SUDAN/ETHIOPIA: Latest round of talks between North and South Sudan on future of oil-producing Abyei region fails to reach agreement

Record ID: 349303

  • Title: SUDAN/ETHIOPIA: Latest round of talks between North and South Sudan on future of oil-producing Abyei region fails to reach agreement
  • Date: 13th October 2010
  • Summary: KHARTOUM, SUDAN (OCTOBER12,2010) (REUTERS) ZOOM OUT: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY BUILDING SUDANESE FLAGS FALCON LOGO OF THE SUDANESE FLAG NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MEMBERS PRESIDENT BASHIR ON HIS WAY TO THE FLOOR TO DELIVER THE SPEECH (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SUDANESE PRESIDENT, OMAR AL BASHIR, SAYING: "We are ready to make a joint review on what has been done, to enable the governance
  • Embargoed: 28th October 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA56P7BYAUK6UALJK9CMR6VM795
  • Story Text: The latest round of talks between north and south Sudan on the future of the oil-producing Abyei region, has failed to reach agreement, the parties said on Tuesday (October 12).
    Sudan is three months away from the scheduled start of a referendum on whether Abyei should join the north or south -- a vote promised as part of the 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war.
    The north's National Congress Party (NCP) and the south's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) said in a joint statement that they would meet again in Ethiopia toward the end of October to continue their discussions.
    The parties continue to commit themselves to their mutual goal of avoiding a return to conflict," the statement said.
    The head of the southern delegation, however, warned Sudan could return to war without agreement, calling the nine days of talks a failure, a position rejected by his Northern counterpart.
    Salah Gosh, chief NCP negotiator and special security adviser to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, said he was still hopeful of a deal despite the setback.
    "We believe that the two parties now agree not to go back to war and also we said we, the congress party, will not go back to war. We believe we have to tackle and solve all the issues peacefully and positively. We also now assure all Sudanese and the international community that the discussions will continue in the coming months. Also we say to the Sudanese, and especially the people of Abyei, to be calm and to save the situation because we still hope tackling the issue and by the end of this month I believe we will reach a conclusion." said Salah Gosh.
    Delegates told Reuters that Sudanese Second Vice-President Ali Osman Taha was flying to Juba on Tuesday to meet south Sudan President Salva Kiir in an attempt to salvage the talks.
    "Of course the paper which has been presented by the mediator - we as the NCP has already accepted and we present our readiness to sign it. Unfortunately our brothers the SPLM refused to sign it because they believe still, they disagree with the suggestion given by the mediator." said Salah Gosh.
    One observer at the talks, who declined to be identified, said former South African President Thabo Mbeki had offered to mediate when negotiations resumed.
    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged Khartoum to come to the talks prepared to negotiate. The Obama administration's special envoy for Sudan, Scott Gration, participated in the talks.
    At the same time as the Abyei plebiscite, there will be a referendum on whether south Sudan should secede from the north. That vote is widely expected to bring about Africa's newest state, a prospect opposed by Khartoum.
    Delegates in Addis Ababa told Reuters one possible solution to the impasse was to forego the referendum on Abyei and divide its territory between the north and the south.
    But delegates said the teams were unable to agree on border demarcation and what would qualify as Abyei citizenship.
    The SPLM says the Khartoum government is settling thousands of Missiriya, a tribe from central Sudan, in northern Abyei to influence the vote. Khartoum denies this.
    In a sign of mounting tension, south Sudan's army told Reuters four northern soldiers walked into the centre of Abyei town on Monday evening and started shooting randomly in the air, slightly injuring one trader.
    In the Sudan capital Khartoum, president Bashir chaired a National Assembly session that resolved to try and convince people to vote for continued unification of the Sudan.
    The 2005 peace deal said northern and southern leaders must try to make unity "attractive" to southerners before the vote.
    Bashir said he was still committed to holding the vote but both sides first had to agree the position of their shared border and how to share out oil, debt and Nile river water.
    "We are ready to make a joint review on what has been done, to enable the governance institutions in the south undertaking their responsibilities of security in the region. We will also work to promote what is stated in the the agreement (CPA) on the SPLA responsibility as a part and parcel of the national army, and in promotion of the National Accord. Also in promotion of best distribution to defend the country and its national security. as for sharing wealth we are ready to adopt programmes and projects of development." Bashir told assembly members.
    Bashir recently accused former civil war foes in the south of breaking the terms of a peace deal, warning worse conflict could erupt if the sides did not settle disputes before a vote on secession due in January.
    The comments raised the stakes in a war of words between Khartoum and the south's dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), five years after the sides ended decades of conflict with an accord.
    Cabinet Affairs minister Doctor Luka Byong said there had to be proper clarification of which groups of people could vote in the Abyei referendum.
    "People who has the right to vote in the referendum are the Dinka Ngok and the other Sudanese in the region, this is stated in the Constitution, as we highlighted before, these people are pastoralists, and their rights are different from other groups that are residents in Abyei . We didn't reach an agreement, but we think that we have a political commitment to continue the search for the best solution to conduct referendum in Abyei" said Doctor Byong.
    In three months' time, that peace deal is supposed to come to a climax with a referendum giving the people of the oil- producing south the right to decide whether to declare independence or stay part of Sudan.
    The last north-south conflict, Africa's longest civil war, killed about 2 million people and forced 4 million to flee.
    Any renewal of conflict in Africa's largest country could spill into the nine states that border Sudan -- Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Chad, Libya and Egypt -- threatening the region's economic success stories and complicating existing conflicts and allegiances.
    Northern and southern leaders have been locked in negotiations for months on issues including how they would share out oil revenues after the vote.
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