South Sudan president vows peace will hold

THE president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, last night said he would not return to war with the Khartoum-based North over the disputed region of Abyei, even as the North was reportedly moving Arab tribesmen into Abyei villages abandoned by terrified southerners.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Abyei after North Sudanese troops invaded the region over the weekend.

The South's minister of information, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, said the North's army is moving thousands of Misseriya tribesmen into villages that belonged to the Ngok Dinka, a southern tribe.

One observer said that ethnic cleansing was taking place.

The fighting that began last Thursday has threatened to unravel a 2005 peace deal and re-ignite a civil war that left more than two million people dead in fighting between 1983-2005.

But Mr Kiir said they had "fought enough" and that now is the time for peace.

"We will not go back to war. It will not happen," he said at a news conference in Juba, the future capital of the south.

"We are committed to peace."

He called for the North to withdraw its troops and added that he would welcome international peacekeeping forces in the region.

He also accused the northern government of arming several warlords in the South to try to destabilise the southern government.

John Prendergast, co-founder of advocacy group the Enough Project, said the international community must intervene to halt the north's actions.

"The ultimate strategy is to ethnically cleanse Abyei," he said. "The international community must respond with more than appeals for calm."

South Sudan breaks away from the North on 9 July to form the world's newest nation. Both claim Abyei, a fertile area which lies between the two and contains several large oil fields.