U.S. warns Sudan that normalization of ties in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
May 23 2011 (WASHINGTON) – The United States on Monday warned the Sudanese government that the process of normalizating ties will come to a halt unless it withdraws its forces from Abyei which lies on the North-South borders.
On the same day president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir issued a decree dissolving the Abyei administrative council without consulting with his first vice-president Salva Kiir who is also the president of Southern Sudan.
Khartoum said the military offensive was in response to an attack by the SPLA on a SAF convoy escorted by UN peacekeepers last week which led to heavy casualties within its ranks. The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) at the time condemned the attack but declined to assign blame.
A visiting delegation from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) deplored the attack by what it described as Southern forces on SAF convoy but also demanded Khartoum’s withdrawal from the oil-rich region and reinstatement of the Abyei council.
Western countries were quick to condemn the SAF’s seizure of Abyei calling it a violation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that was signed between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) that ended more than two decades of civil war.
South Sudan voted almost unanimously for secession in the referendum stipulated by the CPA. A simultaneous exercise was supposed to be conducted in Abyei by its residents who were to decide whether they want to be part of the North or South.
However, the ex-foes were unable to reach an agreement on who is eligible to vote between the Dinka Ngok, who are permanent residents of the region, and the Arab Misseriya who spend part of every year in Abyei as they seek pastures for their cattle.
The Sudanese government over the weekend said that it will not withdraw from Abyei until new security arrangements are reached with the South and after the residents decide their fate in the referendum.
Today the Sudanese parliament overwhelmingly approved the SAF incursion into Abyei after a briefing by the defense minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein. The latter stressed that the army will not withdraw “one inch” without new arrangements.
Only the lawmaker representing the Popular Congress Party (PCP) headed by Islamist opposition figure Hassan Al-Turabi objected to the defense minister’s remarks. MP Ismail Hussein described the national assembly’s support as a “political blackmail” and accused the politicians of seeking to drag the country into war.
He said that the lawmakers’ approval does not suit the price paid by the country in the form of losing the south. The remarks drew strong rebuke from the speaker Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Tahir accusing the MP of being “droopy” and added that he is not surprised because the PCP is an ally of the SPLM “outwardly and inwardly”
In Washington the U.S. special envoy to Sudan Princeton Lyman said actions undertaken by Khartoum in Abyei endanger the North-South negotiations on post-referendum issues before the South officially becomes independent next July.
“We feel that the attack on the UN convoy was deplorable and wrong, but we feel the response of the government was disproportionate and irresponsible. We think those forces should be withdrawn; the civilian administration, which President Bashir unilaterally dissolved, should be recreated; and we have urged that President Bashir and Vice President Kiir, who is head of the Southern Sudan administration, immediately come together and calm this situation down and restore the level of cooperation they talked about after the January 9th referendum. They have not been meeting recently and so far have not been in direct touch, and we feel that’s an extremely important thing for them to do” Lyman told reporters at the State department today.
Lyman further said that normalization of relations is now complicated by the SAF takeover of Abyei.
“[I]n our roadmap toward normalization, it includes specifically a resolution of the Abyei problem, which has to be a negotiated solution, and it involves full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. So this action complicates both of those conditions, and what it means is that our ability to move toward normalization is going to be complicated as well” he said.
“We had started the process, as you know, of looking at how to take them off the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. We’ve been working with the World Bank and others on the debt situation. We’ve been looking at the prospect of naming a full ambassador after July 9th in Khartoum. All of these are important steps in normalization. They can’t be fulfilled if we don’t have a successful CPA” Lyman added.
A senior U.S. official, who spoke to The Washington Times on background citing the sensitive nature of the developments, said the United States had offered a road map to the Bashir government for delisting.
It required Sudan to meet specific conditions to get off the list of state sponsors of terrorism and regain full diplomatic relations with the United States. The criteria included a political settlement for Abyei.
“Abyei was probably the most important element of [the conditions] if you had to rank them, and [recent developments in Abyei] are a serious setback,” the U.S. official said.
Fatahelrahman Ali Mohamed, deputy chief of mission at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, said it is “unfair” for the Obama administration to link the removal of Sudan from the terrorism list to Abyei.
“Our country is ready and committed to work with the United States, but it is not helpful if the U.S. is perceived as being tilted toward the south,” he added. “The Sudanese military forces went into Abyei to restore peace.”
However, U.S. and Sudanese officials, from the north as well as the south, downplayed fears of a bigger conflict.
The senior U.S. official noted that northern forces easily pushed out southern troops from Abyei and that the south lacks the ability to respond to northern aggression.
“I don’t think that the south is prepared for a full-scale war. That said, I don’t think the north is, either,” he said, describing the northern Sudan Armed Forces as a “broken institution.”
Enoch Awejok, acting head of the Southern Sudan mission in Washington, agreed that there was “no opportunity for war”.
“Neither side is blameless,” said the U.S. official. “Our first order of business is calming them down and getting them to talk to each other.”
Another U.S. official speaking to the New York Times said the South is treading carefully for fear of disrupting their breakup process from the North.
“They really don’t have any good options,” said an American official who works on Sudan but was not authorized to speak publicly. “They’re so close to getting what they worked so hard to get, and a war could risk all that. But I can tell you they’re very, very mad, at the highest levels.”
BURNING & LOOTING IN ABYEI
The United Nations peacekeeping operation in Sudan strongly condemned what it claimed was “burning and looting currently being perpetrated by armed elements in Abyei town”.
“The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) are responsible for maintaining law and order in the areas they control” said a statement by UNMIS.
UNMIS called on the Sudanese government to “urgently ensure that the Sudan Armed Forces fulfill their responsibility and intervene to stop these criminal acts”.
Kouider Zerrouk, a spokesperson for UNMIS, said most of the residents have fled towards the town of Agok in Southern Sudan.
“We can’t ascertain the exact number,” he said, but added that hundreds of thousands of people may have been displaced by today’s attacks and the recent clashes in the wider Abyei area.
Mr. Zerrouk said the identity of the armed groups conducting the looting and burning was not clear, but they were likely to be pro-northern.
“We don’t know who they are in terms of whether they are organized militias or just a group of civilians taking the opportunity of having an empty town and looting and burning the place”.
“The SAF are still occupying Abyei and they continue to bomb,” Deng Arop, the sacked region’s administrator who fled the violence and took shelter in Wau, a town almost 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of the disputed area, told Agence France Presse (AFP).
Arop said that bombings of east and south Abyei proved the northern army intends to “advance further south” and that the continued “indiscriminate bombing” would only aggravate the “humanitarian crisis.”
In Juba, around a hundred Southerners marched through the city decrying the “invasion” of Abyei by SAF.
“The north must leave, this cannot be allowed,” said demonstrator Choul Deng, who comes originally from the region on the north-south border.
“The north are acting like they did during the days of the civil war, bombing and attacking our people.”
In Khartoum the largest Northern opposition party provided a statement to the UNSC proposing a set measures to resolve the crisis in Abyei which included a ceasefire accord, declaring Abyei a demilitarized zone, replacing the dissolved Abyei council with a national commission to run the region, postponing the Abyei referendum to be held in a ‘healthy environment’ and holding a national conference to discuss urgent issues such as grazing rights, water, oil, security and citizenship.
(ST)
Mr. Truthteller
U.S. warns Sudan normalization in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
US government should instead work with wise strategists in South Sudan in order to get back Abyei to the South after July 9.
Thank you South Sudan government for admitting the truth and apologizing on behalf of the emotional sons of Abyei who attacked the withdrawing SAF convoy in Abyei. I knew you would not do such a miscalculated adventurous crime before July 9 independence.
The sons of Abyei miscalculated the incident and it has now worked in favor of Bashir. Khartoum thugs prefer violence process rather than peaceful legal process over Abyei issue. They tremble with fear when reading the Abyei protocol and The Hague ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) that specified and demarcated on map the territory of the nine Dinka Ngok chiefdoms of Abyei. But when that miscalculated incidence occurred, SAF exaggerated the matter and used it as a pretext to start a wide scale violence in the area in order to violently control it and drag the South or SPLA into the violence path Khartoum wants. This is a calculation to dilute the peaceful legal processes which it knows it will always lose to South Sudan or SPLM.
The South through legal processes would have squeezed harder the throat of Bashir and his belly until he vomits Abyei without a bullet shot, just like he with smiles allowed the South Sudan referendum to take place and accepted its outcome with a bullet shot. But if all the legal channels and international diplomacy finally fail after July 9, I would love to fight for Abyei after July 9 when we have already settled all my bills, secured recognition and get a certificate of statehood from the United Nations Security Council.
But hold it right there in Abyei SAF? Are you now trying to invade the South and encroach into our territory? Do you want to make a similar miscalculation like the sons of Abyei? The issue of South Sudan is a gone case. Referendum conducted. 98.5% voted for separation. You accepted the outcome. Your move would clearly be considered an invasion by foreign forces into South Sudan. Don’t force me to grab my AK47 and join the fight until I kick your butts out of the North-South borders of 1956.
Are you aware of the Ngundeng’s predicted final war of separation between North and South? Don’t even think about it because you will lose it despite your current airforce superiority. We can bring that thing, “the weapon that lightens the skies” or “mac mi riaw how” as predicted by Ngundeng. That war will be so bad that you will feel its direct pain for the first time inside Khartoum itself. So, don’t start it. Be warned!!!
We will capture all the disputed North-South border areas and control 98.5% of the South Sudan proper of Greater Upper Nile, Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Greater Equatoria region as stood on1956 borders and later get the remaining1.5% territory of South Sudan, which is Abyei after July 9.
George Bol
U.S. warns Sudan that normalization of ties in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
I can,t sleep when seeing something like this.
Land-of-Cush
U.S. warns Sudan that normalization of ties in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
Goarge Bol
Even the ward nyagat that you dinka you always preaching and your being saying you liberate south Sudan. Your dinka foolishness don’t even realises yet that you are betraying yourselves before south Sudanese people shame on you dinka.
People who don’t even pleasing unknown guest in home; Say (dhone kuer kan lo-thiuen) this is the starting of footpath go. What kind of people are you?
sid balad
U.S. warns Sudan normalization in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
MR. US Administration,
Abeyi is in jeopardy not US sanctions. We have learned to live without the US but not without Abeyi.
Mr.Truthteller,
Sudan did not sign the CPA and conduct the referendum only to not recognize its outcome. The all out war you talk about is not the intention of the GOS. Albashir has said many times that we recognize the south secession and that we would like to help this new nation get onto its feet.
The issue here is Abeyi and the agreements broken by the GOSS in this regard. They have even recognized their mistake and apologized.If your intention is to fight the north then y wait till the 9th of July? Who starts a fight then calls time out? Independent or not, the north will defend itself.
MSALBAKRY
U.S. warns Sudan that normalization of ties in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
US cannot stop the sky rain from the land of North, the power of the God is only the greatest powerfor human to depend on.
Abyei is more important to the north than US relationship, For Abyei petrol USA will come to kiss the feet of the North in the near future.
SPLA did most stubbed act by attacking North army in May. 19, the reply was came soon, just in the next day.
US as well as Israel now is very weak in season of Arabs revolutions around the World, SPLA has to understand this leason well.
Madut Tong
U.S. warns Sudan that normalization of ties in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
Dear readers,
the ill intentions of the NCP in the north became clear when the national Parliament who knows create laws in the country supports the presence of SAF in Abyei, and shows that this attack was really plan long time ago. And when they found this weak thread of SAF units being attack in the area they implement the one they had plan previously. That is why Mr. speaker expelled southern MPs from the Parliament before July the 9th. What I know so far is that they are not there because they much stronger than the south, and the southern government is not crying for help as Dr. James Okuk said yesterday, they are there becaue the south has a great thing to achieve, the declaration of the South as a Country in July 9th, than they will see if the SAF will not leave the region of Abyei. The NCP in Khartoum says that the SAF came into the area to bring peace, what peace are they talking about and they are displacing the citizens, looting their properties, and burning their houses. Are these national troops or gangs of robbers, and the government is saying that they are making peace. Also, the NCP should confine itself to the regulations in the CPA about Abyei protocol, and there is no other protocol to be sign with them apart from the one they have violated.
Chol Yuot Adoor
U.S. warns Sudan that normalization of ties in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
We needs to understand that Abyei is not a sharing area,but Abyei will not belongs to both North and South Sudan.Its belongs to one of them due to residents of region.
We needs south Sudan,Nubian mountain,Blue Nile including Abyei region instant of takeover by the neighboring North.I think this will involve such disputed on the ground as a whole country beside Darfur crisis base on Khartoum government regime.
Kur William
U.S. warns Sudan normalization in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
This is absolutely violattion of human right laws, the burning of these huts of civilans of Abyei is indicating that sudanese goverment are very notorious to satisfy themselves with what they want to do, they never fear” neither the internatinal community nor their counterpart brother Southerners”.However our position now we South we are not ready for the war of Abyei but we want to assure you Northerners that if you have thought out that the only way to own Abyei status is just the tool of war and then there is no problem with that although we have not equipes our defence forces yet at this stage to be conentional army therefore I do like once more time to tell you Arabs people that issue of Abyei is the most concern to Southerners entire then Juba to take Abyei away permanently to be the part of North is better to cliam Torit to be a part of North we are not prepares for the war now but tomorrow we will stretch a our muscles to contront you by any means and we pay the prices for it.
kur William
mohammed ali
U.S. warns Sudan that normalization of ties in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
The US should stop sending the wrong messages.Not because that we are so eager to normalize ties with them, but for the sake of peace, which they claim they are working for.We have been living and progessing under US sanction and undeclared war for more than two decades and we will continue to do so!
I wonder, what will the US government do if their soldiers were attacked in a simillar. They crossed thousends of miles to attack Afganistan and they are still there because they were attacked in their home! They crossed thousand of miles to claim million live in Iraq in an illeagal war as was described by Kofi Anan.
They attacked us to destroy a pharmathutical factory simply to cover the semen which was spilled on the dress of Monika by their President who appologized for being lying to them.
I wonder how they will respond if this happened to them!They brokered the Kadugli agreement and they were the main mediators to stop the SAF not to respond to the first attack when 11 of our soldiers were ambusehed cowardly. If they think we bowed to their pressure, then they are wrong. We bowed to peace and peace is one name of the names of God, ALLAH, the Mighty!
If normalizing the ties means humulating us, we don’t want these ties.We have 10% growth in our GDP under the US sanctions. We are not loosing, they are loosing as we can trade with all other countries. Their sanctions are not really hurting us, but it is hurting their own companies. We know very well what is underneath our land and we will explore it with the co=operation of other countries. If the Europeans will continue to be intimidated by the US , there are many capable countries in Asia and Latin America who have already joind us in big invetment projects. Even Europe is getting fed up with the US policy towards Sudan.The state minister of foreign affairs said it very clearly there are no UK sanctions , there is us sanctions.
We don’t want war with the south, with or without ties with the US.We don’t want war with anybody, it is only the US who is fond of war. War..war..everywhere We will build peace with the south , without pressure from you or your so called humanterian organization and other various pressure groups in the flourishing NGO’S ” industry” They work for themselves and not for the poor people.They can put pressure on your government and affect the public opinion there but not in our country. It is a selfish and greey ” industry’ who cares nothing about the misery of the people!
The US is a very powerful country , though not as before, but we are not weak to protect ourself interest and peace. Normalizing ties is much more in the interest of the US than in our interest.
The US can no longer print dollars as they wish and can hardly fight a war outside their borders.We are surviving without the Dollar and will continue to do so!
The US should stop being arrogant and bias and try to be fair once in it’s life time. Am sure they know much better than me that the world is changing dramatically. History was never static!
Michael Miyom Minyiel
U.S. warns Sudan normalization in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
Thank you mr.Truthteller.Iam only not happy the way my State Unity State seems to don’t care about Abyei.No single demonstration held in soldarity with the people of Abyei and others are are doing that for Abyei.
James Okuk Solomon
U.S. warns Sudan that normalization of ties in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
There is something some analysts have failed to capture regarding the problem of Abyei. The Abyei Area issue was problematic even before the CPA could be signed because of complication of these different interests:
1) The Misseriyah Eying the green pastures and water of Kiir river in the Area;
2) The Nine Ngok Dinka Chieftaincies wanting the Area to be re-attached to South Sudan where their blood brothers and sisters live;
3) The NCP Politicians who have learnt to enjoy the oil revenues coming from the Area but finds it hard to let it go after the South has gone;
4) The SPLM Politicians who hail from Abyei but who are afraid that if Abyei remains in the North, then they will lose the power and wealth they are enjoying from South Sudan now.
5) The International Community who sympathize with their friends from Abyei Dinka and who want to grant their desires irrespective of other complicated realities on the ground.
Given these complications, any easy diplomatic solution to the problem of Abyei becomes a nightmare. Thus, Khartoum might think that military occupation is the shortest way out but they are mistaken because Juba may apply the similar treatment, thus, rendering the Area a war zone uninhabited by any peaceful human being.
But in any case both Juba and Khartoum will not gain anything from war over Abyei Area, neither the residents of the Area itself. Even if the UNSC has to come up with a new resolution upgrading Chapter 6 to Chapter 7 of the UN Peace Keeping Operation, this shall not resolve the contention in Abyei because Chapter 7 is going to be negative even on the SPLA if they attempt to capture the Area in future. It shall not be a surprise that the UN army may fight the SPLA under Chapter 7 too as they could do to the SAF.
Talking of CPA implementation in Abyei is already a dead case because the time has lapsed. Those who may dream that there is going to be referendum in Abyei are just daydreamers, including the so-called International Community.
The solution is division of Abyei into two parts so that the Misseriyah could remain in the North with their portion and Dinka Ngok come to the South with their partitioned part of the Area. Once this is done, then the SAF who has now occupied the area will be willing to withdraw to the Abyei side that is agreed to belong to the North. For now over and out.
liberator3
U.S. warns Sudan that normalization of ties in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
James Okuk Solomon
Very timely analysis on the current mischiefs created by ill-advised Abyei politicians.
You also correctly hit the nail on its head that any one thinking of CPA implementation and referendum on Abyei is living in another planet.
SPLM(those communists) if they can be made responsible in order to come back to their senses and revived all South Sudan conference, so that a power sharing gov’t can be formed by all the parties in the South Sudan in an honest way, thus paving the way for South political unity at this critical stage would be a very welcoming relief to all our people.
Matung Neng-neng
U.S. warns Sudan normalization in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
USA Government today has more involvement in Sudan politic then ever favoring only SPLA-Dinka Rebel Party. I doubt it, maybe SPLA Dinka Rebels are giving bridge money. It is too bad to favor single tribe in other country politic.
Covert
U.S. warns Sudan normalization in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
Fake sid Balad, Abyei is not Arabic it’s a Dinka name! You people ignore warning and don’t listen until Tomahawk cruise missile rain on you.
Where will you be hiding with Bashire when it happens?
Kon Ajith Deng
U.S. warns Sudan normalization in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
Dear All
Killing the innocence in Abyei is the responsibility of SPLA,because they launched the attack on the Sudanese army force in Abyei, now you are blaming the Government of the Sudan for the violation of human rights,there are strange fingers doing that in the GOSS,to spoil the birth of new nation in the South Sudan,Abyei is the northern territory according to the border of the southern with the northern Sudan,it was annexed to the north since 1905,and our border is 1956,why those fingers want to spoil the Southerners independent?
Martin Bak
U.S. warns Sudan normalization in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
We the southerners need to take our position as an independence body and not to rely on external powers like UN.As a result of what has happened in Abyei recently,it occured in present of the so called UN peacekeeping forces. what have they done so far. it is time for these UN to leave Sudan rather than boasting for their title without actions.
Marco A. Wek
U.S. warns Sudan that normalization of ties in jeopardy after Abyei seizure
Mohammed Ali while you are right there are Africam Muslims but that has nothing to do with those African Muslims hating Zionists. Arabs are the ones feeling bitter towards Israelis or Zionists because of their occupation to the Arabs lands not because of Zionists or Israelis occupation of Islamic religion. And remember Mr. Mohammed not all Palestinians are Muslims and the notion that all Muslims should hate Israelis is wrong. If you don’t want to be hated than don’t others as well.