Abyei is a northern area: NCP

UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN SUDAN ( UNMIS)
Media Monitoring Report, 19 February 2008
(Khartoum Monitor)

A National Congress Party (NCP) Southern sector member; John Dor, announced that the Abyei area belongs to Northern Sudan.

During a political forum organized by the student’s Modern Southern Sudan Forum (MSF) on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), past bitterness and the future expectations on the Juba University Kadoru premises on 17th February 2008, Dor said that the NCP was not convinced with the experts’ reports that have destined Abyei to South Sudan.

He revealed that they have given Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) 3 options as solutions for the issue. These are the experts should come and convince the people about their report, the case is to be taken to the high court or the Abyei citizens should be the ones to decide their fate either to belong to the South or North.

On the coming elections for the Presidency, he asserted that people should not be pessimistic that they will rig the elections and that the Kenya incident will not happen in the Sudan. “Let us not cross the bridge until we reach it”. Dor proclaimed that they would win elections.

comments from N. op 't Ende on the proposed 'options':

I don't often feel compelled to comment, but this is just too much.

on option 1 (let the experts convince the people of their findings):
In African Affairs 107/426, 1–19, Why Abyei Matters, Douglas Johnson says:
"While the NCP in the GONU have justified their refusal to implement the Abyei Protocol by criticizing the ABC report, they have refused to take part in any public forum where the experts might be called upon to explain their decision and answer criticism. The NCP in Khartoum refused an invitation to attend a public hearing with all five international experts at the South Sudan Legislative Assembly in Juba in September 2007. Southern members of the NCP in the Assembly did attend, and all those who spoke in the public discussion that followed supported the ABC report, revealing a North–South split even within the NCP."

on option 2 (let the High Court decide):
The Abyei Appendix to the CPA states:
‘The ABC shall present its final report to the Presidency before the end of the Pre-Interim Period. The report of the experts, arrived at as prescribed in the ABC rules of procedure, shall be final and binding on the Parties’ (Abyei Appendix, article 5).

on option 3 (let the people of Abyei decide where they want to belong):
... wasn't that the whole point of the Abyei Protocol?

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