SUDAN: Abyei briefing

 

Photo: UN OCHA

Burnt-out Abyei following fighting in May 2008 (file photo)

NAIROBI, 21 July 2009 (IRIN) – Legal experts in The Hague make a binding decision on 22 July setting the boundaries of Sudan’s oil- and pasture-rich Abyei region – ruling on a dispute that has threatened the country’s fragile peace accord. The following briefing examines the background to the Abyei Arbitral Tribunal’s decision.

What is Abyei? 

An oil-rich area straddling the border between north and south Sudan, jutting into the states of Western Kordofan and Northern Bahr al-Gazal. Since 2005 it should have been administered jointly by the ruling parties of Northern and Southern Sudan. During the 1983-2005 civil war both sides used local communities as proxy forces. 

What is the Abyei Protocol? 

A chapter of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) (www.sudanarchive.net), which provides for a referendum in 2011 when Abyei will decide whether to join the north or the south, and for a joint administration until then. The protocol outlines how the region’s oil revenue is shared between the Northern Government of National Unity (GNU) and the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) and enshrines the grazing rights of Misseriya pastoralists who live to the north of Abyei. It also tasked an Abyei Boundaries Commission to “define and demarcate” the area, whose borders are disputed by north and south. 

Chapter IV of the CPA states that the people who live in Abyei permanently are of the Ngok section of the Dinka ethnic group. Arab communities, including the Misseriya, traditionally move through the area at certain seasons with their livestock for pasture, water and trade, meaning that the two communities regularly interact – and have clashed in the past. 

What is the role of the Permanent Court of Arbitration? 

The commission’s “final and binding” ruling, issued in July 2005, determined that Abyei was much larger than the northern government claimed. Abyei’s size matters because it affects how much oil is apportioned to the area and because in a referendum scheduled for 2011, Abyei’s residents are likely to vote to join Southern Sudan’s administration. The GNU rejected the ruling by insisting the commission had exceeded its mandate. 

Both sides agreed that an Abyei Arbitration Tribunal, sitting at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, should decide whether this assertion was valid and by extension whether the commission’s boundaries remained in force. They further agreed that if the court found the commission had exceeded its mandate, the court should make a fresh ruling on Abyei’s boundaries based on submissions by both parties. 

See also

Assurances and tension ahead of key Abyei ruling

Abyei timeline

Abyei town deserted following fresh clashes (2008)

Why is it so important to resolve the dispute? 

The 1972 Addis Ababa peace agreement, which ended the first civil war (1956-1972), also included provisions for a referendum among the Abyei Ngok Dinka on whether or not to join what was then a semi-autonomous Southern Region. Failure to implement those provisions was a factor in the re-ignition of civil war in the early 1980s. 

It has remained a hotbed of tension since the CPA was signed: in May 2008 clashes displaced tens of thousands of people in Abyei and the town was set on fire. Failure to properly implement the Abyei Protocol is likely to exacerbate not only conflict between local communities but also the increasingly strained relations between Khartoum and GOSS. 

Abyei lies at the faultline of Sudan. It encapsulates the cultural and livelihoods divide of the country, but at its best could also exemplify peaceful interdependence at the community level. It is a key stronghold of the South’s most powerful ethnic group, the Dinka. It may contain only less than a quarter of the country’s current production, but it is possibly the largest proven reserve over which the rest of Sudan may claim control.

SUDAN: Abyei timeline

 

Photo: Timothy Mckulka/UNMIS

SPLA soldiers on patrol in Abyei. Fierce fighting broke out in May 2008 (file photo)

NAIROBI, 21 July 2009 (IRIN) – The following is a timeline for the Abyei boundary dispute.

1905 
An area inhabited by the Ngok Dinka people is transferred from the administration of Bahr al-Ghazal province to Kordofan province and becomes known as Abyei. What is in dispute is the size of the region. 

1956 
Sudan gains independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule; first civil war breaks out, the Ngok Dinka align themselves with the southern rebels. 

1972 
Civil war ends with Addis Ababa Agreement. Abyei is promised a referendum on whether to join the Southern Region. 

1983 
Second civil war breaks out, in part because the referendum never takes place. Abyei is close to one of the frontlines between north and south. 

2002 
Peace talks reach a milestone with the signing of the Machakos Protocol in Kenya. This promises the south significant autonomy, a referendum and self-determination but leaves the issue of Abyei unresolved. 

2004 
An Abyei protocol drafted by US diplomats is signed between the Sudan government and rebel SPLM/A, clearing a significant stumbling block in the wider north-south peace process. It provides for another referendum. Abyei’s border remains undefined. 

2005 
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement formally ends the second civil war; Abyei Boundaries Commission hears testimony from all stakeholders and issues ruling on the path of the boundary (July). Government in Khartoum rejects the ruling, claiming the ABC overstepped its mandate. 

2007 
Deadlock over Abyei’s administration and other issues leads the SPLM to temporarily pull out of Government of National Unity (October). This follows a standoff between SPLA and Government forces in Abyei in September. Abyei lacks an effective administration. 

2008 
Abyei town razed (May) in the worst of several clashes since December 2007. In June an agreement is reached to hand the border dossier over to a specially convened tribunal sitting at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, whose decision will be binding on both parties. 

2009 
Permanent Court of Arbitration begins hearings in April; ruling scheduled for 22 July. 

am/bp/mw/oa

See also: 

Assurances and tension ahead of key Abyei ruling 
Abyei briefing 

WEST AFRICA: Disaster-risk reduction made simple

Photo: Godefroy Chabi/IRIN

Flooded streets in Cotonou during the 2008 rainy season (file photo)

DAKAR, 22 July 2009 (IRIN) – Partnerships between aid agencies and climate experts are finally paying off by helping NGOs’ disaster prevention and response, but specialists question why it took so long.

“The question is not why meteorological services and humanitarian organizations are talking to each other today, but why they have not been talking for one-and-a-half centuries,” said Maarten van Aalst, associate director of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) regional climate centre in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

Since 2008, the IFRC has been working with Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Niger-based African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD), and regional agriculture research agency AGRHYMET, to create seasonal forecasts that help the federation to predict disasters.

With the regional rainy season under way, IFRC has stockpiled relief items in vulnerable areas; is warning communities in the Gulf of Guinea – where above-average rainfall is predicted – to prepare for flooding; and is training volunteer teams in areas expected to be most affected.

All this helps in more efficient resource use, Youcef Ait-Chellouche, IFRC’s West Africa disaster management coordinator, told IRIN. “We now set the alert before the disaster happens. Our teams are in place 48 hours in advance,” he said.

When heavy rains were predicted in southern Senegal on 15 July, an IFRC assessment team was ready and waiting. “We gained a lot of time, and time is important in making disaster responses effective… In other years before this partnership we were preparing for potential disasters. With seasonal forecasts, we know what is likely to happen so we can focus on probable, not potential disasters.”

Most of the hazards facing West Africa are climate-related, including droughts, floods, and weather-related public health epidemics such as cholera, malaria and meningitis, according to the IFRC.

Data poverty

One reason it has taken so long to get these partnerships working, Haresh Bhojwani, international development officer with Columbia’s IRI, told IRIN, is that regional observatories are only beginning to be able to accurately forecast climate by season, as opposed to six-to-10 days in advance.

Predicting seasonal patterns involves analyzing 30 years of data, and satellite imagery has only been around for that long, he said.

National and regional observatories in sub-Saharan Africa are still “data-poor” said Bhojwani, most of them lacking the complex technology, funding, or expertise required to gather such satellite data. They have instead relied on buying satellite imagery from abroad.

“Processing, calibrating, validating and tailoring the information so it can be used…requires groups like ACMAD and AGRHYMET to have the right support to get the job done,” he said.

ACMAD is the Africa’s only continent-wide climate prediction centre.

“You need to pick the right product – some analyze temperature, some cloud cover, some soil moisture, some vegetation… there isn’t a single product that answers all the questions,” he added.

The IRI helps national and regional observatories package the information they collect so that decision-makers such as health or defence ministries, or the IFRC, can act on it.

For Ait-Chellouche, this means he receives regular colour-coded maps of West Africa marked with a yellow zone indicating drought, blue meaning attention is needed, and red, which calls for urgent action. The latest 15 July weekly forecast put Guinean capital Conakry, parts of Gambia, Southern Senegal and Sierra Leone at “high risk” of heavy rain and strong winds.

Climate change and development funding

With the climate change adaptation debate evolving, and aid agencies and governments increasingly focusing on preventing disasters before they happen, Bhojwani hopes support for such partnerships will rise.

The French and UK governments and Columbia University support ACMAD. To tap into further funding, it needs to package its information carefully – this time to donors.

“Development donors want to improve climate forecasts but do so in a way that benefits the development outlook – food security projections, water resource management, agricultural planning, malaria prevention… if these observatories organize themselves around that paradigm they can start to tap into development funding related to climate change,” Bhojwani stressed.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?Reportid=85377

ASIA: Dams threaten “millions of Mekong livelihoods”

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?Reportid=85381

Photo: David Gough/IRIN

Thousands depend on the Mekong for their livelihoods

PHNOM PENH, 22 July 2009 (IRIN) – For thousands of years, the Mekong River has nourished civilizations and housed one of the world’s most diverse populations of fish and plants.

Yet 17 dams recently built on the Mekong and its tributaries in China, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, as well as 11 more in the planning process, are threatening Mekong fisheries – and thereby the food security they have provided for millions, critics warn.

“People affected could number in the millions, due to the extensive changes expected to the river’s ecosystem downstream,” Aviva Imhof, campaigns director of International Rivers, an NGO based in California, told IRIN.

Most alarming, NGOs say, is a cascade of eight dams being built in the Upper Mekong in China, the origin of Southeast Asia’s largest river, which could alter the ecosystem downstream for Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

Of the eight dams in China, four have been completed. NGOs claim they are already undermining fish populations and causing erosion in downstream Myanmar, northern Thailand and northern Laos.

The dams are allegedly blocking Mekong fish from travelling upstream to spawn, threatening fisheries.

Photo: Savethemekong.org

A map showing the route of the Mekong River

Livelihoods

Between 60 and 65 million people live in the Mekong River basin and are overwhelmingly dependent on fisheries.

About 80 percent of their protein intake comes from fish, with an estimated value of about US$2.5-$3 billion a year, the Bangkok-based NGO Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA), reports. They eat more than 1.5 million tonnes of fish per year, according to conservative Mekong River Commission (MRC) estimates.

The MRC, an inter-governmental body of Mekong countries based in Vientiane, Laos, says the basin provides a wide variety of breeding habitats for more than 1,300 species of fish, while the annual rise and fall of the river ensures a nutrient-rich environment on which the fish can feed.

Aside from the fishermen, thousands more earn their livelihoods making and selling food products and fishing gear and repairing boats, according to the MRC.

Resettlement

“Local people will became the victims of this [the dams], and will not necessarily receive any benefits,” Premrudee Daoroung, co-director of TERRA, told IRIN.

In China, two resettled communities have not received adequate compensation, and seen lower fish catches, as well as an increased incidence in disease, according to International Rivers.

“There has been no investigation into this, nor any attempt to document the downstream impacts by the Chinese government or other regional governments,” Imhof said.

In landlocked Laos, one of the region’s poorest and least developed nations, a series of relatively small dams and diversions has already led to the forced relocation of thousands of indigenous peoples.

The controversial Nam Theun 2 Dam project, which will flood more than 600 sqkm, will displace at least 7,000 when completed, and affect many more, according to Minority Rights International.

Photo: Tharum Bun/IRIN

More than 60 million people live in the Mekong water basin

Pushing for development

Chinese companies have long been building dams to develop the Yunnan province in the southwest, a mountainous frontier known for its vast rivers and natural resources.

Dams provide the renewable electricity needed to support China’s rapid economic growth, and reduce its dependence on coal plants. Governments downstream claim the hydroelectric dams will cut electricity costs.

The World Bank has estimated that Cambodia, for example, has some of the highest electricity costs in the world.

To increase the supply of electricity for all Southeast Asia, Laos is planning at least 30 dams on Mekong River tributaries or smaller streams that branch off from the main river.

“Laos knows that Thailand will be the biggest buyer of their electricity and this will benefit the country economically,” Daoroung told IRIN. “Thai people, at the same time, have been told by the government… that the country plans to buy very cheap electricity from Laos.”

But despite the negative impacts, supporters say the dams could help local communities, who face annual floods and droughts due to extreme fluctuations in rain levels.

“Dry season water levels could increase, making water available for irrigation and urban water supply,” Damian Kean, a spokesman for the MRC in Vientiane, Laos, told IRIN by e-mail.

“China has also clearly stated it will operate the upstream projects so that river flows downstream are maintained at acceptable levels,” he added.

Politics of Aid (Reuters articules)

U.N. reports record humanitarian aid shortfall
21 Jul 2009 15:17:29 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Recession drives up global humanitarian needs, U.N. says * Aid shortfalls for 2009 biggest in Sudan, Congo, Zimbabwe * Economic stresses to increase social tensions, conflict (Adds quotes, … 

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U.N. reports record $4.8 billion aid shortfall
21 Jul 2009 13:30:45 GMT
Source: Reuters
GENEVA, July 21 (Reuters) – The United Nations on Tuesday revealed a record $4.8 billion funding gap for its 2009 aid programmes due to strained foreign assistance levels and a ten-fold increase in … 

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ANALYSIS-G8 promise a $20 bln chance to beat odds on hunger
17 Jul 2009 17:34:14 GMT
Source: Reuters
* $20 bln promise goes back to funding farming basics * Patience required to see foreign farm aid pay off * U.S. Congress may be lukewarm to food aid reform By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON, July … 

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ZIMBABWE: Widespread food shortages looming
17 Jul 2009 14:38:03 GMT
Source: IRIN
Large-scale food assistance to Zimbabweans could start in the next few weeks, according to a USAID situation report released on 16 July.  

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ZIMBABWE: How to get donor funds to the needy – analysis
17 Jul 2009 14:23:50 GMT
Source: IRIN
That Zimbabwe needs aid is a given – its battered population has experienced widespread food shortages, hyperinflation and a devastating cholera epidemic – but so far the stumbling block of trust in the institutions responsible for handling money has proved bigger than need.  

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KENYA: Malnutrition crisis in northwest
16 Jul 2009 14:38:56 GMT
Source: IRIN

RPT-INTERVIEW-No plans to revise Malagasy contracts soon-finmin
16 Jul 2009 13:18:59 GMT
Source: Reuters

AFGHANISTAN: Cost of insecurity impedes humanitarian work – analysis
14 Jul 2009 13:43:52 GMT
Source: IRIN

INSTANT VIEW-G8 summit pledges $20 bln to boost food output
10 Jul 2009 17:50:00 GMT
Source: AlertNet

G8 pledges $20 bln in farm aid to poor nations
10 Jul 2009 17:01:00 GMT
Source: Reuters

The occupied Palestinian territories and Israel: the wall five years on

This entry was posted by Catherine Weibel on July 21st, 2009 at 4:15 pm and is filed under General, Humanitarian, News Blog,

The Wall in the West Bank and East Jerusalem remains a barrier to Palestinian peace and prosperity, reports Catherine Weibel.

[Photo credit: Tineke D’haese]

Five years ago this month the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered an advisory opinion stating that Israel’s construction of the Wall in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was illegal and called for its immediate dismantling. At the time, I was working in New York City for an international organization writing many press releases about that Wall. Although I had never seen it, touched it, or witnessed the harm it was causing, I had read enough about it to get an idea of the suffering it would cause thousands of ordinary Palestinians.When I first arrived in East-Jerusalem earlier this year to work with Oxfam, one of the first things I did was to go and see the Wall. Far from being dismantled, it has only continued to grow in length over the past five years. I was struck with a sense of the surreal as I stood in front of this huge ribbon of concrete winding its way between the hills, blocking out the horizon.

But nothing compares with the real thing, as I recently discovered after seeing firsthand the grave consequences that the Wall has on the lives of Palestinians. To mark the occasion, Oxfam released a collection of testimonies from across the occupied West Bank: Five years of illegality: Time to dismantle the Wall and respect the rights of Palestinians.

The first time I crossed back into East Jerusalem from the West Bank through the Kalandiya checkpoint, I found myself lost in a metallic maze of barbed wire fencing, floor to ceiling steel turnstiles, electronic detectors and iron bars. Unidentified voices told me through invisible speakers to place my belongings in an x-ray machine. I saw a human being only at the very end of the process, when I had to show my passport to a young Israeli soldier sitting in an armoured sentry box, looking bored and reading a romance novel.

[Photo credit: Tineke D'haese]

For me it was just an exploratory Kafkaesque journey, but for the Palestinians all around me it was daily life. The procedure is particularly tiring for sick people who are in need of medical care in Jerusalem. Workers stand in line for hours every morning before being allowed to cross into East Jerusalem, provided they have a permit.Sharif Omar is just one of those Palestinians.  The 66-year old farmer who lives in Jayyous, a village located in the north of the West Bank, told us his story. His home is on one side of the Wall, while his farmland is on the other. It took him seven months to obtain a permit giving him the right to cross over to work on his own land. And it is only good for six months, when it will need to be renewed. His son Azzam, a businessman, was never granted a permit and cannot access the family land. Ironically Azzam is allowed to travel in Israel – he can go to Tel Aviv or to Haifa but he does not have permission to go to his family farmland located close to his house.

Such mind-boggling stories abound all along the Wall. Some 10,000 people whose village has been declared a “military zone” by the Israeli authorities need to obtain a permanent resident permit if they want to…live in their own houses. Another 35,000 Palestinians are trapped in “closed zones” – stuck between the Wall and the Green Line.  Even if these Palestinians hold the right permit allowing them to cross through the checkpoints and gates, the doors can suddenly close without warning and no indication as to when they will reopen.

The Israelis I’ve spoken to have a different perspective of the Wall.  “I like it because it protects us from attacks and suicide bombings”, a young Israeli told me in a Tel Aviv café. “It makes me feel safer, I can go and have dinner in a restaurant without wondering whether something bad will happen to me”.

A block of new housing units in the Israeli settlement Har Gilo [Photo credit: Photos: Tineke D'haese]

This is an understandable sentiment.  However, she did not seem aware that most of the Wall runs on land which does not belong to Israel, but to the Palestinians. The ICJ advisory opinion confirmed in its findings that the route of the Wall is not only based on security considerations, but is also being used to carve out space for West Bank Israeli settlements  – which are illegal under international law – on the Israeli side of the Wall.In short, many believe that the route of the Wall is an effective tool for the further confiscation and expropriation of Palestinian resources, such as land and water. 

Some Israeli NGOs such as B’tselem, an Oxfam partner, try to raise awareness about all aspects of the Wall.  They ask for the Wall to be re-routed along the 1967 armistice line – the so-called Green Line, the internationally recognized border between Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territory of the West Bank.  They ask for the Wall to run on Israeli land, not on Palestinian land. 

Sadly, the Palestinians whose lives are affected were unable to attend a packed press conference – in which Oxfam took part, along with several UN agencies – in East Jerusalem earlier this month on the fifth anniversary of the ICJ opinion. They were on the other side of the Wall, unable to enter East Jerusalem. But at least, I thought, their voices were heard through the testimonies published in Oxfam’s publication on the effects of the Wall.

Yet five years on, I really wonder when someone will begin to listen.

For more information, see the Oxfam report: Five years of illegality: Time to dismantle the Wall and respect the rights of Palestinians.

South Sudan fragile peace

An international court has redefined the eastern and western boundaries of the disputed oil-producing Abyei area claimed by both north and south Sudan. The borders of Abyei, often called the “Kashmir” of Sudan’s north-south conflict and coveted by both sides, were outlined by an international panel after a 2005 peace agreement that ended more than 20 years of civil war between north and south Sudan. But after Sudan’s government challenged the boundaries, a deal was reached with the former southern rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, to refer the issue to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague. While the impact of Wednesday’s ruling on the northern boundary was not immediately clear, Sudan’s foreign ministry said it was a “step forward” and the government would respect the decision. Abyei has been promised a referendum in January 2011 on whether it wants to join north or south Sudan. On the same day, south Sudan as a whole is due to vote on whether to become an independent country.

REFUGEES HEAD BACK TO OIL-RICH REGION

In early 2005, Sudan’s government and rebels from the south officially ended Africa’s longest-running war. The 21-year civil conflict killed 2 million people and forced more than 4 million from their homes, according to U.N. estimates.

• Under peace deal, oil revenues to be shared
• Refugees started returning in late 2005
• Former foes clash over oil-rich Abyei region

Under international pressure, the country’s ruling party agreed to split Sudan’s massive oil revenues with a southern government led by the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the main rebel group in the south. But some analysts say the agreement is fraught with problems, and getting the south back on its feet is likely to take years, as well as billions of aid dollars. Meanwhile, one of the world’s most overlooked humanitarian emergencies continues to fester. A separate conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region threatens to derail the whole peace process. Conversely, without a lasting peace between north and south Sudan, there is unlikely to be a resolution to the Darfur conflict.

KEY FACTS

No. southern Sudanese returned home since 2005	2.37 million (U.N., Oct. 2008)
Regional gross national income	$90 per capita (less than 10 percent of national average) (WFP, 2006)
Percentage in south Sudan earning less than $1 a day	90 (WFP, 2006)
No. of children demobilised from rebel forces 2001-2006	20,000 (Child Soldiers Global Report 2008)
Maternal mortality rate in S. Sudan	2,037 per 100,000 births – the highest in the world (UNFPA, 2008)