* Abyei vote deadlock continues
* U.S. terror list removal won’t change Abyei vote stand
* Abyei vote looking unlikely to be held Jan. 9
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Sudan refused on Monday to back
down over a disputed referendum in an oil-producing region,
despite a U.S. offer to drop Khartoum from a terror blacklist
provided it goes ahead on schedule alongside a secession vote.
U.S. officials said on Sunday that Washington would remove
Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism by July 2011
if the referendum in Abyei region was held on time on Jan. 9,
when southern Sudan is due to vote on whether to become an
independent nation.
Both referendums were promised under a 2005 north-south
peace deal ending Africa’s longest civil war. But arrangements
for the Abyei vote on whether to join north or south Sudan are
hotly contested by the two former warring sides, raising fears
that it would be delayed and provoke a new conflict.
The dispute centres on the Missiriya people, Arab nomads who
travel through Abyei a few months a year to graze their cattle.
The northern ruling National Congress Party (NCP) believes
they should vote whereas the former southern rebel Sudan
People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) says the tribe as a bloc are
not resident and cannot participate in the Abyei referendum.
NO PRIZE ON EARTH
Ibrahim Ghandour, a senior NCP official, made clear the
deadlock stands which means Abyei’s vote is unlikely to happen
on time.
“No prize on earth, the terror list … or whatever will
persuade the NCP to accept that the Missiriya or any other
people of Abyei be denied their rights to participate in the
referendum,” he told Reuters.
Many of the Missiriya were mobilised by the NCP to fight
against the south during the civil war. They are likely to vote
for unity to protect their grazing rights, possibly tipping the
vote in the region.
Many people fear that Abyei, a flashpoint of north-south
fighting during a ceasefire violation in 2008, will provoke a
new conflict if it is unresolved before the southern vote,
which most analysts expect to result in secession.
The SPLM have said a settlement could be reached by annexing
Abyei to the south, giving the Missiriya citizenship rights and
offering a financial compensation package to the north to soften
the economic blow of southern secession.
More than half of Sudan’s oil output of 470,000 barrels per
day comes from the south which will want to keep the full
proceeds if it becomes an independent state.
“There is no way to annexe Abyei to the south without a
referendum,” Ghandour said, but he added that the NCP was open
to some form of settlement if it protected the rights of all
citizens of the oil-producing region.
Preparations for the southern referendum have also been
delayed and the commission planning the vote has cut many
corners to prepare a tight schedule with voter registration
beginning on Nov. 15.
Distracted by Abyei, the two sides have largely neglected
other pressing disputes over defining citizenship, demarcating
the north-south border and dividing Sudan’s assets and a massive
external debt of more than $36 billion.
Sudan’s north-south conflict claimed some 2 million lives
mostly through hunger and disease and destabilised much of east
Africa.
(Reporting by Opheera McDoom; editing by David Stamp)