Machar urges international community to ensure timely conduct of referendum in Abyei

May 15, 2013 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s vice-president, Riek Machar, has called on the international community to help the two Sudans ensure conduct of the long awaited referendum for the people of Abyei.

The people of Ngok Dinka of Abyei were supposed to concurrently conduct a referendum on self-determination during the same time of January 2011 when the people of South Sudan held the plebiscite, which give birth to the new country.

The Ngok Dinka, who are ethnically South Sudanese, were to choose between joining the new independent state of South Sudan or remaining with the current Sudan in accordance with the 2005 peace deal, which ended decades of war between the two former regions.

The referendum in Abyei, however, did not take place in 2011 because the two ruling parties, NCP and SPLM, in Sudan and Southern Sudan, respectively, could not agree on a number of issues, including on eligible voters in Abyei.

Sudan demands that the Arab nomadic tribe, Messeriya participate in the voting while South Sudan wants only the Ngok Dinka and any other residents inside Abyei, to vote.

In 2009, The Hague court of arbitration ruled what constituted the Abyei Area of Ngok Dinka and demarcated its boundaries on the map. The physical demarcation on the ground has not taken place.

After South Sudan’s independence, the two governments agreed that the referendum would take place in October this year. But disagreements over the eligible voter and establishment of the Abyei area administration have remained contentious.

There are also 80% disagreements over the demarcations of borders dividing the two countries.

James Gatdet Dak, Machar’s press secretary told Sudan Tribune that the vice-president raised a strong concern with the top European Union (EU) diplomat in the country, urging the organization to exercise its influence and help the two nations agree on Abyei.

Dak further said the EU’s ambassador, Suen Kuhn Von, also expressed the importance of restraint by the two countries and not to allow their relations to be spoiled by the recent assassination in Abyei of the Ngok Dinka paramount chief, Kuol Deng Kuol.

During his recent visit to Juba, the Sudanese President, Omer Hassan Al Bashir and his South Sudan counterpart, Salva Kiir agreed to form a high level committee that will be co-chaired by the two countries’ vice-presidents.

The committee, they said, would be tasked to oversee the implementation of the September 2012 Addis Ababa cooperation agreements and resolve all the outstanding issues between the nations, including Abyei.

However, the two presidents have not yet moved to form the agreed upon high level committee.

(ST)