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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Oct 26 2010 - 08:23:03 EDT
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/10/20101025225853195895.html
Sudan warns of civil war over Abyei
Sudan's UN envoy warns against any attempt to hold the Abyei vote
without a deal on unsettled issues.
Last Modified: 26 Oct 2010 04:15 GMT
Sudan's UN ambassador has warned that conducting a January 9
referendum in Abyei without settling voting rights for competing
tribes, as well as the border, will lead to war.
"It is evident that any attempt to conduct the plebiscite before
achieving an acceptable settlement between the two parties will mean
only a return to war," Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told a Security
Council debate on Sudan on Monday.
The Abyei ballot - scheduled for the same day as people in south Sudan
decide whether to opt for independence - is for the people of Abyei to
decide whether to remain in north Sudan or join the south.
The separate referendums in southern Sudan and the Abyei region are
part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement reached in 2005, which ended
the two-decade old Sudan civil war that left more than two million
dead.
Preparations for both votes are way behind schedule, and many Western
nations fear conflict if the referendums are delayed.
Status of the Abyei region
New US-brokered talks between Abyei and the Khartoum government, due
to start in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Wednesday, have been called off.
The Sudanese ambassador said his government wanted negotiations on the
referendums to lead to peace, "not to war, which we have never
willingly accepted".
No referendum commission has been set in disputed Abyei and the
region's leaders have failed to reach an accord with the Khartoum
government on either who is eligible to vote or Abyei's borders.
Local tensions in Abyei, where oil fields are worth hundreds of
millions of dollars, have heightened worries over the dispute with
Khartoum. The territory is dominated by the Dinka Ngok tribe - who
support south Sudan - and Arab Misseriya nomads who migrate with their
cattle through the region's rich pastures.
UN concerns
The referendum law gives voting rights to the traditionally
southern-supporting Dinka, leaving it up to a commission to decide
whether "other Sudanese" are considered residents of the region and
can also vote.
The Misseriya have threatened to carry out acts of violence in the
district if they are not allowed to vote.
Khartoum's warning comes as the UN peacekeeping chief told the
Security Council on Monday that reinforcing the UN force in Sudan
cannot prevent hostilities between the north and the south if tensions
continue to rise.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said the southern Sudan
commission must now work "extremely quickly" if it is to get a vote
ready on time.
He also said he was "deeply concerned" about events in the oil-rich
Abyei region.
"The continued lack of progress is exacerbating an already tense and
volatile situation on the ground," Ban said on Monday in a report to
the Security Council.
Peacekeeping efforts
UN peacekeeping chief Alain LeRoy told the Security Council that the
UN mission in Sudan (UNMIS) was considering redeploying troops from
the rest of the country to the north-south frontier or calling for
international reinforcements.
He said any redeployment would weaken the UN peacekeeping mission in
the rest of Sudan but added that "any increase in the number of troops
would not enable UNMIS to prevent or contain a clash on the frontier."
"Our best available tool against a return to war remains our
commitment in favour of a political agreement ... of the parties on
the key pending issues," he said.
LeRoy said there had been no "major military mobilisation" but added
that it was "urgent" that progress is made in Abyei talks.
Sudan's UN ambassador spoke out against a reinforcement saying it
would be a waste of resources that would not help ease tensions.
Additionally, UN officials have said it would be almost impossible to
get significant numbers of new troops to Sudan in time for the
referendum.
"The stakes are undeniably high, as failure to meet the deadline for
the referendums prescribed by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement could
have severe consequences," the UN secretary-general added.
With the south and the north accusing each other of a military
build-up on the shared frontier, the UN mission in Sudan UNMIS has
already stepped up monitoring along the border and reinforcing
"hotspots".
Source: Agencies
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