SPLM rejects confederation proposals, says NCP behaving like “Somali pirates” over Abyei

By Julius N. Uma

November 4, 2010 (JUBA) – The south’s ruling party the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) remains strongly opposed to proposals for north and south to form a confederation in the event of the south seceding to become a separate state, Pagan Amum, the party’s Secretary General said on Thursday.

Such a proposal, he told journalists, can only be discussed after the southern referendum on self-determination and poll to decide whether the Abyei region have been successfully conducted and the decisions of the people taken into consideration.

In January the south and Abyei – both oil producing regions – are due to hold separate but simultaneous referenda as part of a 2005 peace deal that ended over two decades of war between the SPLM and the National Congress Party who control the national government in Khartoum.

As the vote approaches, with southerners expected to vote to secede, the two sides have yet to agree on many issues including citizenship rights for southern Sudanese in the north and northern Sudanese in the south.

“We have also heard that there is a proposal to form a co-federal union between north and southern Sudan as two independent states. We are saying this is a proposal that is made before time. After all the referendum has not yet been conducted and the people have not chosen yet,” Amum told journalists in an impromptu media briefing held in his office.

According to the SPLM Secretary General, proposals on the future relationship between the two regions should be put aside until after the referendum has been conducted and the decision of the southern people has been taken into account.

He said, “If the people of southern Sudan decide to choose secession, they will form their own independent state and that is when we shall now begin discussing the type of relation between the north and south”.

Amum repeated his assessment that the National Congress Party (NCP), is holding Abyei “hostage” by disputing who is allowed to vote in the regions referendum and stalling on the formation of commission to run the poll.

He said that SPLM will continue engage with its partner to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement even if it means paying a “ransom” to enable them accept the ruling made by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on Abyei.

“The National Congress Party have now become like the Somali pirates. They have boarded the ship of Abyei and they are asking for ransom. It [is] now upon us to see if we can meet their demands in order to save Abyei and its people,” the SPLM Secretary General said.

Amum said that talks between the two sides on the issue of Abyei, which collapsed last month in Addis Abba, would resume in a attempt to find a way forward. He acknowledged the tremendous role being played by the international community in mediating the talks.

Currently, he added, several pre-referendum activities are ongoing, citing the north-south border demarcation, government support of the referendum commission mandates and post-referendum negotiations.

He however called for complete removal of all obstacles standing in the way of the timely conduct of the January 9 referenda, describing them as the opportunity of a lifetime for the people of southern Sudan.

It is widely expected that the south will vote to secede from the north and become an independent country. But issues over border demarcation and the Abyei referendum threaten the relative peace the region has experienced since the 2005 peace deal.

(ST)