International efforts to resolve the dispute over Abyei have become bogged down
Fears
are growing that violence could erupt once more in the disputed region
of Abyei, claimed by both Sudan and newly independent South Sudan, as
southerners plan to hold a unilateral referendum, reports Hannah McNeish
from the area.
With suitcases on heads and babies in arms, thousands of
people are braving rivers of mud, bumpy truck rides and shelling out all
their savings to get back to Abyei.
Hailing from the Dinka Ngok ethnic group, they are determined
to hold an unofficial referendum next week to decide whether the small
heart-shaped area should be part of Sudan or join South Sudan.
The move comes after both countries failed to meet a deadline
to organise an internationally-backed referendum this month,
threatening to poison the fragile peace between former civil war foes
and once again send residents running for their lives.
“Start Quote
Julia William Deng Abyei returneeI know it's not safe for me, but at the end of the day, it's my place, it's my village where I belong”
Julia William Deng, 23, gave up
her nursing course, a 24/7 Facebook addiction and thousands of dollars
to go back from Australia to Abyei, where power and water have dried up
and many people displaced by violence live in flimsy, cramped huts.
'Bomber planes'
Sporting a tattoo representing the curse of Abyei, with a bird
of peace but a flower that everyone wants to own, Ms Deng accepts that
she is risking her life to return to an area rich in green pastures and
oil but decimated by an ongoing, violent tug of war.
"I know it's not safe for me, but at the end of the day, it's my place, it's my village where I belong," she says.
Choking back the tears, Ms Deng says that she cannot escape
the stories of orphans, widows and those sent mad by seeing family
members killed in fighting in 2008 and 2011.
Julia William Deng gave up her studies in Australia to return to Abyei
"There's kids that told me stories that their mothers aren't
alive, because of what happened… Every day, the story gets worse. The
more I talk to people, the more they tell me about what happened to
them."
Abyei's Dinka Ngok residents are culturally and ethnically
allied to South Sudan and backed its rebel army during decades of civil
war against Khartoum's rule.
However, the Arabic-speaking Misseriya people, who have
traditionally grazed their cattle in Abyei and like the Dinka Ngok see
it as their ancestral homeland, and want to remain in Sudan.
The two sides cannot agree on who is eligible to vote in the referendum and so it has not been held.
A 2005 peace deal that paved the way for a Southern vote on
independence in 2011 was supposed to give Abyei a separate referendum on
whether to be part of Sudan or South Sudan.
But in Abyei, ballot boxes never appeared and tanks rumbled
in, bomber planes buzzed overhead and militias stormed in alongside
Sudanese troops.
'Unilateral declaration'
“Start Quote
Zacharia Diing Akol South Sudan analystRemember we are talking about an area that has been attacked in the recent past by Sudan twice, in 2008 and in 2011”
A raft of internationally brokered deals have fallen by the wayside, analysts say.
Khartoum is not keen to implement an African Union (AU)
proposal to hold a referendum this month to solve the impasse in the
absence of a negotiated settlement.
After losing the South and 75% of its oil at secession,
diplomats say that for Sudan's governing National Congress Party,
keeping Abyei has become a political necessity at a time when tensions
are running high following a wave of recent protests.
But in bombed-out Abyei, where telephone masts twist through
houses like a macabre runaway rollercoaster, and the wind whistles
through abandoned buildings stripped of roofs and fittings, nothing
suggests a vote is being organized.
AU representatives would not comment on Abyei.
Deng Alor, a former South Sudan minister now championing the
unofficial referendum, says Sudan has thwarted efforts to hold the vote.
Regardless, he says that the people of Abyei will have their
say now or never in a vote that Sudan "has rejected five times," most
recently on the grounds that the Misseriya are not adequately
represented.
Both Sudan and South Sudan claim Abyei town and the surrounding region
"President Bashir is determined, no matter how long it takes
him, he will not accept the referendum commission to be formed. He will
not accept the referendum to be held here, so it's a waste of time."
Mr Alor says that if the AU does not support a vote, the
Dinka Ngok will simply declare their choice of South Sudan and then
lobby for international support.
"If they say the referendum cannot happen this month, the
people of Abyei will hold [a] community based referendum, and that would
be unilateral, and organised by the people of Abyei," he says.
Zacharia Diing Akol, an analyst at South Sudanese think-tank
The Sudd Institute, says that history dictates that this would only
produce one result: "Violence. Remember we are talking about an area
that has been attacked in the recent past by Sudan twice, in 2008 and in
2011," he says.
“Start Quote
Mary Ajok Abyei returneeWe don't know what will happen but we cannot leave this land. It's ours”
"The attack on each occasion was
coming out of the fear that they were losing, that they were no longer
in control and they wanted to control the place."
People on the ground agree, and are warning the uninitiated like Ms Deng about what to expect.
'Many orphans'
"They have told me stories: 'Can you run? Can you do this or
that? Can you stay for 4-5 days without eating?' And I've told them that
I don't think I can do it."
Anger over the killing of Dinka Ngok paramount chief Kuol
Deng Kuol in May could boil over in the coming weeks when Misseriya are
due to cross with their cattle through Abyei into South Sudan.
The Misseriya want Abyei to remain in Sudan
As rumours swirl about Sudan massing men in northern Abyei and
South Sudan boosting plain-clothes forces in villages further south,
some fear that this year's migration could spark clashes that the 5,000
UN peacekeepers in the region would fail to extinguish.
Abyei also remains a thorn in relations between the two
countries and fresh fighting could derail other agreements on oil
exports and contested borders that last year provoked weeks of heavy
border fighting and fears of a return to all-out war.
While analysts say that Sudan is loath to let Abyei's vast
arable land and oil fields go, South Sudan's largest ethnic group, the
Dinka, cannot bear to lose what they regard as the land of their
forefathers.
Sudanese officials and the Misseriya have already threatened
violence if a unilateral referendum is held, while the AU and UN have
warned of wider conflicts if Abyei erupts.
In an Abyei camp with no water, little food and only enough
tents for the children, returnee Mary Ajok is content to sleep outside
and wait until she can reclaim her homeland for future generations.
"We are just hoping this referendum succeeds so the children
can come back," she says of her eight children and the many orphans
waiting further South, whose memories of Abyei are of indelible
bloodshed.
"We ran for our lives, and because there was war and a lot of
destruction and the killing and the burning of houses was too much. The
men were dead and the widows had to take the kids away for survival.
"Now we are back in the hope that there will be a
referendum... We don't know what will happen but we cannot leave this
land. It's ours."
A steady stream of people is returning to vote with their
feet if nothing else. But if there is no real agreement, they may soon
have to turn on their heels and flee.
Sudan: A country divided
Show regions
Both Sudan and the South are reliant on their oil revenues,
which account for 98% of South Sudan's budget. But the two countries
cannot agree how to divide the oil wealth of the former united state.
Some 75% of the oil lies in the South but all the pipelines run north.
It is feared that disputes over oil could lead the two neighbours to
return to war.
SOURCE: BBC
SOURCE: BBC
