Sudan Government Declines to Fully Meet Abyei Arbitration Costs

By Isaac Vuni

April 6, 2009 (JUBA) – The Government of Sudan has declined to fully meet one million dollars of expenses incurred by SPLM for the arbitration tribunal at The Hague, disclosed Hon. Arop Madut Arop, who hails from Abyei in Warrap State of Southern Sudan.

SPLM and the Government of Sudan are engaged in what is supposed to be the final round of a legal dispute over the Abyei region, following the government’s rejection of the boundary limits set by a panel of experts who had taken their mandate from Sudan’s 2005 peace deal.

Together the Sudanese government and SPLM have agreed to submit their dispute to the judgment of the Abyei Arbitration Tribunal, a five-member body formed under the mandate of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).

According to Article 11 of the arbitration agreement signed in Khartoum on July 7, 2008 by Vice President Ali Osman Taha and SPLM Deputy Chairman Riek Machar Teny, the Presidency of the Republic of Sudan is to required to order payment of the cost of arbitration from the federal budget.

Hon. Arop claimed that on December 18, 2008 the government paid only 500,000 dollars advance to enable the arbitration process to begin but when the government realized they are going to lose the case, they started tricks of buying time by only paying 200,000 USD while from the backdoor seeking to persuade the SPLM delegation to settle the dispute outside of the international court.

The lawmaker noted that an SPLM member from Warrap constituency is a member of the SPLM delegations to the Abyei Arbitration Tribunal.

The August House has several times taken the position that the people of Abyei are legitimately part of Warrap state, who could not whatsoever be surrendered to northern Sudan.

The Hague-based tribunal must issue its final decision no later than the end of July of this year.

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