Khartoum pessimistic about prospects of reaching agreement with Juba during next round of talks
January 13, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – A senior official in the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) downplayed the chances of resolving outstanding issues with South Sudan in the upcoming round of talks scheduled to take place in Addis Ababa next Monday.
In a radio interview broadcast on Friday, Ghandour described Amum as a “warlord” who will not contribute in formulating a compromise and urged the United States and the United Kingdom to put pressure on South Sudan and advise it to refrain from escalating the situation towards war.
He revealed that there is a military build up by South Sudan close to the disputed border region of Abyei and blamed Amum and the South Sudan minister of cabinet affairs Deng Alor of pushing towards a military takeover of the oil-rich district.
Abyei region remains in dispute between Sudan and South Sudan after a planned vote to determine the status of the area failed to take place a year ago due to disagreements between the two sides on who has the right to vote.
Sudanese forces moved in to Abyei last May in retaliation to an attack reportedly carried out by Southern troops. The clashes displaced tens of thousands in the weeks before South Sudan seceded from Sudan.
Later Khartoum and Juba signed a deal agreeing to withdraw their forces and replace them with United Nations (UN) peacekeepers from Ethiopia. However, Khartoum is refusing to pull out until peacekeepers are fully deployed and a local administration is established.
Another hotly contested issue between the two countries is the fees that landlocked South Sudan should pay for using the north’s pipelines to transport its oil for exportation to the outside world.
Ghandour defended the NCP’s position saying that South Sudan wants to pay only 75 cents per barrel which he said goes against international norms.
“This amount is not enough to cover the maintenance [expenses] of pipelines and Juba must commit to bearing the expenses of customs and transit. We do not want a grant but only our rights,” he said.
The NCP official called on the wise men of South Sudan to intervene and convince Juba that the stability of the country is contingent on the stability of the north. He accused Juba of seeking to strangle Sudan economically through refusing to pay transit fees and supporting rebels in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
Ghandour said South Sudan wants to divert attention from its internal problems by creating an external enemy in the form of Khartoum.
Despite Khartoum swiftly recognising the new state on its border, tensions have escalated dramatically ever since, between the two countries. The two sides have traded accusations about supporting rebel groups on the other side of the border.
Late last year South Sudan accused Sudan of launching an air raid inside its borders including one on a refugee camp. They repeated the allegation that Khartoum was bombing South Sudan at the start of this month.
Talks on post-secession issues held under the auspices of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) have yielded little results.
(ST)