North, South Sudan to resume post-secession talks on 19 May

May 17, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The ruling parties of north and south Sudan are due on Thursday to embark on a fresh round of talks on arrangements to bifurcate the country as time rapidly elapses ahead of the south’s declaration of independence in less than two months.

Ethiopia’s capital Addis Abba will host high-level delegations from north Sudan ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and its South Sudan counterpart, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), to engage on a three-day round of talks on economy-related issues.

The talks, which will be moderated by the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP), led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, will mainly aim to tackle issues of oil-sharing, currency and external debts.

According to the SPLM’s leading member Luka Biong, as he spoke to the privately owned daily Sudanese newspaper Al-Sahafah on Tuesday, the talks would stretch over a period of three days.

He added that the delegates would also receive briefing on the progress made since the last round.

The last round of talks, which took place in early March in Ethiopia, reportedly reached an agreement that the south would help the north to persuade international creditors to forgive the country’s hefty external debt, which stood at about $35.7 billion as of December, 31 2009, according to official figures.

Biong revealed that the talks would focus on contentious issues, including oil, currency and external debts.

He, however, later said that the talks would also touch on issues of the hotly-contested region of Abyei, which saw violent confrontation in the recent past, as well as border demarcation.

South Sudan, which produces nearly 70 percent of the country’s proven daily oil output of 500,000 barrels, is due to declare independence in July this year after the region’s citizens voted almost unanimously to secede from the north in a referendum held in January this year.

Talks between the two sides to thrash out a host of contentious issues, including Abyei, borders, assets, international agreements, Nile water, oil revenues and citizenship, have proceeded haltingly with little public revelation on the progress made.

Biong pointed out that this round represents “the last opportunity” for the two sides in view of the time factor.

He further said the meeting would also give the AU the opportunity to concentrate its efforts on the main issues and proceed to the stage of drafting agreements.

But the SPLM official said he was expecting the current tension in the country’s north-south border state of South Kordofan, where the NCP and the SPLM bitterly contested gubernatorial and legislative elections this month, as well as recent incidents of violence in Abyei to cast negative shadows on the talks.

“Despite the current circumstances we want to move forward to a level beyond our disagreements,” Biong said.

The NCP’s delegation to the talks is expected to be under a new leadership after chief negotiator Salah Gosh was surprisingly stripped of nearly all his position within the NCP amid reports of his involvement in internal power struggle.

(ST)