Abyei MP calls Misseriya alternative government a “mockery”

By Julius N. Uma

December 5, 2010 (JUBA) – The MP for Abyei has strongly criticized the recently formation of an alternative government in the oil-producing by the Misseriya tribe, who are demanding a right to vote in a referendum to decide the region’s future.

Abyei, currently on the northern side of the north-south border is due to decide through a plebiscite whether it wishes to remain in the north or join what could be a newly independent south Sudan after a parallel referendum.

On Thursday, Arabic daily, Al-Sahafah, reported that Misseriya chiefs had established an alternative government to supplant the current administration in Abyei.

Abyei MP Arop Madut Arop responded to the move by saying it was “mere mockery system” created by a “merchant class of Arab slave traders with business mentality”.

The legislator told Sudan Tribune in an exclusive interview on Sunday that the alternative government, if truly formed, totally violates the Abyei protocol provisions within Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

“How can you start thinking of forming a government in a region which is still under negotiations? Are the Messeriya tribe and their entire leaders really in their right state of mind?” he asked.

Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the former southern rebels the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) who have shared power and wealth since the CPA in 2005 have been in and out of negotiations over the region since October.

The NCP demand that the Misseriya, who enter the region to find pasture for their cattle for some of the year be accorded full voting rights, whereas the SPLM say that only the Dinka Ngok the permanent residents of the area be allowed to vote. With little over a month until voting is due to begin the two sides have failed to agree who is eligible to take part or establish the commission to carry out the referendum.

Arop blames NCP leadership for “deliberately” delaying both the southern and Abyei referendum leading to the timely conduct of the southern referendum, saying the latter fears losing cheap labor, resources, and other services allegedly being provided by the southern population.

He denied reports that the Dink Ngok tribe were planning to organize their own referendum, should the NCP and their southern counterparts, Sudan’s Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) failed to break the deadlock over Abyei vote.

The MP also accused Thabo Mbeki, the former South African President, who currently head the African Union high level implementation panel on Sudan, for “taking sides” in the ongoing Abyei negotiations.

“Thabo Mbeki has lost neutrality in the mediation process. His [Mbeki’s] brother has business links with the Khartoum regime and this is something we all know about. Now, how do you expect such a person to act as a mediator on sensitive issues like the one on Abyei?” Arop asked.

Meanwhile, the newly formed Messeriya alternative government, reportedly composed of 10 ministers, is earmarked to begin functioning on December, 25.

(ST)