Sudan, South Sudan meet to resolve bitter dispute

Chief African Union mediator and former South African president Thabo Mbeki South Sudan set out Monday a proposed deal with rival Sudan, offering an increased oil transit fee offer, an $8.2 billion financial support package and demanding a referendum on disputed Abyei. The offer comes just days ahead of an African Union and United Nations imposed deadline calling on both sides to reach agreements on outstanding issues -- including oil transit fees, border demarcation and security -- by August 2.
Pagan Amum, South Sudan's chief negotiator told reporters Juba was ready to resume oil exports stalled in January through Sudan if "reasonable" transport fees are agreed on.
Khartoum, whose officials met with Juba's top team late Sunday and are believed to be reviewing the offer, has so far not responded publically.
"In the interest of peace, South Sudan is offering generous financial transfers to Sudan," the proposed offer read.
The financial package, worth $8.2 billion over three years, includes a cash payment and debt forgiveness to help fill the massive financial gap Sudan reported after the South gained independence last July.
"This is a fair and balanced agreement where each nation will benefit," it added, noting the South was willing to pay up to $9.10 a barrel to transit its premium-quality oil through Sudan, with lower fees for poorer quality oil.
Khartoum had earlier demanded as much as $36 per barrel.
"We propose to immediately resume our exports of oil through Sudan in return for fair, reasonable transportation fees," Amum said.
Other key proposals include an international arbitration process with a strict time frame to determine where the border lies in contested -- and often oil-rich -- frontier regions.
However, the South demanded the disputed Abyei region must hold an AU-UN organised referendum before the year's end to decide if it belongs to the north or the south.
The referendum, provided for in a 2005 peace deal, was supposed to happen in 2011 but was stalled after disputes over eligibility for voting.
South Sudan said those eligible to vote would be the people of the Ngok Dinka ethnic group -- seen as Southern supporters -- as well as anyone living in the Lebanon-sized area for three continuous years prior to 2005.
The deal was a "last offer, not a negotiating position," Amum said.
"We are left with only nine days to August 2 (deadline)... we believe time is over for prolonging lengthy negotiations," he added.
The ruling party in Sudan, the National Congress Party (NCP), claimed a lack of seriousness by the South's government and its participating delegation in the current negotiations between both countries being held in the Ethiopian city of  Bihr Dar.
A leader in the party Dr. Mohammed Mandour Al-Mahdi said via a press release that the "unwillingness" of the southern government to reach peace with Sudan through negotiations, "confirms they are depending on the international community and pressure groups from Western countries to support it against Sudan". The statement went on to say that despite confirming to the Sudanese delegation that they were committed towards negotiations, they were delaying until the August 2  expiry date for the Security Council deadline, to solve the disputes between both countries.
"It's clear that the South have an external agenda" Mandour warned, according to (SUNA). "Sudan which has endured sanctions since the 90s of the last century, is ready for all probabilities" he said "imposing sanctions will increase Sudan's power to grow and achieve."
The latest round of talks comes a week after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir exchanged a symbolic handshake at an AU summit.
South Sudan's top negotiator Pagan Amum is expected to address the media later on Monday.
On Saturday, South Sudan said it was cancelling planned face-to-face peace talks with Sudan after accusing Khartoum of launching a new air raid on its territory.
Sudan denied bombing its southern neighbour, saying it had targeted Darfuri rebels inside its own territory.
Late on Saturday, the African Union said it had managed to bring the foes back to the negotiating table.
The negotiations to settle disputes stemming from the South's independence in July last year stalled in April, but resumed in May.
The African neighbours came close to war when border fighting escalated in April, the worst violence since South Sudan split off and declared its independence under a 2005 agreement that ended decades of civil war.
The two have recently been trying to reconcile their many differences via talks, but Ebrahim Gandour, a senior official in President Omar Al Bashir’s NCP, said it was hard to envisage progress without first resolving border security issues.
“We cannot cooperate on the economy, politics, oil, whatever, when the other party is endangering our security,” Gandour told Reuters in an interview. “We cannot build trust when the other party is supporting rebel movements with weapons and sometimes with personnel.”
The duo’s messy divorce left a long list of unresolved conflicts including disagreements over fees for South Sudan’s oil exports and the demarcation of their shared border, as well as lingering suspicions on both sides that the other country is supporting rebel opponents.
Khartoum accuses Juba of supporting insurgencies in two of its southern border states and the western region of Darfur, the scene of a near decade-long rebellion. Juba denies this, but some diplomats find the claim credible.
Sudan wanted to build “very strong” cooperation with South Sudan, Gandour added, but he questioned whether Juba was interested in a lasting settlement.
“Our history of talking to the other party will make us very cautious in being so optimistic because whenever we feel we are close to striking a deal the other party breaches whatever we had agreed upon,” said Gandour, a member of NCP’s leadership team.
Talks sponsored by the African Union in Addis Ababa over where to agree a demilitarised buffer zone — seen as a first step to ending hostilities — have broken down several times.
The two countries also remain wide apart over how much landlocked South Sudan should pay to export its oil through Sudanese pipelines.
In January, Juba shut off its entire output after Khartoum started taking oil for what it called unpaid export fees. Both economies badly need the oil.
The two face the threat of sanctions from the UN Security Council unless they resolve all disputes before August 2. The Council has already expressed concern over delays in the talks.
Gandour said South Sudan seemed to hope that friendly Western powers would pressure Sudan - a country isolated since the International Criminal Court indicted Al Bashir for war crimes in Darfur — into a deal on its terms.
“You know what they [South Sudan] are counting on is that we come to August 2 ... then it will be taken to international arbitration where their friends can take decisions in their interest,” Gandour said.
“This is their main aim. This is why they will be dragging their feet to August 2 but I don’t think this is a very smart idea,” he said.
Some two million people died in the conflict between the mainly Muslim north and the South, where most people subscribe to Christian or African animist beliefs. The war — fought over ideology, ethnicity, religion and oil – lasted for all but a few years between 1955 and 2005.