Bashir rejects foreign mediation in talks with South Sudan
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October 1, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s president Omer al-Bashir on
Saturday said that his country seeks to promote dialogue with the
newly independent South Sudan but without foreign mediation, ahead of
a visit by his southern counterpart this week.
JPEG - 22.4 kb
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir (R) walks out with former South
African President Thabo Mbeki and First Vice President of Sudan and
President of the Government of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit
after a meeting, in Juba April 7, 2011 (REUTERS PICTURES)
South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir Mayardit is expected to visit
Sudan’s capital Khartoum sometime this week, probably on Monday, for
the first time since his country seceded from Sudan in July this year
in line with the outcome of the region’s vote on independence at the
start of this year.
Addressing the first conference of his ruling National Congress
Party’s (NCP) external affairs committee, Bashir said that Sudan
attaches great importance to the relations with its former southern
region and would therefore seek to promote dialogue and peace between
the two neighbors in the international arena.
In his address, the Sudanese president further said that the secession
was a political separation not a separation between the people.
However, Reuters and al-Jazeera reported that al-Bashir also rejected
foreign mediation between the two countries which remain engaged in
talks to thrash out a number of post-secession issues including
sharing of oil revenues, violence in shared borders and ownership of
the hotly-contested region of Abyei.
"We have to sort out all issues through dialogue but without any
foreign mediation," he said.
South Sudan minister of information and cabinet spokesperson, Barnaba
Marial Benjamin told reporters Friday in Juba that President Kiir and
an important delegation will fly to Khartoum next week for talks on
pending issues such as border demarcation, foreign debt, oil
transportation fees and Abyei.
During his meeting last September with Barak Obama, Kiir reportedly
informed the American president he would met Bashir to decrease
tension between the two capitals and reach a negotiated settlement to
the outstanding issues. He also pledged to support a peaceful solution
to the ongoing conflicts in the Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan.
The Sudanese president last July recently rejected any foreign
mediation with the rebels Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North
(SPLM-N) , South Sudan’s former allies who are fighting Sudan’s army
in the two country’s border states with the South .
Bashir told his party’s conference that there would be zero-tolerance
with whoever crosses the state’s "redlines" and seeks to undermine the
security of citizens.
Last week, the Sudanese president said his government was open to
negotiating a peaceful settlement to the war in South Kordofan and
Blue Nile but without superseding the provisions of the Comprehensive
Peace Agreement (CPA) which in 2005 ended more than two decades of
Sudan’s north south civil war and paved the way for South Sudan’s
independence.
Speaking in the same meeting NCP deputy chairman Nafei Ali Nafei
underscored that the shift of global economic power from the west to
the East would be followed by a change in the world leadership.
Bashir said a meeting with the Chinese Communist Party will take place
soon in Khartoum to discuss strategic relations between the two ruling
parties.
(ST)
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