From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Jul 28 2009 - 17:07:10 EDT
South Sudan Switches Strategy on Disputed Oil field
By Alan Boswell
Nairobi
28 July 2009
Abyei in Southern Sudan
Abyei in Southern Sudan
South Sudan has issued a new argument to support its claim on a major oil
field given to the North as part of the Abyei ruling last week at The Hague.
Disputing the North's possession of the oil field, the South says the prized
land is still part of a separate southern region.
South Sudan's ruling party, the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement, or SPLM,
says that the Heglig oil field belongs to the southern Unity State region.
The SPLM is threatening to appeal this continued border dispute at The Hague
as a separate case.
Southern officials explain their new position by saying that while the Abyei
case was ongoing, it was not wise to decide between the alleged separate
claims on the oil field between Abyei and Unity State.
But now that it has lost that portion of the ruling, it says it will press a
separate claim on the oil field by its Unity region.
The dispute has become so complicated, with both sides pointing to often
inaccessible anthropological and historical evidence that is decades and
sometimes centuries old, that experts are not able to easily decipher the
validity of the two sides' various claims.
Sudanese analyst Fouad Hikmat sees the latest debate over the oil field as
political posturing within a fragile peace arrangement that could collapse
at any time. According to Hikmat, both sides need to position some claim on
the disputed border regions as legitimate in case relations between the
North and South deteriorate.
"Everybody is throwing [out] these arguments now for future discussions,
future problems. If something goes wrong, then there is an argument. People
are preparing something. Everyone is figuring out what does this mean, this
decision," Hikmat said.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in the South's favor by placing
most of the disputed area within Abyei borders. But the court gave the North
a major victory by excluding the oil fields from the territory. The South
had been arguing for a wide demarcation of Abyei's borders because it hopes
the territory will vote to join South Sudan in a referendum that is expected
to be held on the same day as the January 2011 southern Sudan independence
vote.
International observers breathed a sigh of relief as each party immediately
accepted the Abyei ruling. But the calm waned as the two sides began trading
jabs over the territory.
As the South refuses to cede the disputed oil field, Khartoum angered many
southerners by declaring that it is no longer going to share oil revenues
from Heglig with the South.
Northern Sudan leader Omar al-Bashir has also drawn complaints from Southern
leaders for indicating in a recent speech that non-settled Arab nomads in
the Abyei area would be able to vote in the 2011 self-determination vote.
The Arab nomads are often associated with northern Sudan, whereas the
settled farmers are tied more to the South.
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