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Sudan Tribune

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Sudan’s SPLM accuses NCP of backtracking on Abyei ruling

November 15, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) accused the ruling National Congress Party of reneging on border demarcation ruling made last July by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).

Sudan's State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Abdul-Bagi Al-Jailani, and Foreign Minister Deng Alor celebrate the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in Abyei, central Sudan, July 22, 2009 (Reuters)
Sudan’s State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Abdul-Bagi Al-Jailani, and Foreign Minister Deng Alor celebrate the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in Abyei, central Sudan, July 22, 2009 (Reuters)
South Sudan’s Minister for Presidential Affairs Luka Biong Deng said that the NCP’s insistence on allowing members of the Arab Misseriya tribe to take part in the referendum adding that such a move is a “red line”.

The PCA Abyei’s award confirmed that the boundary of the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms transferred to Kordofan in 1905 are part of southern Sudan based on tribal understanding of the Abyei Boundary Commission (ABC) panel of experts.

It also said that their eastern boundary in 1905 does not extend to line of Upper Nile border and attributed the oil rich area of eastern Abyei to northern Sudan.

The borders of Abyei are particularly important to southerners because Abyei residents have been promised a referendum on whether to join southern Sudan in January 2011, under the terms of the peace deal.

Following the ruling the Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir all Misseriya Abyei residents would have the right to vote in the referendum even where the land was awarded to Dinka Ngok.

But the SPLM official dismissed that saying that the ruling determined the areas inhabited by Dinka Ngok adding that Sudan nationality law does not consider pastoral nomads residents of the region.

Byong who recently returned from Abyei said that the technical committee tasked with demarcating the borders will likely not meet its December 10th deadline to finish its work revealing that only four out of 26 border points have been completed so far.

He also said that an agreement with NCP on establishing a joint political committee and contracting a foreign consultant has not been implemented. A US expert nominated for the post was rejected by the NCP, he said.

(ST)

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