South Sudan - Trend Lines Sudan's Seizure Of Abyei A Strategy Of Extortion

Home Sudan's Seizure of Abyei a Strategy of 'Extortion'

Guy Taylor Bio 26 May 2011

News coverage of the fighting leading Sudan researcher at Smith College in Massachusetts, called the Sudanese army's seizure of Abyei "extortion," and says it is part of a growing strategy by the government in Khartoum to wring financial concessions out of South Sudan ahead of its official independence slated for July 9.

Reeves, who spoke with Trend Lines earlier this week, explained that during the past 35 years, Khartoum has run up roughly $38 billion in external debt to countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, China and the United States. The seizure of Abyei is an attempt to "exert pressure on the government of South Sudan to accept some portion of this massive external debt when the South secedes," he said.

Khartoum's strategy must also be understood in light of the fact that 75 percent of Sudan's oil fields are soon to fall within what will become South Sudan 's sovereign territory. According to Reeves, the South "has made it very clear that on secession, it will indeed be expecting to receive all of the revenues from those oil reserves."

Nevertheless, the government in Khartoum controls the region's main oil pipeline leading to the Port of Sudan through which the South's oil will need to travel in order to reach global markets. In seizing Abyei, the Sudanese government is attempting to gain the upper hand in what are sure to be tense negotiations during the months ahead over how much the new government in the South is willing to pay for access to the pipelines.

Reeves blames the situation on the failure by outside actors, specifically the United States, to effectively pressure Khartoum away from its policy of violence. He noted that Abyei's border was redefined by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague in 2009 a ruling that was agreed to by both the North and the South. "With this invasion and military seizure of Abyei, Khartoum is running directly against what it also recognized as the final arbitration."

"There are lots of sources of leverage that the U.S. could be tapping to influence Khartoum's behavior, and we're not using them," said Reeves. "We should make it clear there will be no debt relief whatsoever until Abyei is permitted a free and open self-determination referendum, which will obviously require that Khartoum withdraw."

He also criticized the Obama administration for its apparent willingness to negotiate Sudan's removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The recent violence, meanwhile, may serve as an indicator of what is to come in the months ahead. Apart from Abyei, Reeves pointed out there are some 250 miles along the border between the North and South that are "still open to dispute."

Eric Reeves' analysis on Sudan can be found at his blog .