Pagan Amum OkiechBy | Monday, July 9  2012 at  16:10

He was a senior leader in the military during the war and was active in the political wing of the then rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

He was among the key negotiators of the historic CPA that granted the right to self-determination for the people of South Sudan, which later culminated into formal independence last July, after a landslide vote for secession earlier in January.

Pagan was also Minister for Cabinet Affairs in Khartoum before he felt out with President Bashir for referring to Sudan as a “failed and corrupt state.”

Inn 2009, he led a demonstration at Khartoum national assembly to pass the referendum law that Bashir’s party had decided to sit on, in a bid to curtail the plebiscite.

Currently, he is the South Sudan’s lead negotiator in the African Union-led talks with Sudan on post-independence issues, including the demarcation of borders, the status of the disputed Abyei region, oil transit fee, and citizenship, among others