http://www.sixmonthsinsudan.com/2009/07/why-abyei-matters-douglas-johnson/ The story and conversation continue here. Sat, 19 Nov 2011 02:14:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 http://www.sixmonthsinsudan.com/2009/07/why-abyei-matters-douglas-johnson/comment-page-1/#comment-66 Six Months in Sudan Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:09:13 +0000 http://www.sixmonthsinsudan.com/?p=431#comment-66 [...] The ABC delivered their decision in July 2005, and the Khartoum government said the report would be “studied”, while the SPLM considered it final and binding.  The two sides disagreed on the ABC’s mandate, the North claiming it was to rule on a small part of the land transferred in 1905, the South adamant that it was to determine the entire extent of the nine chiefdoms.  Though the area is important for historical reasons, there are petroleum ones  too.  Most of the oil, outside of the South, comes from the Abyei region. By making it larger, it encompasses more of the wells, and each side is intent on participating in the final arbitration as much as possible.  For an excellent summary, read the article “Why Abyei Matters” by Douglas Johnson here.  And a quick plug for all authors to self-archive their material on the web where it can be accessed for free, and use, where possible, creative commons licensing. Shhh. [...] [...] The ABC delivered their decision in July 2005, and the Khartoum government said the report would be “studied”, while the SPLM considered it final and binding.  The two sides disagreed on the ABC’s mandate, the North claiming it was to rule on a small part of the land transferred in 1905, the South adamant that it was to determine the entire extent of the nine chiefdoms.  Though the area is important for historical reasons, there are petroleum ones  too.  Most of the oil, outside of the South, comes from the Abyei region. By making it larger, it encompasses more of the wells, and each side is intent on participating in the final arbitration as much as possible.  For an excellent summary, read the article “Why Abyei Matters” by Douglas Johnson here.  And a quick plug for all authors to self-archive their material on the web where it can be accessed for free, and use, where possible, creative commons licensing. Shhh. [...]

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