AU mediators forward proposal on oil dispute between Sudan, South Sudan

January 24, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The African Union High Level Panel (AUHIP) has put forward a new proposal aimed at enabling Sudan and South Sudan to resolve their dispute over oil, according to official Sudanese media.

Sudan’s official news agency SUNA on Tuesday reported that the AUHIP, known as Mbeki Panel after its chairman and former South African president, has forwarded a twofold proposal to the Sudanese and South Sudanese delegates, negotiating under its mediation in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The first part of the proposal, SUNA said, is pertinent to arrangements for a transitional period of 30 days during which South Sudan will continue to transport its oil through Sudan’s territories until an agreement on transit fees is reached.

Land-locked South Sudan last week decided to halt oil production in response to Khartoum’s sequestration of oil running through its territories on claims that Juba has not paid any fees since South Sudan seceded from Sudan on 9 July last year.

According to SUNA, the second part of the proposal suggests certain amounts of financial compensations to cover claims of arrears made since the date of South Sudan’s independence.

The news agency further said it learned that the delegates had received the proposals and promised to respond to it.

The AUHIP’s proposal represents the last chance to salvage the floundering round of talks which was originally scheduled to kick off on 17 January but hit a snag after South Sudan demanded that Khartoum pays compensation for the confiscated oil.

In an op-ed published on Tuesday by the New York Times, Alex de Wall, a prominent Sudan expert and an adviser to Mbeki, said that the new AUHIP proposals would “keep the oil flowing, stop the unilateral diversion of southern oil by the north, and provide enough funds to cushion the economic crisis in the north”.

De Wall noted that Sudan’s President Omer Al-Bashir and President Salva Kiir are due to meet on the margins of the IGAD summit in Addis Ababa on Friday.

As far as De Wall is concerned, “this is the last chance, not only for the two to snatch a deal on oil, but also to stop an escalation into a wider north-south war”.

“The two must step back from the brink,” he concluded.

The chairman of the AU commission, Jean Ping, also voiced support to the AUHIP proposal in a statement released on Monday.

Ping, who urged Sudan and South Sudan to refrain from unilateral actions over oil, said in the statement that the AUHIP proposal enjoys support from China, the biggest buyer of Sudanese oil, as well as other members of the international community, including the United States.

South Sudan took with it nearly 75 percent of the 500,000 barrels of oil the once united Sudan used to produce on daily basis, when it seceded in July last year as part of a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil wars between the two sides.

Relations between the recently separated countries have been strained over mutual accusations of supporting rebel groups and failure to resolve post succession issues.

(ST)