SPLM secures EU assurance to support the conduct of referendum: Amum

By Ngor Arol Garang

July 19, 2010 (WUNROK) — The Secretary General of the ruling party in Southern Sudan, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) who is also minister of Peace and Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) Implementation, Pagan Amum, disclosed that the European Union (EU) has expressed willingness to support the conduct of the upcoming referendum in the South and recognize its outcome.

Amum who returned to the regional capital of Juba on Sunday after leading a delegation to Netherlands to brief the EU on the progress made by the two parties on the implementation of the CPA. He added that the EU reiterated willingness to send observers to monitor the referendum right from registration through declaring results.

Addressing the press at Juba international Airport, Amum disclosed a pledge made by EU to donate 150 million Euros for provision of basic services which will cover not only South Sudan but other war affected areas of Southern Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains as well as Eastern Sudan.

“The mission of our visit was successful for we have held several meetings with key diplomatic leaders. We have met and discussed most of the pending issues in the CPA,” said Pagan Amum in an interview with the press at Juba international Airport on Sunday.

Referendum is a core component of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended decades of conflict between the Southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Khartoum government. Should the south choose to separate, the two sides will have to negotiate over various key issues including borders, oil, water, nationality, debts and assets, currency, citizenship and security.

Most of the post-referendum issues were left out in the CPA as they were not discussed or addressed in what observers and government officials say are some of the loopholes in the peace accord.

The first, and perhaps most potentially explosive issue, is around the oil-producing region of Abyei. The region will decide in a separate referendum also in January whether to join the south or the north. The borders for this region were outlined in a July 2009 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in (PCA) The Hague, but the demarcation has been stalled. At the same time, the northern Misseriya community, largely drawn out of Abyei under the new borders, has denounced the ruling.

Amum added that four other areas in dispute includes the northern-most border separating Renk county in Upper Nile from the north’s White Nile state, the borderline running north-south between the south’s Unity state and the north’s Southern Kordofan, this will determine who controls the Heglig oil fields.

It is believed that about 95% of the oil wells are in the south depending on where the border is drawn. Oil revenue accounts for 98 percent of Southern Sudan’s government revenue, and 60 percent of the national budget according to 2008 figures.

The sole export route for the south is a pipeline running to the north to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Under the CPA, the two sides divide proceeds from oil pumped in the south. They will have to negotiate how to share oil revenue or fees for usage pipeline, etc., as well as any user fees levied against the south for using the pipeline and refineries. The two parties must also negotiate how to honour current oil contracts.

While the focus seems to be on oil and border, other agreements such as Nile waters requires attention of the two parties. Egypt and Sudan signed many agreements on the usage of the Nile waters.

With opinions from most southern Sudanese favoring succession from the north, many ask whether the South will recognize these old treaties, or will it work with Nile basin countries in eastern Africa to work towards a fair accord. If it honours the colonial pacts, as it has indicated to the Egyptians, the south must then negotiate with Khartoum over what percentage of the 18.5 cubic meters of water designated to Sudan can be utilized.

That aside, the fate of southerners living in the north and northerners living in the south has to be negotiated. Questions of citizenship and rights will have to be addressed, as well as ease of travel between the two territories.

Another sticking issue remains the south’s share of Sudan’s sizeable national debt estimated by the International Monetary Fund in 2008 at $34 billion. Many speculate that the north will want a seceding south to take on a portion of its public debt burden, a suggestion many SPLM officials have rejected and accused the north of having used this borrowed money to wage war against southerners during the two decades strife.

There is also the question of national assets and the properties of state-owned companies in the south.

(ST)