North and south Sudan accept int'l court ruling
North and south Sudan have accepted yesterday's international arbitration court ruling altering the borders of the disputed oil-rich Abyei region, officials from the former foes said.
"This decision is final and binding for both parties," Mutrif Siddiq, undersecretary of foreign affairs and a senior member of the Khartoum government, told AFP.
Former southern fighter and Foreign Minister Deng Alor, who was in Abyei with other senior officials for the ruling, said his Sudan People's Liberation Movement would accepted the decision of The Hague court.
"The PCA (Permanent Court of Arbitration) decision is binding on the parties: the SPLM and the people of this area will respect this decision," he said.
The SPLM fought a two-decade war with Khartoum, the longest civil war in Africa, before the foes reached a power-sharing deal in 2005.
Additional UN peacekeepers were deployed ahead of the ruling to the district bordering the Muslim north and the mainly Christian and animist south for fears of a repeat of violence that left 100 people dead there in May last year.
The 2008 clashes razed Abyei town and left tens of thousands homeless in what analysts described as the most serious threat to the 2005 peace deal that ended the civil war.
The ruling, issued after Khartoum complained that a previous border commission had decided on the wrong frontiers, moved Abyei's eastern, western and northern borders.
"Both parties have agreed that this question is now settled," said the UN secretary general's special representative Ashraf Qazi, who had voiced concern about the buildup of fighters in the area ahead of the ruling.
"This decision clearly demonstrates that, even on the most difficult and sensitive of disputes, the parties can find a peaceful solution if they work together in good faith," said Qazi.
"I call on all involved to cooperate to implement the decision according to the plan the parties adopted in recent talks and to guarantee the long term interests of the people of the region."
Abdelbagi Gailaini, a member of President Omar al-Beshir's ruling National Congress Party and state minister for humanitarian affairs, said the NCP had accepted the ruling and that he doubted there would be any violent reaction.
"What we have seen today is a good compromise," Gailaini said in Abyei. "Everybody is committed, and everyone is standing by what this file case has reflected."
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