The former Director of the Center for Peace Studies at the University of Juba Luka Biong has called on the United States of America to put pressure on Sudan and South Sudan to recognise the result of the unilateral Abyei referendum.
The referendum was conducted in October 2013 by the Ngok Dinka chiefdoms that decided to become part of South Sudan. The Misseriya, who historically stay in the region every year for six months, were excluded from voting. However, neither Sudan nor South Sudan recognized the plebiscite so far.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj in an interview, Luka Biong slammed the US administration for withholding its support on the Abyei issue. He blamed the the US government for giving the Government of Sudan the freedom to obstruct implementation of the Abyei Protocol of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005, which the US signed as guarantor.
Luka noted that the Abyei Protocol was proposed by the United States. The South Sudanese observer said the civil war that broke out in South Sudan just two months after the Abyei government made the government not to recognise the result of the Abyei referendum. He recalled that the result of the Abyei referendum was about to be tabled in South Sudan’s parliament when conflict erupted in December 2013.
Luka appealed to Sudan and South Sudan to support efforts for peace and reconciliation by the Ngok Dinka and Misseriya tribes in the contested area of Abyei.