With S. Sudan Still in Heglig, Little Follow Through From UN, War Resumes?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 14 -- The UN Security Council on April 12 called on South Sudan to leave Heglig, but what follow up has there been? On April 14 Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Susan Rice, this month's Security Council President:

Inner City Press: On Sudan, has the Council heard anything back about its call that the SPLA leave Heglig? There's now talk of Sudan marching on it and being rebuffed. Where does it stand?

Ambassador Rice: Let's be clear about what the Council said. The Council issued a firm and comprehensive presidential statement that demanded an end to all the violence. It demanded that the government of South Sudan pull its forces out of Heglig; that the government of Sudan halt aerial bombardments, which, as you know, have been repeated in the South; and that both sides cease support for proxies and stop crossing each other's borders with military forces. It seems that both sides thus far have not met their obligations pursuant to that presidential statement.

That's putting it mildly. South Sudan brags that it has "so far killed more than 240 Sudanese troops and taken dozens as prisoners of war in the fight over Heglig... Southern troops moved north Saturday, blocking all the three roads to Heglig, where most facilities were damaged during the fighting this past week, according to Pagan Amum, South Sudan's chief oil negotiator. Oil production there, which accounts for more than half of Sudan's estimated daily production of 115,000 barrels, has since been halted since its capture by South Sudan. South Sudan president Salva Kiir told parliament Thursday that he would... send troops to the disputed border region of Abeyi, currently under the control of Sudan, if the United Nations does not enforce a withdrawal of Sudanese troops."

For the record, the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in July 2009 did NOT place Heglig in northern Sudan or South Sudan; it only said that Heglig lies to the east of Abyei:

"The eastern boundary of the area of the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms transferred to Kordofan in 1905 runs in a straight line along longitude 29° 00' 00'' E, from latitude 10° 10' 00'' N south to the Kordofan - Upper Nile boundary as it was defined on 1 January 1956."

So things are heating up to war, but there is very little follow through. Watch this site.