Dispute Over Abyei Borders

Khartoum
3 August 2010 (Sudan Radio Service)

The SPLM has strongly criticized a statement made by the presidential adviser Salah Gosh, doubting the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration concerning the Abyei boundary.

Over the weekend, Gosh told SUNA that the ruling made by the PCA to redefine the boundaries of Abyei area did not resolve the dispute.

In July 2009, the PCA ruled to redefine the boundaries of Abyei after the two sides the SPLM and the NCP, failed to agree on borders and referred the case to the Hague-based tribunal.

A SPLM senior member, Atem Garang, stressed that if the NCP doubts the PCA's ruling, SPLM will raise the issue at the UN.

Garang spoke to SRS from Khartoum on Monday.

[Atem Garang]: "We agreed earlier with the NCP that if we failed to resolve the Abyei issue through the Abyei protocols as stipulated in the PCA, then we will go to a third party to determine the issue. The third party was the Hague-based PCA. As we know, the PCA defined the Abyei boundaries. So if the PCA's decision will not be implemented, we do not want fight or make a lot of noise, we will go directly to the UN to deal with this issue."

According to the Abyei Protocol in the CPA, the area's residents are due to vote in a referendum to decide whether to remain part of the north or the south in case the south opts for secession in a referendum scheduled for January 2011.

However, the Abyei Referendum Commission has yet to be formed.

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