Juba stops public media campaigns for Abyei referendum
October 16, 2013 (JUBA/KHARTOUM) – South Sudanese government unexpectedly issued strong administrative instructions, suspending all announcements and mobilisation campaigns in support of the Abyei referendum, according to senior officials.
“The management of the South Sudan Television and Radio has received directives from a higher authority to immediately suspend all announcements and mobilisation campaigns in support of Abyei referendum. We were told to implement them (administrative orders) with immediate effective. There was no mention of any reason”, a senior official at South Sudan Television told Sudan Tribune on Wednesday.
Sudan Tribune was not able to separately verify the directive, despite being widely reported in the local media, specifically independent radio stations.
Abyei was originally due to hold a vote to decide its future in January 2011 at the same time that South Sudan opted to secede from Sudan. The oil-producing region is claimed by both countries.
However the referendum has been delayed because the two parties failed to define who are Abyei residents that can participate in the crucial vote on the fate of the disputed territory.
Khartoum says the Misseriya nomads who pass some six months in the area are residents and have to vote while officials in Juba say only the Ngok Dinka can vote.
Last year, the African mediation or the African Union High Implementation Panel (AUHIP) proposed that only the Ngok Dinka participate in a referendum that can take place in October 2013.
The panel said that its proposal comes in line with the rule of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in July 2009 providing that Abyei belongs to the nine chiefdoms of the Ngok Dinka.
The elite of the Ngok Dinka and several civil society groups from the disputed area campaigned recently to unilaterally hold the referendum as provided in the AUHIP proposal.
The South Sudanese government backed the move and directed to support the return of Abyei people to their homeland to take part in the vote.
In a joint meeting held in New York on 27 September, The African Union and United Nations said concerned by the “deteriorating political environment in the Abyei area and the risk that unilateral actions by Misseriya and Ngok Dinka communities lead to security incidents costly in human lives”.
They further called on the two sides to form Abyei interim administration and to ” he Abyei Area Referendum Commission and refrain from undertaking unilateral actions and encourages implementation of such commitments.”
JUBA DEMANDS NEW DATE FOR REFERENDUM
In statements to the private Sudanese TV channel Ashorroq, South Sudanese ambassador in Khartoum Mayan Dut Wol said they are waiting to determine a new date for the referendum after recent decision of the AU UN meeting which included the five permanent members of the Security Council.
Dut Wol however praised the bilateral relations between the two countries and said that Juba is ready to open the 10 crossing points for border trade. He added that he opening will be effective within two weeks.
He further underlined that joint committees are working to settle security issues.
(ST)