Northern opposition party inks memo with South Sudan
* Article
* Comments (7)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
August 28, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s opposition National Umma Party
(NUP) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Republic of
South Sudan (RSS) on ways to address "potential crises" in the rump of
Sudan, a move likely to rile the ruling party in Khartoum.
JPEG - 30.5 kb
NUP leader Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi (R) shakes hands with South Sudan
President Salva Kiir (FILE-Getty Images)
South Sudan broke away from Sudan and declared independence on 9 July
in line with the region’s vote on independence held at the start of
this year. However, the new neighbors are already squabbling over a
wide array of issues including oil shares and conflicts along shared
border areas.
A delegation of the NUP led by the party’s chairman and Sudan’s former
Prime Minister, Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, on Sunday visited South Sudan’s
Juba and held a meeting with the President of the Republic of South
Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, and the minister of cabinet affairs, Deng
Alor.
The two sides issued a joint communiqué inked by Sarah Nugud Allah on
behalf of the NUP and Deng Alor on behalf of the South Sudan
government.
The communiqué recounted that the meeting had tackled a number of
issues, including the explosive situation along the borders,
particularly in South Kordofan state, Abyei and Blue Nile State, as
well as the U.S. economic sanctions on Sudan, oil shares, pastors and
what it termed as the "cold war" between the two countries.
Sudan and RSS have been at loggerheads over the status of Abyei area
which is claimed by both sides. Tension increased over the fighting in
Sudan’s state of South Kordofan between the country’s army and rebel
fighters previously aligned with South Sudan.
After a lengthy discussion, the joint communiqué said, the two sides
agreed on a number of principles to contain potential crisis in Sudan
given the mutually destructive nature of instability on both sides.
The two sides agreed to convene a comprehensive conference to be
attended by all political forces and tackle Sudan crises as a whole.
Furthermore, the two sides called for an international conference to
support efforts for national reconciliation in Sudan.
Also, the communiqué called for granting dual citizenship to Sudanese
people in the north and the south and the establishment of a four
freedom agreement between the two countries.
It is expected that this move will unnerve the ruling National
Congress Party (NCP) which has always been anxious at any sign of
rapprochement between northern political forces and South Sudan.
The NCP has been engaged in dialogue with the NUP over tension in the
domestic political arena but the talks are yet to yield results amid
reports that the NCP continues to resist offering meaningful
concessions.
(ST)
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD
info" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
