Sudan’s North-South border states conference begins in Aweil
By James Gatdet Dak
July 14, 2010 (JUBA) — A general security conference involving the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) and the Government of National Unity (GoNU) kicked off on Wednesday in Aweil town, the capital of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state.
Machar will co-chair the conference with the 2nd Vice President of Sudan, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, who also leads the GoNU delegation.
The two-day conference is a follow-up of a similar forum conducted last year in Kadugli, Southern Kordofan state, to build peace and good neighborhood between populations and governments of the bordering states as the referendum approaches.
A referendum on southern independence in due to be held in January and the oil-rich region of Abyei will also face a separate referendum to decide whether it wants to join the north or the south of Sudan.
Sudan produces 500,000 barrels of oil per day and has reserves estimated at six billion barrels.
Most of it lies on the border between north and south. How to share the revenues has been a major source of tension in the run-up to the independence referendum.
Wednesday’s opening session witnessed presentations about the security situation between Southern and Northern states by their respective governors on both sides of the border.
The governors have reported improvement on security between the bordering states since the first conference in Kadugli.
However, a recent armed confrontation between local police and armed groups associated with some members of reportedly from the Misseriya tribe, in Southern Kordofan state, at the extreme eastern town of Abyei, is reported to have driven away at least 600 local residents from their homes.
This has tripled the number of internally displaced persons in the area, said a local official working for humanitarian organization commission in Abyei.
In a related development, the Southern Sudan Referendum Taskforce is preparing for negotiations with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) on post-referendum issues due to begin in five days.
The Taskforce kicked off its first meeting yesterday in Juba after the official launch in Khartoum last week.
In the meeting chaired by Machar, the Taskforce discussed the preparations for the actual talks and directed individual ministers in their respective clusters to get organized with their sub-committees.
The Taskforce also deals with two other issues on the conduct of the referendum as well as the post-2011 governance in the South. It is an oversight body to assist the technical Southern Sudan Referendum Commission and prepare the environment in the South for the conduct of the referendum.
The NCP and the SPLM will negotiate thorny post-referendum issues including nationality, national debt, water agreements and border demarcation.
(ST)