Sudan’s North-South peace partners break deadlock over challenging issues
By James Gatdet Dak
February 24, 2010 (JUBA) – The two partners to the North-South peace deal, signed in January 2005, have finally overcome impasse over several contentious issues after years of tedious and long lasted negotiations.
The ruling party in the semi-autonomous region of Southern Sudan, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the dominant National Congress Party (NCP) which rules the North, have resolved on several sticking issues which had been very challenging in the implementation of the peace deal, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
The two parties had for a very long time witnessed stalemate over the issues of inadequate representation of the South at the national level, the border demarcation between the two regions in addition to formation of referendum commissions that would process and oversee the conduct of January 2011 referenda in Southern Sudan and in Abyei.
In a statement to the press shortly after his arrival from Khartoum on Tuesday, Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny revealed that the two parties have agreed on the immediate demarcation of areas agreed upon in the two thousand long contentious North-South borders as the clock ticks towards referendum on independence.
“The Presidency has given instructions after listening to North-South border committee for immediate demarcation of the areas agreed upon. As for the areas where there is disagreement – they are actually five areas – there will be a report on which the Presidency will act, either forming a committee or assisting the North-South border committee in its resolution,” he added.
The SPLM’s team which represents the South in the joint North-South border committee is chaired by Engineer Riek Dogoal, who also deputizes the chairman of the joint committee; an NCP nominee.
On the membership of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, Dr. Machar said the two parties have also agreed on the membership formation and nomination of chairmanship and deputy chairmanship, the identity of whom he did not reveal.
He however said the nomination of chairmanship for the Commission of the oil-rich Abyei area has remained contentious as the two parties could not agree on the candidates.
“We have difficulty in getting a candidate who would chair the Abyei Referendum Commission. So we are still looking for an angel who would be acceptable to both parties. The dialogue is continuing,” he said.
In resolving the contentious issue on the results of the 2008 population census, which earlier reduced representation of Southern Sudan at the national level from the CPA’s pre-elections power sharing agreement of 30% to 21%, the two parties have agreed to create 40 additional seats for Southern Sudan in the National Assembly in order to compensate for the reduction.
Dr. Machar who also chaired the SPLM team during the negotiations said the outcome had relieved the parties from issues that had been problematic.
He had earlier explained that his team has been voicing out the need for the South to have a sizable representation in the National Assembly in order to safeguard the CPA gains in the region and to block any future amendment of provisions in the interim national constitution by the next elected parliament in April which would affect the conduct of the referendum 10 months from now.
He further explained that 4 more additional seats were also agreed upon to specifically go to the Nuba Mountains, which is within the geographical Southern Kordufan state, while 2 other additional seats for Abyei, making all the additional seats 46 in number.
The 40 seats for the South will be appointed after the results of the elections under a mechanism that will be based on the performance of each political party in the South, he further explained. The other 6 seats for Nuba Mountains and Abyei shall have a different mechanism for appointment.
He however said the state of Southern Kordufan, which has already boycotted the elections over dissatisfaction on census results, shall only participate in presidential and national parliamentary elections, adding that it will postpone the state level elections to a later date.
On the post-referendum issues, Dr. Machar who also chairs the newly established Southern Sudan Referendum Taskforce that would be guiding the region on conduct of referendum and post-referendum scenarios said the two parties would soon start the negotiations.
Among the post-referendum issues include the future of oil (production, transportation and marketing), debts, Nile waters, currency, international agreements, Joint Integrated Units (JIUs), etc.
Southern Sudan is a landlocked would-be independent country without a river port that would directly connect it to the international market in case of secession and has no oil refinery that would process some of the oil for domestic consumption as the demand for fuel increases day by day in the region.
The region has been using the only pipeline that crosses the North-South borders through the vast Northern Sudan up to Port Sudan while all the refineries are also located in the would-be neighboring and separate North.
The Presidential Affairs minister, Dr. Luka Biong Deng, was quoted as revealing the possibility that the South might be forced by the situation to continue sharing oil revenues with the North for a certain period of time even if after the South forms its own country.
On the need to conduct a credible election in April, Dr. Machar added there will soon be inter-parties dialogue to establish a harmonized elections ‘code of conduct’ that will guide parties during the elections in order to make it free and fair, thus earning credibility.
A number of political parties from both North and South have been complaining of harassment by the ruling political parties during campaigns as elections are only one and half months away.
He said the former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki will soon visit the region to assist in establishing such code of conduct for the parties in the elections.
If successfully conducted it will be the first nearly comprehensive elections in more than twenty years.
(ST)