No Permission for Misseriya to Participate in Abyei Historical Referendum

These days many media stations and newspapers report about Misseriya people trying to find ways outside the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) to participate in the coming Abyei referendum, but doubts are whether the Misseriya shall be given such rights or shall the two partners to the CPA accept to resort to war. Many people fear even to whisper out of what the result of this tension would.

Abyei in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement is defined as the areas of nine Dinka Ngok chiefdoms which were annexed to Kordufan in 1905 during the colonial period. The CPA has not also forgotten the Misseriya nomadic communities but given them rights to search for water and green pastures for their cattle and to freely move across the area and that these rights would be constitutionally protected. The Misseriya communities during the time of the CPA would get a share of 2% in the Abyei oil. Well, another important point is that the people of Abyei shall exercise the right to self-determination to decide whether they should remain as part of Kordufan or to return back to Bahr el Ghazal where they originally belong.

I just don’t know why the Misseriya people try to impose an unacceptable proposal when they are outside the Abyei definition. According to the CPA Misseriya nomads are not part of Abyei area. And why does the National Congress Party NCP support the confused Misseriya who don’t have right to vote for the referendum? It is too late for this proposal to be attached to the many pages of the CPA and be implemented. Why did the NCP fail to bring up this proposal of Misseriya right to vote during the Abyei protocol negotiation? This should be early discussed in Naivasha many years ago. Sudan during this era is governed by the formula drawn from the comprehensive peace agreement. Where do the Misseriya and their NCP refer us with their proposal? The history rejects the proposal as well as the peace agreement. At this time we have no chance for renegotiating the CPA but we want to implement the peace to the end. I know that the NCP has gone with a blank mind, because their things are falling apart and they have no hands to support that situation. Their hands only participate in destructions. They have been all these times trying to find ways of destroying the CPA and have failed but have recently decided to make Misseriya Nomads as their correct means of burying the agreement alive. When we talk of the nine Dinka Ngok chiefdoms it doesn’t include Misseriya. It is also true that the annexation of the nine Dinka Ngok chiefdoms to Kordufan does not include Misseriya because the Misseriya communities were not annexed with Dinka together to Kordufan. The nine Dinka Ngok chiefdoms minus Misseriya were the ones annexed to Kordufan. Misseriya are original citizens of Kordufan. My question is; why are the nomadic Misseriya communities so much concerned of what belongs to the people of Abyei? Are these Misseriya nomadic groups, clans in Dinka Ngok tribe? Will they accept to be Dinkas? We don’t have Arab Dinkas they need to know that, anyway. The Misseriya have no problem in Kordufan so they cannot conduct a referendum. They have nowhere to return. If they want to go back to Nigeria where they came from then they can go voluntarily without conducting a referendum. The referendum questions for the people of Abyei are to evaluate and choose whether they can remain in the north or to come back to the south. What will be the referendum question for Misseriya? Do they want to be citizens in southern Sudan? Why? Are they marginalized? Well if they are marginalized by the Khartoum Government like Dinka Ngok citizens then they have to look for their own separate referendum and forward their reasons and facts to why they want to go out of their Kordufan region. It will not be even automatic to say that their referendum shall need them to join their neighbours, the Dinka Ngok. They can decide by themselves of whether to make their own country or to join Darfur. I fear Khartoum will open a fire against them just like Darfur citizens if the attempt that. The National Congress party just wants to use the Misseriya group to violate the implementation of the peace agreement. The NCP thinks that they can just violate this agreement like the previous agreements which were violated in the past without success. Why does NCP fear referenda? No permission for the Misseriya to participate in the Dinka Ngok referendum. You can’t borrow history nor will it be lent to you. Dinka Ngok will not lend the Misseriya members the rights to vote for referendum and Misseriya can not beg Dinka Ngok members of that right. It is impossible because it is history itself. The Mwatamer Al-wantani is to be told that to get Abyei is not a matter of calculating out a budget for its war. Our wars which we fight against Jalaba don’t depend on the financial calculations and the amount of weapons. We pay our own blood to fight for our black soil. Abyei is for Dinka Ngok and Dinka Ngok are for southern Sudan. We can not let it just go because of threats. Abyei referendum must kick off together simultaneously with the south Sudan referendum on the scheduled date. We are implementing CPA but not satisfying Misseriya needs. If NCP is so much fearing because the referenda results will be against its desire then Abyei Council will conduct their own referendum monitored by the international community. In mathematics you can not refuse to apply the correct and true formula and expect your calculations to give you a correct answer. So the NCP can not refuse to conduct the Abyei and South Sudan referendum and expect a peaceful unity. The only way to confirm the unity of this country is to run the two referenda on the scheduled date. We know that problem here is because of oil in the region. I doubt if the NCP hears that oil is discovered in Nimule then they will claim the borderline to be south of oil wells in Nimule it is true and everybody knows that Khartoum is only greedy of oil but this time we must not give them chance to eat up our oil money. They better their own oil survey in their Great Sahara Desert.

For Misseriya they are just wasting their dear energy when they shall not succeed at all. They better build good relationship with Abyei and south Sudan because their cattle are depending on Abyei and South Sudan water and pastures. Will Misseriya take their cattle to northern for grazing if we refuse them to enter our land as per their bad relationship they are aiming to? They need to know that NCP has no toich for their cattle.