THE HAGUE — The International Court of Arbitration redrew on Wednesday, July 22, the borders of Sudan's disputed Abyei region, a ruling welcomed by Khartoum and the semiautonomous south government.
"The tribunal urges the parties…to begin immediate discussions with a view to reaching an agreement to promptly appoint a survey team to demarcate the Abyei area as defined by the tribunal," ICA presiding arbitrator Pierre-Marie Dupuy told a televised press conference.
He said the five-member panel decided not to abide by the Abyei borders proposed after the 2005 peace deal between the north and the south, which the Khartoum government had rejected.
Dupuy stressed that they had drawn a boundary "that reflects the facts," shrinking the land mass of the region by 8,099 square kilometers.
The panel redrew accepted only the southern boundary of the region as set by the 2005 deal, while redrawing its northern, eastern and western borders.
It gave the Khartoum government control of the disputed Heglig oilfields and the Nile oil pipeline.
Abyei, often called the "Kashmir" of Sudan, was a flashpoint during a 22-year-long conflict between north and south.
The borders of the region, with its rich oil reserves and grazing lands that are coveted by both sides, were outlined by an international panel after the 2005 peace deal.
Both Khartoum and the semiautonomous south asked the Hague-based Court to set the region's permanent borders after deadly clashes in May 2008 between ethnic Ngok Dinka loyal to the south and Misseriya Arab nomads loyal to the north.
Some 122 people were killed in the fighting which saw most of the town of Abyei burned to the ground and 50,000 residents forced to flee.
Content
The Khartoum government welcomed the ruling as a victory for justice.
"The north had been given all that we think is right," government representative Dirdeiry Mohamed Ahmed said in The Hague shortly after the ruling.
He added that Khartoum had made "a very important gain", referring to the disputed oil fields.
Abdelbagi Gailaini, state minister for humanitarian affairs, said the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) had accepts the ruling.
"What we have seen today is a good compromise," he said from Abyei.
"Everybody is committed, and everyone is standing by what this file case has reflected."
The semiautonomous south also described the ruling as "balanced" and said it would respect it.
Foreign Minister Deng Alor, a former southern fighter, said his Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) accepts the court's ruling.
"[The] decision is binding on the parties: the SPLM and the people of this area will respect this decision," he said from Abyei.
Alor, who comes from the Abyei area, asserted that though the Ngok Dinka tribe had lost some small areas of land they would accept the ruling.
"All in all the decision of the court is acceptable and we will implement it."
The UN secretary general's special representative Ashraf Qazi hopes the ruling would pave the way for the peaceful implementation of the 2005 peace deal as a whole.
"Both parties have agreed that this question is now settled," he said.
"So even if anybody is not 100 percent satisfied, I do believe this has been a win-win decision for both sides."
Under the 2005 peace deal, Abyei will hold a referendum in 2011 on whether to retain special status within north Sudan, or join the south.
On the same day, south Sudan as a whole will hold a vote on whether to become an independent country or remain within a unified Sudan.