Abyei

This article is about the area in Sudan. For the town within the area and district, see Abyei (town).

Abyei Area أبيي
Abyei Area shown in yellow within Sudan
Capital	Abyei Town
Official languages	Arabic and English
Government	Special administrative status
• Chief Administrator	Deng Arop Kuol
Establishment
• Comprehensive Peace Agreement	9 January 2005
• Administration established	31 August 2008
Area
• Total	10,460 km2 (4,040 sq mi)

The Abyei Area (Arabic: أبيي) is an area of 10,460 km² in the State of Northern Bahr El Ghazal in South Sudan. The issue of whether Abyei will remain a part of Northern Sudan or secede with the South is heavily contested between the North and South. As Abyei is home to both the ethnically Southern Dinka Ngok and the ethnically Northern Misseriya who rely on Abyei to graze their animals. The CPA determined that the question of whether Abyei should remain with Sudan or secede with the South should be decided through a referendum. However, while a referendum has been agreed it has not been conducted due to a dispute between the Northern and Southern Governments. The North wants the Misseriya to be able to vote in the referendum, while the South wants to exclude the Misseriya herdsmen from participating in the vote. It is unlikely that the vote will go ahead without an agreement on who is allowed to vote.

In the past the boundaries of the Abyei region had been in dispute that erupted into violence and threatened the CPA. The North and South agreed to settle the dispute over Abyei's boundaries through arbitration at the ICJ. The international arbitration process redrew Abyei's boundaries in 2009 and made it significantly smaller than what was claimed by the SPLM, extending no further north than 10°10′00" N. in Southern Kordufan. This revised border has since been endorsed and accepted by both parties to the dispute.

History

The Abyei district in the state of South Kurdufan

It is claimed that the Dajo people were located in the region of Abyei prior to the seventeenth century, before being displaced by new migrants. From at least the eighteenth century Abyei was inhabited by the agro-pastoralist Ngok Dinka, kin to the Dinka of Southern Sudan. The Misseriya, a nomadic Arab people, grazed their cattle through Abyei in an annual cycle. The Messiria base is Muglad, where the Misseriya spend much of the year, though they are forced to move south to the Bahr river basin in Abyei during the dry season. Records from this time state that the Ngok Dinka and Misseriya had amicable relations. At the establishment of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, the Misseriya were predominantly located in the province of Kordofan (considered “northern”), while the Ngok Dinka were located in Bahr el Ghazal (considered “southern”). However, in 1905 the British redistricted the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms into Kordofan.

The two peoples began to take separate paths with the onset of the First Sudanese Civil War (1956–1972). The Ngok Dinka aligned themselves with the Southern rebels, while the Misseriya supported the Khartoum government.

Oil reserves and production

Abyei is situated within the Muglad Basin, a large rift basin which contains a number of hydrocarbon accumulations. Oil exploration was undertaken in Sudan in the 1970s and 1980s. A period of significant investment in Sudan’s oil industry occurred in the 1990s and Abyei became a target for this investment. By 2003 Abyei contributed more than one quarter of Sudan’s total crude oil output. Production volumes have since declined and reports suggest that Abyei’s reserves are nearing depletion. An important oil pipeline, the Greater Nile Oil Pipeline, travels through the Abyei area from the Heglig and Unity oil fields to Port Sudan on the Red Sea via Khartoum. The pipeline is vital to Sudan’s oil exports which have boomed since the pipeline commenced operation in 1999.

Status dispute

Abyei Protocol in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement

The status of Abyei was one of the most contentious issues in the negotiation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The first protocol signed, the 2002 Machakos Protocol, defined Southern Sudan as the area as of independence in 1956, thus not including Abyei which at independence was a part of Northern Sudan. The SPLA on account that the Dinka Ngok population were one of the communities that resided in Abyei wanted Abyei to be transferred to the South. . The Northern government objected to this suggestion , stating that the agreed upon Machakos Protocol placed Abyei in Northern Sudan .

The deadlock was finally broken by pressure from the United States. U.S. presidential envoy John Danforth circulated a draft agreement that involved the North allowing Abyei to have a referendum on whether to join the South or remain a part of the North, which the U.S. convinced the government to sign. The Protocol on the resolution of the Abyei conflict put Abyei into a special administrative status government directly by the presidency. The precise borders of the area were to be determined by an Abyei Borders Commission (ABC), followed by a referendum commission to identify who is able to vote in the referendum and to conduct that referendum.

The Abyei Borders Commission (ABC)

According to an annex to the protocol adopted in December 2004, ABC was to be composed of 15 persons: five appointed by the government, five by the SPLA and three by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and one each by the United States and the United Kingdom. Only the five impartial experts could present the final report. The five appointed were: Godfrey Muriuki of the University of Nairobi; Kassahun Berhanu of the Addis Ababa University; Douglas H. Johnson, an author of several works on southern Sudan; Shadrack Gutto, a lawyer from South Africa; and Donald Petterson, a former ambassador to Sudan. The ABC determined the boundary at approximately 10°22′30″N., 87 km (54 mi) north of the town of Abyei, following the agreed rules of procedure. The process and the map showing the boundary is detailed by Johnson

The ABC presented their report to the president on 14 July 2005, whereupon it was immediately rejected by the government, who accused the experts of using sources after 1905 in their determination of the boundaries. The death of John Garang later that month pushed all other issues off the national agenda, but the SPLA maintains that the terms of the Abyei protocol must be held to. Government resistance to an agreement is largely based on an attempt to hold on to the oil reserves and oil pipelines in the area.

Renewed tensions and violence

In October 2007, rising tensions between the SPLA and government resulted in the SPLA temporarily withdrawing from the Government of National Unity over several deadlocked issues, notably Abyei. At the time, the International Crisis Group stated, “What happens in Abyei is likely to determine whether Sudan consolidates the peace or returns to war.”. Armed violence erupted in the Abyei region during late 2007 and throughout 2008. Clashes occurred both between the SPLA and Messiria fighters and between the SPLA and government troops.

Messiria leaders had objected to demarcation provisions of the CPA which they claim have a negative impact upon Messiria access to grazing lands. These grievances fed into armed clashes in December 2007, which killed at least 75 people, and further violence in February and March 2008, resulting in numerous deaths and civilian displacement. These clashes were considered by analysts to represent a serious threat to the peace process and trigger a resumption of civil war. The Messiria were not believed to be directly controlled by Khartoum, however analysts pointed out that local disputes over resources are readily manipulated by outside forces.

Following the violence of February and March, the Sudanese government deployed a contingent of 200 or more soldiers to Abyei town on 31 March 2008. Armed clashes between these troops and the SPLA occurred during May 2008 resulting in dozens of deaths and the displacement of an estimated 25,000 civilians. Much of Abyei town was razed; analyst Roger Winter stated that "the town of Abyei has ceased to exist".

International arbitration

Following the clashes in Abyei during May 2008, in June 2008 the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, and the President of the autonomous Government of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, agreed to refer the disputes between the Government and the SPLM/A concerning the ABC's determination of the Abyei area's boundaries to international arbitration at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), in The Hague.

Line for voter registration in Abyei, 2009

The arbitration was presided over by an arbitral tribunal composed of five distinguished international lawyers - Professor Pierre-Marie Dupuy, of France, as President, with Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, Professor W. Michael Reisman, H.E. Judge Awn Al-Khasawneh and Professor Dr. Gerhard Hafner. The tribunal adopted the PCA's Optional Rules for Arbitrating Disputes Between Two Parties of Which Only One is a State.

The SPLM/A appointed Dr. Riek Machar Teny, Deputy Chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Minister Luka Biong Deng, as Agents, and Gary Born and Wendy Miles as counsel. The Government of Sudan appointed Ambassador Dirdeiry Mohamed Ahmed as Agent, and were represented by Professor James Crawford QC, S.C., Dr Nabil Elaraby, Professor Alain Pellet, Rodman Bundy and Loretta Malintoppi.

Messiria elder in Abyei speaks to the PCA decision, November 2009

Following extensive written pleadings, in April 2009 the parties presented their closing submissions to the arbitration tribunal over six days at an oral hearing at the Peace Palace, The Hague. In a groundbreaking initiative, the parties agreed to broadcast the oral hearing over the internet, which allowed those in Sudan and around the world to see the parties put forward their arguments. Following the hearing the arbitral tribunal then began its deliberations and, less than ninety days later, on 22 July 2009 rendered its final binding decision as to the validity of the boundaries for Abyei and the ABC had drawn.

The award ordered the redrawing of the northern, eastern and western boundaries, thus decreasing the size of Abyei. The size of Abyei is crucial to the political dispute, as its residents will be able to vote in a referendum on whether to become part of northern or southern Sudan. The redrawn borders give control of the richest oil fields in the Abyei region, such as the Heglig oil field, to the north, while giving at least one oil field to the south. Most of the Messiria are outside of the redrawn borders, making it far more likely that the region will vote to join the south. Announcements by both the SPLM and Government of Sudan that they would accept the ruling were hailed by the United States, European Union, and the United Nations.

Leadup to referendum

As of December 2010, the PCA border has not been demarcated and there is still no agreement on who constitutes a "resident of Abyei" for the purposes of voting in the Abyei referendum. In Abyei the Dinka Ngok and Messiria tribe are engaged in territorial disputes.

Grazing Right by the PCA and its consequences

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), in The Hague, has given the Messiria the grazing right, this will imply the right on the common ownership of the land see RACHAEL E. GOODHUE 2008 , McCarthy 1996, 2003, and 2004, by all means of modern laws , if a person has right on the common ownership of a specific land this will directly imply the right to decide on the future of his property see McCarthy 1996, 2003, and 2004.This common ownership of the land is different from and should not to be confused with private ownership of private property. As an example, the southern Sudanese had the right on the common land of the south and thus were eligible to vote, thus voting was not determined by the private property ownership. It's obvious that if someone has own private property this will not give him the right to vote. It’s also clear that over the decades the Messiria have established their ownership by further having their own homes and own properties in the land as different form the common ownership of the land. On contrary while the Najok Dinka right on the voting is established, it is to be noted that a large number of them are not currently resident in the Abyei area, and have fled the region further North to Khartoum, thus creating theoretically a scenario where a Messiria born and raised in the region has no right to vote whereas a Najok who has not seen the region before has the right to vote which may violate equality standards.

Government and politics

Under the terms of the Abyie Protocol, the Abyei Area has been declared, on an interim basis, to be simultaneously part of the states of South Kurdufan and Northern Bahr el Ghazal.

An Abyei Area Administration was established on 31 August 2008. The administration was led by Arop Moyak between its formation and December 2009 and is currently led by Deng Arop Kuol. Both leaders represent the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

External links

• Abraham, I. 2007, ‘South Sudan Abyei now or never’, Sudan Tribune, 3 March. (Opinion piece.)
• Johnson, D. 2006, ‘Sudan's civil wars’ (video, filmed March, Bergen, Norway. (Brief discussion of underlying causes of conflict in Sudan.)
• Kristof, N. 2008, ‘Africa’s next slaughter’, New York Times, 2 March. Retrieved on 4 March 2008. (Opinion piece concerning Abyei and the peace process.)
• UNDP 2005, Template:PDFlink, United Nations Development Program Sudan, 29 November.
• Vall, M. 2008, ‘Abyei region divided over oil’, Al Jazeera English, 15 March. Retrieved on 27 April 2008. (Video presentation hosted by YouTube.)
• Winter, R. 2008, ‘Sounding the alarm on Abyei’, enough: the project to end genocide and crimes against humanity, 17 April. Retrieved on 5 May 2008.
• Winter, R. 2008, ‘Abyei aflame: An update from the field’, enough: the project to end genocide and crimes against humanity, 30 May. Retrieved on 6 June 2008. (Describes May 2008 violence. Winter says that “the town of Abyei has ceased to exist”.)

Further reading

• Douglas Johnson, 2008, “Why Abyei Matters, The Breaking Point of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement?” in African Affairs, 107 (462), pp 1–19.