North-south Sudan armies differ over oil areas

By Skye Wheeler

JUBA, Sudan, Aug 6 (Reuters) - A South Sudanese army official said on Monday that North Sudanese troops still in the south's vital oil areas were now "occupation forces" since they had not left the region as agreed under a 2005 peace deal.

He said his own southern forces had almost finished withdrawing from areas they had to leave under the accord.

The January 2005 deal created separate north and south armies, joint units for main towns and the sensitive oil areas and required both armies to redeploy either side of the 1956 north-south border by July 9, 2007.

But the northern Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) missed the redeployment deadline, and a senior U.N. official said most of the forces still in the south remained in the oil fields, where Sudan pumps some 500,000 barrels per day of crude.

Kuol Diem Kuol, spokesman for the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), said:

"We are not happy. The SPLA is waiting for the orders from the southern Sudan security council on how to handle this issue of occupation forces."

Kuol said some 16,600 northern troops remained in the south's two largest oil-producing states and the still contested oil-rich Abyei area, which under the deal can choose whether to join the south or stay in the north by 2011.

"(They) are staying illegally in a territory that they're not supposed to be in," said Kuol.

The SPLA also missed the deadline to withdraw from two transitional areas, Southern Blue Nile and South Kordofan. The SPLA had said that was because the joint units, supposed to take over after their withdrawal, were not yet functioning.

But Kuol on Monday said that the SPLA were moving out of the two areas as per the peace deal.

"All the SPLA soldiers have withdrawn out of Blue Nile, except for a company of 120 soldiers," said Kuol.

He explained these soldiers were guarding tanks, anti-aircraft weapons and heavy artillery that cannot be transported into south Sudan because of heavy rains.

"Once it is dry we will move them into the south," said Kuol.

Similarly all of the SPLA's troops are currently moving out of South Kordofan State said Kuol, with less than 300 remaining to guard heavy artillery.

The two areas were now under the control of the joint north-south units, known as Joint Integrated Units (JIUs) but Kuol said there were some concerns that they were not yet able to deal with an uneasy security situation in South Kordofan.

"The militias are still active ... are not yet disarmed,. The whole population is not yet disarmed," said Kuol. "(It is) very dangerous".

"They are not trained together, they are not the JIU envisaged by the peace agreement," said Kuol about the units.

Last year 150 people were killed during clashes between the north and south armies in the southern town of Malakal, fighting sparked by northern-aligned militias.

The discovery of oil in south Sudan during the years of war further inflamed the conflict in which 2 million people died and some 4 million were displaced.