the PCA are Gary Born, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, London. Riek Machar Teny and Luka Biong Deng are co agents.
SPLM’s Co-Counsel are Gary Born and Wendy Miles from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, London; and Vanessa Jiménez and Paul R. Williams from the Public International Law and Policy Group, Washington DC.
Issues to be determined by the arbitral tribunal shall be to decide whether or not the Abyei Boundaries Commission (ABC) experts exceeded their mandate “to define and demarcate the area of the Nine Ngok Dinka Chiefdoms transferred from Bahr el Ghazal to Kordofan in 1905, as per the Abyei Protocol, the Appendix, ABC Terms of Reference and Rules of Procedure.”
“If the arbitral tribunal determines that the ABC did not exceed its mandate, it shall make a declaration to that effect, and order for the full implementation of the ABC Report… and if the arbitral tribunal determines that the ABC Experts exceeded their mandate, it shall make a declaration to that effect, and shall proceed to define and demarcate on map the boundaries of the Nine Ngok Dinka Chiefdoms transferred from Bahr el Ghazal to Kordofan in 1905, based on the submission of the parties,” the parties agreed.
(ST)