Position of the Leader of Minority on The Cooperation Agreement between The Republic of South Sudan and The Republic of Sudan signed in Addis Ababa, 27thSeptember 2012.
According to Article 71.(2) b of the Transitional Constitution, 2011 of The Republic of South Sudan read together with section 9 (3) of the conduct of business Regulations of the National Legislature, 2011, Please allow me to present to this August House, our Reply to the Speech of H.E. The President on The Cooperation Agreement between The Republic of South Sudan and The Republic of Sudan.
Rt.Hon. Speaker Sir,
Let me take this opportunity to thank you for giving me this chance and to thank H.E the President of the Republic of South Sudan for this bole decision they took in signing The Cooperation Agreement in Addis Ababa.
The two parties specifically state that “The people of South Sudan and Sudan share a long and rich common heritage and bound by immutable facts of geography to remain interdependent neighbours” and affirm their “determination to work in close partnership, to finalize all outstanding details remaining in relation to the Agreement they have reached, relevant to the implementation of the Agreement thus finalize.” Here eight Agreements are listed and published. The details will be finalized through joint ministerial and technical committees to be formed by the two countries.
The parties have agreed on the outstanding issues to be negotiated by the parties is the disputed and claimed borders areas. And the problem of the Abyei area is now left in the hands of the AUHIP.
Rt. Hon Speaker,
Hon. Members,
This Cooperation Agreement signed between the governments of South Sudan and Sudan is a step forward to solving the other issues of disagreement if the two governments are committed to the
implementation of the Agreement. It will build confidence between the former warring nations and will promote peaceful co-existence.Rt. Hon. Speaker,
Hon. Members,
We would like raise the following observations:-
1- The Sudan retained external debt liabilities in exchange of South Sudan forgoing external assets. It is obvious that external assets, including embassies buildings, have monetary value far more than all the external debts of Sudan which was estimated to be in December 2010, at US $37.7 billion.
2- Even after this concession, both parties will strive to get from the creditors a firm commitment to cancel Sudan’s debt. Since South Sudan was going to be involved in working to get debt relief, why not from the outset divide both the external debts and assets?
3- Addition, South Sudan will help get financial support of 3.028 billion to Sudan to cover its oil-revenue gap and assist in securing the lifting of economic sanctions imposed on Sudan since 1997. In return, Sudan will help South Sudan to get funding from the International community for its developmental programmes; which funding it was getting already without external help.
4- The Cancellation of all ‘ claims of non-oil related arrears and other non-oil related financial claims outstanding to the other party” puts South Sudan at a disadvantage since it has more claims to the non-oil arrears than the Sudan.
5- Sight -seeing by the mediators and the negotiating teams to the claimed and disputed areas is very essential before putting it to the arbitration.
6- The government of South Sudan should still engage the AU to speed up the problem of Abyei so that they can decide their own fate.
Rt. Hon Speaker,
Hon. Members,
1-With the Signing of the Cooperation agreement, we call upon the government of the Republic of South Sudan and The Republic of Sudan to have a political will and commitment for the implementation of the agreement.
2-The two governments should leave supporting the arms groups fighting the proxy war undermining one another and commit themselves to dialogue with rebels for peaceful co-existence.
3-The government of South Sudan should now manage the coming oil revenue well and with transparency and accountability so that corruption will be minimized.
4-The government should scale down itself to a lean government in order to have effective, manageable and efficient good governance both in the states and national government.
Rt.Hon. Speaker.
Hon. Members,
As we pointed out in January this year, when the oil production was shut down, that the decision to do so was a hurried one that did not study the consequences of the shut-down, nor put forward alternative sources of revenue to replace the 98% dependence of the national budget on oil. Exactly, the economic crunch which followed that shutdown is now biting the government which forced it to hurry to get oil stream again and the pressure from the international community as well.
Therefore, we call upon the SPLM led government of The Republic of South Sudan that there is a need to work together for the national issues and the national interest so that we will be able to face them for nation building. South Sudan is not an island of its own but it is a part of the International community and it must be abide by the principles of this the world family.
Thank you for listening.
Onyoti Adigo Nyikwec
The leader of Minority,
National Legislature