South Sudan invites Bashir to bilateral meet over oil dispute
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| Bashir after a meeting with Amum. |
KHARTOUM: South Sudan Thursday formally invited its “brother,” Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, to a summit in April aimed at resolving outstanding issues which have pushed them to the brink of war.
“We delivered the message to President Bashir and he welcomed it. He expressed his readiness to visit Juba,” the South’s top negotiator, Pagan Amum, said in a statement to reporters at the Cabinet offices in Sudan’s capital.
Amum, who arrived with a delegation of ministers, said the South’s leader Salva Kiir had invited his “brother president” to the April 3 summit “with the aim of solving the pending issues between the two states.”
It would be Bashir’s first visit to the South since it separated in July last year following an overwhelming vote at the end of Africa’s longest war.
After months of failed negotiations, a dispute over oil fees, and mutual accusations of backing rebels on each other’s territory, Amum last week said relations had turned positive after the latest African Union-led talks in Ethiopia.
At those meetings the two sides reached agreements on safeguarding the status of each other’s citizens and demarcating the oil-rich border.
When South Sudan gained its independence it took about three-quarters of Sudanese oil production but it has no facilities of its own to export the crude.
At the heart of their dispute has been disagreement over how much Juba should pay to use the northern pipeline and port.
The new nation shut crude production in late January after accusing Sudan of “stealing” its oil.
But Amum said last week that Sudan has agreed to pay back oil it had taken, while South Sudan would hand over months of unpaid transit fees, although further negotiations were still needed.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had warned the crisis between Sudan and South Sudan was a major threat to regional peace and security.
Tensions peaked in late February and early March when Khartoum threatened retaliation after accusing the South of backing a rebel attack in the disputed border area of Jau.
Airstrikes followed on an oil field in the South’s Unity State, an attack Juba blamed on Khartoum’s forces.
“They really came to the brink of war … but they realized that the international community would not support them,” an analyst who asked not to be named told AFP.
Some friction, however, remains.
On the eve of the South Sudanese visit, Mohammad Atta, the head of Sudan’s intelligence service, alleged rebels supported by South Sudan attacked the oil center of Heglig in South Kordofan state. He was quoted by the Sudan Media Center, which is close to the security apparatus.
“I think it’s propaganda,” responded Arnu Ngutulu Lodi, of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North. “Nobody told me we have an operation going on.”
The U.N.’s Ban welcomed the planned summit and said the agreements on borders and citizenship were “an important step forward and an encouraging manifestation of both parties’ spirit of cooperation and partnership.”
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Mar-23/167639-south-sudan-invites-bashir-to-bilateral-meet-over-oil-dispute.ashx#ixzz1punG0QXd
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
Khartoum and Juba strike new tone on post-independence negotiations
March 23, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The top negotiators from north and south Sudan on Friday spoke of a new spirit in the discussions on post-independence issues that have dragged on for years.
- Pagan Amum (left), chief negotiator from South Sudan, lead mediator for the African Union, Piere Buyoya (centre) and Sudan’s head negotiator Idriss Abdel-Gader, attend the end of African Union-led talks between Sudan and South Sudan in Addis Ababa on March 13, 2012 (AFP)
The Secretary General of the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) Pagan Amum at a radio forum in Khartoum said that the upcoming summit between president Omer Hassan al-Bashir and his southern counterpart Salva Kiir was a joint initiative made by the negotiating teams.
Amum, who is the chief negotiator for South Sudan, said this move aimed to at changing the direction of talks and move the two countries into a new phase that steers the two sides away from mistrust and creates confidence that would allow for changing mentality from “confrontation and clash” to partnership.
The SPLM SG said last week’s framework agreements signed on nationality and borders was a “turning point” that was a result of adjusting stances instead of staying entrenched in prefixed positions. He went on to say that the two delegations started working as one team by recognizing that the disputed items are joint ones.
Sudan’s lead negotiator Idriss Abdel-Gader that the two sides began the process of mending ties in their meeting yesterday and agreed that the media should refrain from reporting sensational stories on the negotiations.
Abdel-Gader also revealed that there will be joint committees to discuss trade after first ensuring the improvement of security situation on the borders. He added that the interior ministers from the two countries will review the status of citizens on the other side of the borders.
Today Amum met with senior security officials in Sudan including minister of interior Ibrahim Hamed, Defense minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein and intelligence director Mohamed Atta in Khartoum to lay the groundwork for the discussions by the interior ministries’ joint committee.
Amum was joined by South Sudan cabinet affairs minister Deng Alor and justice minister John Luke.
The communiqué of the meeting said the discussions were frank and candid with a genuine desire to reach comprehensive solutions.
The SPLM SG, who arrived on Thursday handed an invitation from Kiir to Bashir to an April 3rd summit “with the aim of solving the pending issues between the two states”.
It would be Bashir’s first visit to the south since it separated last year following a referendum.
After months of failed negotiations, a dispute over oil fees and mutual accusations of backing rebels on each other’s territory it is hoped that last week’s accords would create a positive atmosphere going forward.
When South Sudan gained its independence it took about three-quarters of Sudanese oil production with it, but it has no facilities to export the crude.
At the heart of their dispute has been disagreement over how much Juba should pay to use the northern pipeline and port.
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| A homecoming in South Sudan Vancouver Sun Benjamin, 29, had left what is now South Sudan as a child, brought up by various relatives in different countries, cut off from his parents by the long, destructive independence war. Coming home, Benjamin did not expect things to be easy. |
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