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Sudan Sets 'Deadlines' to Resolve North-South Issues
[An Nahar] Sudan has set deadlines to resolve outstanding disputes with the south, President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. said Sunday, as a top-level southern delegation wrapped up its first visit to Khartoum since independence. "We have agreed to have committees and have given them deadlines to reach a solution on all the pending issues," Bashir told a news conference, standing alongside South Sudan's President Salva Kiir. The failure of the two parties to resolve certain key issues, including oil and borders, and the ongoing conflict in Sudan's border region, where the army is battling rebels with historic ties to the south, have badly strained north-south relations. No breakthrough deals were announced before Kiir's team departed for Juba. But the two presidents on Sunday reaffirmed their intention to work together for peace and stability, and to put the years of conflict behind them, during a cordial visit that seems to have set the stage for future negotiations. "My government is ready to discuss any final solutions on all outstanding issues, being on the economy, security, borders and Abyei's status," Kiir told news hounds. "My brother al-Bashir and I myself are committed to ensure that none of these issues will take us back to war. "There might be some elements on both sides that would like to take us back... to war. But I repeat, we left the war station behind in 2005." South Sudan proclaimed independence from the north on July 9, after 22 years of devastating civil war, in which some two million people died. The conflict, which was fuelled by religion, ethnicity, ideology and resources such as oil, ended with a 2005 peace agreement but left the south in ruins. Efforts to regulate Sudan's political and economic division, both prior to and since partition, have made only limited progress. Khartoum has insisted that future talks should take place directly between the two parties, without external mediation. Posted by: Fred 2011-10-10 |
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