“The truth is besides us. Abyei belongs to us. Whether Bashir likes it or not, one day, Abyei will rejoin the South,” Kiir said recently while addressing the army officers at Bilpham military headquarters.
MABIOR PHILIP MACH
President Salva Kiir has hardened the resolve on the disputed Abyei region, saying the area belongs to the south regardless of the period it would take to negotiate its status with the north. “The truth is besides us. Abyei belongs to us. Whether Bashir likes it or not, one day, Abyei will rejoin the South,” Kiir said recently while addressing the army officers at Bilpham military headquarters.
In May, when controversy over the ownership of the oil rich region heightened, the Sudan army bombed the area from the air. Then the ground troops overran the area. Civilians were chased off or killed. Huts were set ablaze and the property was looted by Miseriya militia as the SAF soldiers looked on or take part.
Kiir said his military inertness was an inch of a wider strategy to ensure that the independence of South Sudan, slated for the 9th of July, was not marred by infamous wars.
“Their intention of occupying Abyei was to make us retaliate and counter-attack by fighting them in Abyei so that we could not celebrate the 9th of July as the Independence Day of South Sudan,” Kiir told the army officers. “I have ignored all these and ordered the SPLA not to go because we knew what they were up to.”
Kiir also said negotiations that may resume soon in Addis Ababa on oil sharing will not affect South Sudan’s overall ownership of its oil revenues.
“I am saying that we will rent the North’s pipelines and we will pay them money for our oil to pass. And we will pay this of course and there is no problem,” said Kiir, noting that this offer is not accepted by the North.
He, however, said the north and south have agreed on allowing the south to use the pipelines as talks continue.
“We have agreed on one thing that the oil issue should not be disrupted. They need oil. But we fought for 21 years without oil and we can still go for three years until we build our own oil infrastructures.”
Kiir spoke as Governor Nyandeng came to Juba following attacks from the Misseriya in her state – the state to which Abyei is supposed to belong.
warrap borrowed Arrow Boys anti LRA strategy to defeat Gadet’s Militia
BY DENG GARANG JOK
Days before Independence, militias belonging to Peter Gadet raided parts of Warrap and were repulsed by civilians, who beat them back, borrowing from the arrow boys in Western Equatoria fighting. But the militias managed to kill 11 people.
Governor of Warrap state Nyandeng Malek has said the state’s citizens are on heightened alert, which has helped drastically end militia attacks. Nyandeng said that independence of South Sudan was unique in the state as people were alert right from counties to bomas as they welcomed Independence with slaughter of cows
Nyandeng said this shortly after her arrival at Juba international airport last week.
She said that the next task in the state is development as the first priority through agriculture by launching massive awareness on agriculture, educating the farmers on how they can become productive.
Nyandeng said there will no longer be expectations of relying in United Nations aids UN but only affected areas like Abyei and southern kordufan people.
Nyandeng said the security in the state is normal, despite some struggle with cattle raiding within the states.
Nyandeng said the cattle keepers and the pastoralists should move away from cattle raiding and adopt a culture of cultivating so as to reduce tribal’s conflicts.
Nyandeng said a good number of civilians still have weapons, which leads to random killing of civilians.
