Sudan/International court

South Sudan to respect court's Abyei ruling

Article published on the 2009-07-22 Latest update 2009-07-22 17:46 TU

A man squats on the foundation of a house destroyed during fighting in Abyei town on 8 July
(Photo: Reuters)

North and south Sudan agree that their dispute over the Abyei region between the two has been settled by Wednesday's international arbitration court ruling, according to the UN Secretary General's special representative Ashraf Qazi. South Sudan announced earlier that it would respect the ruling.

"We have made a very important gain in this award," said Sudanese government representative Dirdeiry Mohamed Ahmed after the ruling by the international arbitration court in The Hague.

The ruling fixed Abyei's northern and eastern boundaries so as to give control of disputed oilfields to the government in the north. The Chinese-run field on the Heglig deposit yields 250,000 barrels of brute a day, half the country's total production.

“It is a matter of settling the boundaries, anything that will help us to develop forward,” Sudanese Information Minister Malik Elzahawi told RFI, saying that the country will stay together through diversity.

“We hope that Sudan keeps unified to the maximum,” he said.

However, Riek Machar, Vice President of South Sudan, said he will accept the arbitration, but the next step is to draw the lines on the ground.

“They’re now delimited on paper,” he told reporters from The Hague. “The next step will be to demarcate these borders on the ground.”

“Now we have Abye with known boundaries… we should start the process of repatriation as soon as possible, so they can be ready for the referendum,” he added.

Abye, as defined by the arbitration, will vote in a referendum next year to decide whether it will be part of the North or the South.

Both sides agreed to go to arbitration over the disputed region after long-running conflicts which led to clashes in 2008 which destroyed Abyei town and left tens of thousands homeless.

The dispute became a serious threat to the 2005 peace deal between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement which ended two decades of war.

France contributed 100,000 euros to the arbitration costs.