SPLM and NCP first joint meeting in Khartoum reviewed progress made in the implementation of the CPA and discussed bilateral relations

Click here to read the major points of the final communique issued at the end of the first Joint Meeting of the National Congress (NCP) and Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) Monday evening.



Photo: Sudanese president Omer al-Bashir and his First Vice-President Salva Kiir during a joint press conference in Khartoum, May 29, 2006 (SUNA).

At the conference, the President stressed that the country would depend on its own resources for the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and that the Government of National Unity should give people hope after the end of the war in the south, conclusion of the Darfur Peace Agreement and the positive steps being taken to resolve the Eastern Sudan question. Full report Sudan Tribune May 30, 2006.

Note, the report says Salva Kiir said there is no difference on Abyei administration but there is a row of the border of this area and the two partners are determined to resolve this issue in the coming days.

UPDATE: Reuters report Opheera McDoom May 30, 2006:

Differences over key issues like the borders of the oil-rich Abyei region pushed the talks into an extra day and ate away into the night before a rather bland final communique was agreed.

Abyei, on the north-south border, contains one of Sudan's two main oil fields. Under the deal it has an autonomous status and will choose in a referendum in 2011 whether to become part of the north or a possible separate southern Sudan.

The NCP rejects the findings of the Abyei boundary commission appointed under the deal, creating a deadlock which analysts say risks renewed conflict.

And despite three days of long consultations Abyei was not resolved. The final statement said the issue was to be decided by the presidency either by recalling the commission members to defend their report, by referral to the constitutional court, or through mediation by a third party.

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May 28 2006 United Nations Sudan Situation Report 28 May 2006 - SPLM and NCP joint meeting in Khartoum reviewed progress made in the implementation of the CPA and discussed bilateral relations - One AMIS soldier reported killed in attack by armed militia in Masteri.

May 30 2006 Interview with Dr Douglas H Johnson, expert on the Abyei Boundary Commission - Hofre Nahas area; part of Bahr El Ghazal transferred to Darfur in 1960s

For further reports, click on Abyei label here below.