Abyei belongs to South Sudan – SPLM official
February 17, 2011 (ABYEI) – A senior official from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) from oil-producing region of Abyei said Thursday that Abyei belongs to South Sudan and that South Sudanese should not let it remain in the North.
Miyen Alor Kuol a senior member of South Sudan’s ruling party, the SPLM, said there was “no question” that Abyei should be transfered to South Sudan. Sudan’s South is due to become independent in July.
Abyei’s population was supposed to hold a referendum to determine whether the region will remain in the North or rejoin the South but differences over who will participate in the plebiscite led to it being delayed.
The Abyei referendum was agreed as part of a 2005 peace deal between former rebels the SPLM and Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP). The most important aspect of the deal was the referendum on southern independence, which went ahead peacefully and on schedule in January, resulting in a overwhelming vote for independence.
Abyei’s referendum was supposed to occur simultaneously but the two partners of the 2005 peace agreement failed to agree on who was allowed to vote. With the SPLM rejecting the NCP demand that the Misseriya ethnic group – who enter Abyei for part of the year with their cattle – be accorded full voting rights
With the referendum delayed indefinitely the two sides have so far failed to reach a political agreement on the future of the oil-producing area. However, they have agreed to it should remain in the North but only until a solution is reached before the peace agreement ends with the South’s independence in July 2011.
Kuol, an SPLM figure who comes from Abyei, told Sudan Tribune on Thursday that the region must be returned to the South, from where it was transfered in by the British colonial administrators over 100 years ago: “There is no question that Abyei is part and parcel of South Sudan. The people of Abyei are Dinka and there is nowhere Dinka are found in Sudan a part from South Sudan. So, it is no question that Abyei is for the South and we are Dinka.”
The North Sudan government in Khartoum intends to keep the control of the region, Kuol said, adding that he could not see a reason for the Misseriya to fear they would be barred access to water and grazing areas, should Abyei become part of the South.
“I do not understand why [there] are members of the Misseriya fearing they could lose these pastures if Abyei secedes along with the South. If our people have been allowing them pass through the area for centuries without signed documents why do they think they will not be allowed access to water and grazing areas now that it has been recognized in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and in the Permanent Court of Arbitration”, asked Kuol.
In 2008 the issue of Abyei was referred to Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague.
The NCP and the SPLM failed to reach an agreement on Abyei’s referendum last year during talks brokered in Addis Ababa by the U.S. envoy to Sudan Scott Gration. However, a political agreement on the future of the region may negate the need for the referendum to take place.
SPLM’s Pagan Amum has suggested that in exchange for financial compensation the disputed region could be transfered to the South by presidential decree. But Sudan’s NCP President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir has pledged on various occasions to protect the rights of the Misseriya.
Bashir’s Northern government has proposed to give the region special status but South Sudan’s officials say the issue could be brought again to the international court of arbitration after the independence if the issue remains unresolved.
Amum described the NCP’s stance on Abyei as holding the region “hostage” because of the regions, oil, water and land resources.
“There is no any other reason. If there was no oil in Abyei, there would be problem why NCP is pushing Misseriya to make unnecessary claims. The prime interest of the National Congress Party in Abyei is oil. This is the reason why Khartoum is intractable, not to implement all the agreements they have signed and committed itself is simply because of oil,” he said.
Tension remains high in Abyei itself. According to local officials an angry mob killed five traders from Northern Sudan in Abyei town market on Saturday 12 February. The incident occurred after a soldier from the North Sudan army attached to a joint unit with Southern troops fired into the air after he was refused entry to the market by local police because he was carrying a weapon.
Unconfirmed reports say one of the traders fired into air after two armed policemen, at the check point where the soldier was stopped, fired into the air stop the soldier.
The United Nations Mission in Sudan, UNMIS, declined making comment about the rising tension in Abyei when contacted by Sudan Tribune on Thursday.
Hassan Musa, one of the leading members of the Misseriya tribe, in an interview with Sudan Tribune from the town of Muglad said he was aware of the killing of Northern traders but said that none of them were Misseriya.
“Yes, we are aware that five traders most of whom are from Darfur and other parts of Sudan were killed in Abyei on Saturday during the shooting out at the market but none of them was from Misseriya. None of those killed was from us. We are told some of those killed on Saturday comes from Darfur and other parts of Sudan. The Dinka Ngok cannot do that to us. They know us very well”, said Hassan.
(ST)