Community Empowerment for Progress Organization-CEPO is a South Sudan civil society organization registered by Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development in the Republic of South Sudan. CEPO is engaged in the areas of conflict mitigation, peace, human rights, and rule of law, governance, democratic transformation and livelihood.
CEPO would like to applaud and appreciate the recent positive steps given by various actors such as the United Nation security Council for approving the deployment of a 4,200 brawny Ethiopian troops to Abyei and the Ethiopian government readiness for deploying its peacekeeping troops to the region of Abyei as scheduled per the agreement signed last month by the SPLM and NCP in Addis Ababa - under the broker of the African Union for full demilitarization of Abyei. CEPO is hereby raising some concerns as below:
Abyei Infrastructure:
The Abyei infrastructure should not frustrate the commitment of the Ethiopian troops in fulfilling their mission mandate. It is possible that the Ethiopian troops will face hard challenges of movement within Abyei due to the physical infrastructure poor condition predominantly the roads. There is high possibility that the roads' nature in Abyei will limit the Ethiopian troops in accessing communities' settlements for protecting their lives and properties. Beyond that, the infrastructure will daunt the Ethiopian troop's moral and this may force them to do some changes in locating themselves.
Absence of politician mandate for Ethiopian peacekeepers Abyei Mission:
The Ethiopian troops may find it hard to address some issues that entail political will. Moreover, they will also face challenge of political manifestation of issues by the parties' signatory to Abyei agreement. Here CEPO suggests that there is need for the Ethiopian troops to be sensitive to political milieu along their mandate since within their mission consent the expected results are creation of peaceful environment that will allow a referendum to be conducted. But referendum is a total political activity that requires political will from both parties that is SPLM and the NCP. Remember, the armies in both sides of the conflicting parties are loyal to the ruling political parties to the level that the armies are under direct influence of the political parties, therefore the demilitarization, maintaining buffer zone, peace and the protection of the civilians which constitute the mission mandate in Abyei cannot be possible, if there is no political will from any one of the conflicting parties in Abyei. Here are some rrecommendations;
For NCP and SPLM
1. There is a need for both to have commitment with full political will for resolving Abyei issue for the best interest of Abyei citizens.
2. There is need for abolishing mitigation Abyei issue through military approach. We urge you to be rational enough for resolving Abyei issue non-violently without entertaining any militia or armed group for destabilizing the peace for the citizens of Abyei
3. There is need to respect the role of the international humanitarian aid agencies, media and civil society regarding Abyei resolution.
For United Nation Security Council and Africa Union High-level Implementation penal
1. There is a need to have strong pressure on the political parties' signatories to Abyei recent agreement. Because CEPO fears that Abyei is seen as mode of wealth (oil) than people by the conflicting parties.
2. The recent framework for resolving Abyei issues should never be allow to be violated by the conflicting parties in Abyei like other Abyei resolutions frameworks before.
3. The support for the Ethiopian troops must be timely managed including the need to respect the role of the international humanitarian aid agencies, media and civil society regarding Abyei resolution.
--You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment