VICE PRESIDENT TAHA EXPLAINS NCP POSITION ON ABYEI

C O N F I D E N T I A L KHARTOUM 001316 SENSITIVE SIPDIS NSC FOR MGAVIN, LELLIS ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/02/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM SU SUBJECT: VICE PRESIDENT TAHA EXPLAINS NCP POSITION ON ABYEI REF: KHARTOUM 01234 Classified By: CHARGE D'AFFAIRES ROBERT E. WHITEHEAD, FOR REASONS 1.4 ( B),(D) ¶1. (C) Summary: Ali Osman Taha, First Vice President of Sudan's Government of National Unity (GNU) told Special Envoy Scott Gration November 18 that the nomadic Misseriya should be allowed to vote in the Abyei referendum because, while not permanent residents, they reside in Abyei for part of the year, and draw their livelihoods from the area. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Special Envoy (SE) Scott Gration met November 18 with Sudan Government of National Unity (GNU) First Vice President Ali Osman Taha (NCP). The Vice President told Special Envoy that the National Congress Party and Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) positions on five outstanding issues related to implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA),including the referendum on independence for the South, census and elections, the security law, and Abyei, were coming closer together. However, the Vice President noted, the most recent draft proposal seems to represent a step backward on certain issues, such as popular consultations. Nonetheless, he said, the NCP is taking a deeper look into the SPLM's position, ¶3. (C) The Abyei Protocol was a "misfit," different from the power and wealth sharing provisions negotiated at Naivasha, Taha told Gration. Power and wealth sharing provisions were crafted with a view to the present and to the future of Sudan; the Abyei provision was based on the historical situation extant in 1905, the Vice President claimed. Another difference is that the Abyei Protocol, unlike the comparatively precise power and wealth sharing agreements, said, in essence, "We will try to agree on boundaries, and if we cannot, we agree to take the issue to arbitration." ¶4. (C) But regardless of how the Abyei territory is defined, the CPA says that the Dinka and other Sudanese residing there should be eligible to vote, Taha said. At issue is who should be considered resident in the area. The Misseriya, a nomadic tribe, are not permanent residents of the area. However, they are residents in the sense that they derive their livelihoods from the area, and are present in the area for a part of the year. Using the term permanent resident, which may be suitable in a foreign country, is not suitable in the Sudanese context, the Vice President contended. Citizenship bestows rights derived from the Constitution; residence within a tribal territory cannot endow residents with rights and privileges not shared by their co-citizens. How can the government say to some citizens "You have no right to vote in the referendum because you do not live in the area permanently; you are not co-equal," Taha asked rhetorically. To take such a position would have implications for all the nomadic tribes throughout the country, including in Darfur. It would be like saying that Darfur belongs only to the Fur, because they are the tribe that lived there historically, and ignoring the nomadic tribes that currently also inhabit the area, Taha told the Special Envoy. ¶5. (C) Taha noted that Foreign Minister Deng Alor (SPLM) had challenged him during the talks, saying that the NCP position on Abyei was an implicit repudiation not only of the CPA but also of the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA). That is not what the NCP position implies, Taha claimed; rather, the NCP urges a return to the wisdom of the elders, and to the sharing of land between neighboring tribes. ¶6. (C) Comment: Taha's position that the Misseriya moving through Abyei have the same rights at the resident Ngok Dinka is anathema to the SPLM, and especially Deng Alor, who insist that the CPA and the PCA ruling define this as the Dar Ngok (Note: Place of the Ngok. End Note) It is a zero-sum game, in that the Misseriya nomads can be lined up in numbers that will overwhelm the resident Ngok and place Abyei post-2011 in the North. The issue defined is not whether Abyei is the place of the Ngok, but who will maintain control, Khartoum or Juba, in the event of separation. It is the thorniest issue facing implementation of the CPA. WHITEHEAD