Khartoum looks to Ethiopia for Heglig mediation
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
April 18, 2012 (ADDIS ABABA) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir has sought Ethiopia’s support to resolve escalating tensions with South Sudan over disputed Heglig, an oil-rich town recently taken control of by South Sudan army (SPLA).
Ismail also met with AU commission chairman Jean Ping, chairman of African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) Thabo Mbeki, and Ramadan Alamamra the Commissioner of AU Peace and Security Council (AUPSC).
Tensions between Juba and Khartoum has also increased over recent Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) bombing raids which have been condemned by the UN.
The AU said last week that South Sudan’s seizure of Heglig was illegal and urged the south to immediately withdraw forces. It further called on Khartoum to stop aerial bombardment inside South Sudan.
Talks between the warring factions held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, mediated by AUHIP to resolve issues such as border demarcation and oil revenues have been on hiatus since Juba accused Khartoum of military aggression in March.
After Ismail briefed the Zenawi on the current situation between Juba and Khartoum, the Ethiopian Premier affirmed to him that Ethiopia would extend relentless efforts to peacefully resolve the ongoing conflict over Heglig.
Zenawi further said his country would push forward the efforts by the AU to resolve the crisis.
At a press conference in the Sudanese embassy, Ismail said that the international community must put all pressure on Juba to withdraw “as quickly as possible and without any conditions”. He noted that South Sudan so far rejected all pleas from all world parties to pull out.
The Sudanese official also dismissed any links between the issue of Abyei and Heglig saying that it is “out of question”.
South Sudan has suggested it is prepared to withdraw from Heglig if Sudan does the same in Abyei.
But Ismail said that circumstances are different and that there is an agreement on Abyei that Sudan has abided by while South refuses to.
The two neighbors both claim Abyei, a border region containing fertile grazing land, which Khartoum took in May last year – triggering the exodus of tens of thousands of civilians – after a southern attack on an army convoy.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan last July, six months after a referendum agreed under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war that killed more than 2 million people. Such a vote was originally also planned in Abyei but was never held as both sides have been unable to agree on who can participate.
There are 3,800 U.N. peacekeepers in Abyei after the Security Council authorized the deployment in June last year. The two neighbors were also to redeploy their forces out of Abyei.
But the UN said that neither side has pulled out their forces from the area. Sudan says that it will not do so until an administrative council is established and Ethiopian peacekeepers are full deployed.
(ST)