.
Abyei is home to the most lucrative oilfields in Sudan anda pipeline that supplies about half the country?s daily output of 500,000barrels. The region?s wells generate billions of dollars in profits. SPLMspokesman Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth says it?s the Khartoum government?s ?love? ofoil that?s mostly to blame for the violence in Abyei.
?It is basically oil; they don?t want to let go of oil,because now to continue with this confusion and instability in the area, it isa tool for them to continue getting 100 percent of the oil which isactually produced in Abyei,? he says.
The government of Sudan did not respond to numerousrequests from VOA for comment.
It?s been three years since the Comprehensive PeaceAgreement (CPA) ended a two-decade-long war between the south and north thatkilled an estimated two million people, but the SPLM and President al-Bashir?sNational Congress Party (NCP) have consistently failed to agree on the bordersor administration of Abyei.
In 2005, an international commission that had been agreedto by the al-Bashir administration decided that the contentious area wassouthern territory. But the Khartoum government has refused to implement thecommission?s findings, resulting in a build-up of tension in Abyei thatexploded about a month ago.
Following national elections that are slated to be held inSudan next year, a referendum on whether the south should secede from the northis scheduled for 2011. Under the terms of the CPA, the people of Abyei willtake part in this vote.
?If Abyei separates, then most of the oil that?s currentlyin northern Sudan will be in southern Sudan?. If Abyei is in south Sudan, thenKhartoum gets nothing. So they?re really worried now that push will come toshove?. This is another reason for its recent actions in Abyei,? says PeterMoszynski, a British aid worker who?s been working in the Abyei region since1981.
He adds that it?s becoming increasingly likely that Sudanwill split into two separate countries, because of what he describes asKhartoum?s ?intransigence? with regard to the implementation of the peace dealand the ongoing ?tragedy? in Darfur.
According to Moszynski, former SPLM leader John Garang?s?vision of a united, secular Sudan? has ?almost disappeared? since the southernliberation hero died in a helicopter crash in July 2005.
?According to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, bothsides have to work for a united Sudan. But unless the government [in Khartoum]seems to be more flexible and willing to concede about secularism versusIslamic law, then it?s very difficult to imagine that the country?s going tostay together. And in fact these days no one in south Sudan thinks that Sudanwill remain united.?
?
Deng says there are many reasons why Abyei is a challengeto the all Sudanese ? not the least as a result of ?symbolic reasons that haveto do more with the conflict of visions for the country.? Whereas the SPLMwants Sudan to be a secular democracy, the humanitarian worker says, Khartoumremains bent on maintaining an Islamic autocracy. He?s convinced that Abyeiwill remain at the heart of this battle.
Moszynski agrees, especially in the case of the SPLM:?Abyei is simply too important?. to the leadership, and too important to thephilosophy of the movement, for them to let it go.?
Deng continues: ?Never has their [Khartoum?s] southwardpush been reversed. The war has always been in the south; the war has alwaysbeen fought on southern soil. It?s only now, since the Darfur crisis, that weare recognizing that this war that started in the south has actually now takenroot in the north, and it?s taken a life of its own.?
Deng maintains that the conflict in Sudan is no longer as?simple? as before, when it was seen as a ?straight shootout? between the southand the north. Analysts also say what they call Khartoum?s paranoia alsoincreased after an attack earlier this year by rebels ? allegedly supported byChad ? on areas close to Khartoum.