SOUTH SUDAN: South Sudan says northern neighbour is putting new block on oil sales

Record ID: 344272

  • Title: SOUTH SUDAN: South Sudan says northern neighbour is putting new block on oil sales
  • Date: 26th November 2012
  • Summary: MELUT, SOUTH SUDAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) OIL PROCESSING INFRASTRUCTURE AND PIPES OIL WORKERS LINE UP KIIR MEETS OIL WORKERS MORE OF OIL WORKERS
  • Embargoed: 11th December 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sudan
  • Country: Sudan
  • Topics: Business,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7JF63LAYQVN05XD9UQNOEW4H3
  • Story Text: South Sudan's President Salva Kiir said on Monday (November 26), Sudan has put a fresh obstacle in the way of allowing its land-locked southern neighbour to pipe its oil to the Red Sea.
    The move dashes plans to re-start production after 11 months and unsettles last year's still fragile peace agreement.
    In January, South Sudan shut down its entire oil output of 350,000 barrels a day after tensions with Sudan over oil fees escalated, but an agreement to re-open the export pipeline was announced in September.
    But Kiir said on Monday, Sudan has now demanded a new condition for reopening the pipeline: that South Sudan now disarm rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement North, known as SPLM-North, which operate in two states bordering South Sudan.
    Kiir said he cannot send his troops to another country to disarm and called the condition "impossible."
    "Disarming SPLM North (rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement North) was not really our responsibility because it has been recognised by the AUHIP (African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan) that the SPLM North has a political case that needs a solution. The SPLM North should be negotiating directly with the Sudan government," South Sudan President Salva Kiir said.
    "We are a different country; SPLM North is in a different country. You cannot (expect) a foreign army to cross into another country to go and conduct a disarmament. That can't be. It will not happen. It is an impossible mission," said Kiir.
    South Sudan denies supporting the SPLM-North, which plans to topple Sudan's veteran president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, together with rebels from the western region of Darfur.
    Diplomats say support from Juba is likely however in retaliation for suspected Sudanese backing for anti-government militias in South Sudan.
    Kiir also condemned Khartoum's recent bombing in South Sudan.
    "This bombardment, as they claim, was because they were pursuing rebels. Of course this is their usual excuse and this excuse is nothing, it is not true because there are no rebels that have run to South Sudan," Kiir added.
    South Sudan seceded in July last year after overwhelmingly voting for independence in a referendum promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended a civil war.
    In April, the two nations clashed on another part of their poorly-defined border, the Heglig oilfield, but pulled back from the brink of war after international pressure.
    The African neighbours agreed to end hostilities in September and to resume oil exports from the South.
    But tensions flared up again last week after the two countries accused one another of failing to move their forces back from the unmarked joint border, something both had said must happen before oil exports could resume.
    rw/pkm/ks/jrc
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