Talks to temper Sudanese crisis
Timothy McDonald reported this story on Tuesday, June 14, 2011 12:38:00
ELEANOR HALL: Southern Sudan's independence is just weeks away and even before the country is born its government-in-waiting is trying to avoid sliding back into conflict with the North.
The two sides have just agreed in principle to demilitarise the disputed region of Abyei.
But details of the agreement are yet to be hammered out, as Timothy McDonald reports.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: After two days of talks, the North's leader president Omar al-Bashir and his southern counterpart Salva Kiir agreed on a plan to demilitarise the disputed Abyei region.
The South's minister of information Barnaba Benjamin Marial told the Sudan Radio Service there's reason for cautious optimism.
BARNABA BENJAMIN MARIAL: As long as they agree on the specific arrangement with regards to the administration, the Abyei administration as well as what troops that will be put to replace the Sudanese armed forces when they withdraw - to discuss the details of that security arrangement.
The concept that they would want to withdraw, I think they have accepted the principle that they will have to withdraw.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: But Rabie Abdul Atti from the ruling National Congress Party says any withdrawal is conditional and the final status of the region is still undetermined.
RABIE ABDUL ATTI: This will pave the way for a final resolution for Abyei, either by conduction of referendum or to agree with (inaudible) and with any other resolution.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: The US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has urged both sides to accept an offer of peacekeeping troops from neighbouring Ethiopia.
HILLARY CLINTON: So we would welcome both parties agreeing to ask Ethiopia, which has volunteered, to send peacekeepers to do so as part of a United Nations mission that will be strengthened.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: A 2005 peace deal ended a decades-long civil war between the North and the South and led to a referendum in January in which the South voted to secede.
But the split has been complicated by unresolved questions about how oil revenues will be shared and the exact position of the border, and in recent weeks the dispute has threatened to degenerate into an all out war.
Northern troops overran Abyei last month after an attack on a convoy of Sudan armed forces troops and UN peacekeepers.
Omar al-Bashir and Salva Kiir are also attempting to resolve a crisis in another border region, South Kordofan, which is the North's only oil-producing state.
Fighting in the region between the North's army and militias sympathetic to the South has continued for the last week and has displaced an estimated 50,000 people.
Often, they've been forced to flee their homes and abandon their possessions.
SUDANESE MAN (translated): I left everything. I only have the clothes I'm wearing.
SUDANESE WOMAN (translated): I didn't bring anything from my house. I left it open and don't know anything about it. I have three daughters and I don't know how to feed them.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Aid agencies are warning of a humanitarian crisis in the run-up to independence, and say a campaign of ethnic cleansing is destabilising the border region.
A spokesperson for Amnesty International, Tawanda Hondora says many of the attacks appear to be premeditated.
TAWANDA HONDORA: So as far as we're concerned we think that this is not a coincidence, that this is well planned and the purpose is to ensure that those three areas are destabilised for political ends.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Mediators have described the talks between the North and the South as tense.
The two sides say they hope to resolve the crisis ahead of independence, which is set to take place on July the ninth.
ELEANOR HALL: Timothy McDonald reporting.
The two sides have just agreed in principle to demilitarise the disputed region of Abyei.
But details of the agreement are yet to be hammered out, as Timothy McDonald reports.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: After two days of talks, the North's leader president Omar al-Bashir and his southern counterpart Salva Kiir agreed on a plan to demilitarise the disputed Abyei region.
The South's minister of information Barnaba Benjamin Marial told the Sudan Radio Service there's reason for cautious optimism.
BARNABA BENJAMIN MARIAL: As long as they agree on the specific arrangement with regards to the administration, the Abyei administration as well as what troops that will be put to replace the Sudanese armed forces when they withdraw - to discuss the details of that security arrangement.
The concept that they would want to withdraw, I think they have accepted the principle that they will have to withdraw.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: But Rabie Abdul Atti from the ruling National Congress Party says any withdrawal is conditional and the final status of the region is still undetermined.
RABIE ABDUL ATTI: This will pave the way for a final resolution for Abyei, either by conduction of referendum or to agree with (inaudible) and with any other resolution.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: The US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has urged both sides to accept an offer of peacekeeping troops from neighbouring Ethiopia.
HILLARY CLINTON: So we would welcome both parties agreeing to ask Ethiopia, which has volunteered, to send peacekeepers to do so as part of a United Nations mission that will be strengthened.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: A 2005 peace deal ended a decades-long civil war between the North and the South and led to a referendum in January in which the South voted to secede.
But the split has been complicated by unresolved questions about how oil revenues will be shared and the exact position of the border, and in recent weeks the dispute has threatened to degenerate into an all out war.
Northern troops overran Abyei last month after an attack on a convoy of Sudan armed forces troops and UN peacekeepers.
Omar al-Bashir and Salva Kiir are also attempting to resolve a crisis in another border region, South Kordofan, which is the North's only oil-producing state.
Fighting in the region between the North's army and militias sympathetic to the South has continued for the last week and has displaced an estimated 50,000 people.
Often, they've been forced to flee their homes and abandon their possessions.
SUDANESE MAN (translated): I left everything. I only have the clothes I'm wearing.
SUDANESE WOMAN (translated): I didn't bring anything from my house. I left it open and don't know anything about it. I have three daughters and I don't know how to feed them.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Aid agencies are warning of a humanitarian crisis in the run-up to independence, and say a campaign of ethnic cleansing is destabilising the border region.
A spokesperson for Amnesty International, Tawanda Hondora says many of the attacks appear to be premeditated.
TAWANDA HONDORA: So as far as we're concerned we think that this is not a coincidence, that this is well planned and the purpose is to ensure that those three areas are destabilised for political ends.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Mediators have described the talks between the North and the South as tense.
The two sides say they hope to resolve the crisis ahead of independence, which is set to take place on July the ninth.
ELEANOR HALL: Timothy McDonald reporting.
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abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3243365.htm
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