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------Original message------ From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> To: "Group" <[email protected]> Date: Sunday, October 2, 2011 2:36:06 PM GMT+0300 Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Khartoum refuses to withdraw forces from Abyei 1. Sudan says its army will stay in Abyei for now Fri Sep 30, 2011 9:07pm GMT JUBA/KHARTOUM, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Sudan said it would not withdraw its army from the disputed Abyei region by Friday as expected by the United Nations, triggering sharp criticism by its former civil war foe South Sudan. A senior U.N. official said earlier this month Khartoum had agreed with newly-independent South Sudan at talks in Ethiopia to pull out by Friday from Abyei which both sides claim. Sudan's army took Abyei in May in a show of force which triggered an exodus of more than 100,000 civilians after the southern army attacked an army convoy. On Friday, the Sudanese army said it would stay in Abyei beyond September until U.N. peacekeepers being sent from Ethiopia to observe a ceasefire were fully deployed. "We are not against a withdrawal but we are waiting for the complete deployment of the Ethiopian troops. So far only half of the Ethiopian troops are on the ground," said army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad. "A withdrawal without the complete deployment of the Ethiopian troops would disrupt Abyei's administration. The (Ethiopia) agreement says the withdrawal will come after the complete (U.N.) deployment," he said. The U.N. said the agreement was to pull the forces out. "We urge the parties to implement the agreement they reached early this month and to withdraw their forces from the Abyei area so as to facilitate the return of the displaced population and ensure the smooth beginning of the migration season," Martin Nesirky, spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said in New York. South Sudan said Khartoum had no intention at all of withdrawing from Abyei and was trying to prevent civilians returning to the region which contains fertile grazing land. South Sudan's army, or SPLA, said it had withdrawn all forces from Abyei which also has some small oil reserves. Khartoum had on Friday for the second time cancelled a meeting of a joint Abyei commission in charge of running the disputed region, said Luka Biong Deng, South Sudan's co-chair of the commission. This "confirming suspicions that all along, its (Khartoum's) primary concern is not to withdraw its forces from Abyei area...but in continuing its occupation and ensuring that the area's true residents never return," Deng said in a statement. South Sudan seceded in July after an independence vote in January agreed under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war that killed more than two million people. Such a vote was originally also planned in Abyei but was never held as both sides are unable to agree who can participate. (Reporting by Hereward Holland in Juba and Khalid Abdelaziz in Khartoum; writing by Ulf Laessing; editing by Philippa Fletcher) http://af.reuters.com/article/sudanNews/idAFL5E7KU39O20110930?sp=true END1 2. South Sudan says Khartoum “deliberately” delaying withdrawing from Abyei October 1, 2011 (JUBA) - South Sudan on Friday said Khartoum is deliberately delaying the withdrawal of armed forces from the contested oil region of Abyei, after Khartoum failed to withdraw its troops by an agreed deadline. In a statement on Friday, Luka Biong, a senior member of South Sudan’s ruling SPLM also accused Khartoum of blocking the return of 110,000 people who had been displaced when Sudan’s military took control of the area in May. On Saturday a Sudanese government official in Khartoum confirmed to AFP news agency that the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) had not pulled out of the volatile border region. A referendum was supposed to decide the fate of the region in January but it did not go ahead over Khartoum’s insistence that the Misseriya tribe, who enter the area with their cattle for a few months each year, be accorded full voting rights. South Sudan maintain that only residents of the area, largely the South-aligned Dinka Ngok be allowed to vote. Speaking to AFP the official said that only after the Ethiopian peacekeeping force (UNISFA) has been fully deployed, would SAF pull out. According to the United Nations less than half have arrived so far. On 30 September South Sudanese and Sudanese officials were supposed to hold a meeting of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC) but Khartoum canceled. Biong said that this confirmed suspicions that Khartoum did not intend to withdraw its forces from Abyei. He said that Khartoum was "not keen in working with the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) to bring a lasting peace to Abyei area, but in continuing its occupation and ensuring that the Area’s true residents never return”. The meeting was originally scheduled for the September 17. The senior member of the South Sudan’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) said the cancelation of the meeting also conveniently coincided with the missed deadline for troop withdrawal. (ST) END2 3. Bashir rejects foreign mediation in talks with South Sudan October 1, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s president Omer al-Bashir on Saturday said that his country seeks to promote dialogue with the newly independent South Sudan but without foreign mediation, ahead of a visit by his southern counterpart this week. South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir Mayardit is expected to visit Sudan’s capital Khartoum sometime this week, probably on Monday, for the first time since his country seceded from Sudan in July this year in line with the outcome of the region’s vote on independence at the start of this year. Addressing the first conference of his ruling National Congress Party’s (NCP) external affairs committee, Bashir said that Sudan attaches great importance to the relations with its former southern region and would therefore seek to promote dialogue and peace between the two neighbors in the international arena. In his address, the Sudanese president further said that the secession was a political separation not a separation between the people. However, Reuters and al-Jazeera reported that al-Bashir also rejected foreign mediation between the two countries which remain engaged in talks to thrash out a number of post-secession issues including sharing of oil revenues, violence in shared borders and ownership of the hotly-contested region of Abyei. "We have to sort out all issues through dialogue but without any foreign mediation," he said. South Sudan minister of information and cabinet spokesperson, Barnaba Marial Benjamin told reporters Friday in Juba that President Kiir and an important delegation will fly to Khartoum next week for talks on pending issues such as border demarcation, foreign debt, oil transportation fees and Abyei. During his meeting last September with Barak Obama, Kiir reportedly informed the American president he would met Bashir to decrease tension between the two capitals and reach a negotiated settlement to the outstanding issues. He also pledged to support a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflicts in the Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan. The Sudanese president last July recently rejected any foreign mediation with the rebels Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) , South Sudan’s former allies who are fighting Sudan’s army in the two country’s border states with the South . Bashir told his party’s conference that there would be zero-tolerance with whoever crosses the state’s "redlines" and seeks to undermine the security of citizens. Last week, the Sudanese president said his government was open to negotiating a peaceful settlement to the war in South Kordofan and Blue Nile but without superseding the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which in 2005 ended more than two decades of Sudan’s north south civil war and paved the way for South Sudan’s independence. Speaking in the same meeting NCP deputy chairman Nafei Ali Nafei underscored that the shift of global economic power from the west to the East would be followed by a change in the world leadership. Bashir said a meeting with the Chinese Communist Party will take place soon in Khartoum to discuss strategic relations between the two ruling parties. (ST) END3 ______________________ John Ashworth Sudan Advisor [email protected] +254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile) +249 919 695 362 (Sudan mobile) +27 82 853 3556 (South Africa mobile) +44 750 304 1790 (UK/international) +88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone) PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisation -- The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited. 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