Sudan leaders send Abyei dispute to The Hague

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Leaders of north and south Sudan have agreed to submit a dispute over the oil rich Abyei region to international arbitration in The Hague, Sudanese media said on Sunday.

The decision was taken during a weekend meeting in Juba, in the south of Sudan, with the northern side led by Vice President Ali Osman Taha and the Vice President of the south Sudan government, Riek Machar.

Fighting in Abyei had threatened a return to Sudan's two-decade civil war -- the longest in Africa -- which only ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005.

Under the 2005 deal, the south was offered a six-year transition period of regional autonomy and participation in a unity government until a 2011 referendum on self-determination.

The government side and southern former rebels signed a "roadmap" on Abyei on June 8, releasing the deployment of a joint military north-south force to prevent new violence in the region where dozens had died and more than 50,000 been displaced by fighting.

Combined troops from north and south Sudan deployed last Wednesday.

"Yes, we are now in Abyei," force commander Colonel Valentino Tokmac told AFP in Khartoum by telephone then. "We are receiving the forces," he added.

He expected all 600 plus troops from the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the northern Sudanese army to arrive shortly in the contested border district between the two former warring partners.

The Hague body which will be tasked with resolving the dispute over Abyei is the Permanent Court of Arbitration.