Sudanese official says Juba wants to bring border dispute before international justice

From the Sudan Tribune found here: http://www.sudantribune.com/Sudanese-official-says-Juba-wants,42869

June 9, 2012 (KHARTOUM) — South Sudan wants the Addis Ababa talks to fail because they intend to resort to the international arbitration, said Sudanese defense minister and head of the country’s delegation to the security talks in Addis Ababa.

Sudan’s defense minister Abdel Rahim Hussein (L).

Abdel Rahim Hussein, was speaking to the media in a press conference held at defense ministry in Khartoum after his return from Addis Ababa on Friday. The TV aired press conference was also attended by other members of his delegation including interior minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid.

The talks of the Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM) ended without agreement as the South Sudanese delegation said that a buffer zone the parties agreed to establish should be implemented based on a map including ten disputed instead of four previously consented by the two sides.

"South Sudan’s negotiating strategy aims to reach the date determined by UN Security Council without concluding an agreement because they intend to move to the international arbitration," Abdel Rahim hinted.

The UN resolution 2046, which was adopted on 2 May, gave the two parties three months to reach an agreement over the outstanding issues. It also threatened to impose sanctions if they fail to comply with the decision.

Further the African mediator will be asked to formulate a package of proposals on all the outstanding issues and to presented to the Security Council.

The minister said that juba want s to impose a new reality in the region. He also said the South Sudan negotiating delegation gave an impression they do not have any intention to achieve peace with Sudan.

He further described as hostile the new map of South Sudan which includes for the first time some ten areas as part of the new country.

Juba wants to establish ten new "Abyei" areas, he stressed.

The minister said the only legitimate map they can consider as basis for the talks is the map upon which they signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with the SPLM in 2005, and implemented the troops’ redeployment.

South Sudanese officials said in the past that they wanted first to secure the independence of their country before to raise new disputes with Khartoum on areas like Heglig, or Kharasana through the international justice.

They delegations have to resume talks on 19 June.

Abdel Rahim and the interior minister Ibrahim accused the American administration of supporting Juba in its negotiating policy stressing that no peace can be achieved through such expansionist ambitions.

The head of the Sudanese side stressed that Khartoum has no aggressive intentions towards the South Sudan. But warned that "if we have to defend our territory, then it is our duty," he said.

The AU High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) said in a statement put out on Friday evening that the two sides despite their difference on how to implement the demilitarised zone have agreed to cease harboring and supporting rebels opposed to each other’s regimes as well as the unconditional withdrawal of their forces from border regions.

"The JPSM will remain in session through the next weeks, to ensure compliance with the parties’ obligations under the Roadmap," partly reads the AUHIP statement.

The two countries, it added, also agreed to nominate representatives to activate the Ad Hoc Committee; a body agreed by the parties to deal with allegations and counter allegations between the two States.

The mediation stressed that the two nations also extensively discussed the geographical definition of the Safe Demilitarized Border Zone (SDBZ) and a temporary security line between the two countries.

According to the AUHIP, the parties made substantive progress on this matter with the Government of South Sudan reportedly indicating its acceptance of the AUHIP security and administrative map submitted to the parties in November 2011.

Talks between the two commenced on 29 May, with the first session involving an extraordinary meeting of the Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM).

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Speech to Parliament

The full text is too long to be posted, but can be found here: http://www.sudantribune.com/IMG/pdf/Salva_Kiir_Speech_-_June_11_2012_-_Parliament.pdf

South Sudan to seek international arbitration over disputed borders

By  Salva Kiir from the Sudan Tribune

June 11, 2012 (JUBA) — South Sudan’s President, Salva Kiir informed the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) that South Sudan will seek international arbitration over the disputed border area if the ongoing talks fail.

President Salva Kiir (©Paul Banks - UNMIS)

In his speech to the National Legislature, the two chambers, on Monday President Kiir told the MPs that he is determined to not give up claims to any land south of the 1956 border.

"South Sudan has never relinquish claims to Pantou, homeland of the Panaru Dinka. So the record is clear, we also unequivocally claim Magenes-Jida, Kafia Kingi, Hafra Nahas, Kaka Tijariya, Wheatly Monroe Strip and all territories south to the 1956 border."

Kiir who accused Khartoum of "playing games" told South Sudanese lawmakers that he has written to member of the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) over the possible involvement of the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), if the ongoing post-independence discussions on the matter fail.

"We are prepared to subject our claims to scrutiny. I have now written to the members of the African Union Peace and Security Council to consider this position," he added.

Sudanese and South Sudanese delegations are expected to resume talks on 19 June over security matters particularly the creation of a buffer zone along the border.

Addis Ababa talks brokered by an African Union mediation team failed last week to finalize a deal because the two parties came with different maps.

UN Security Council adopted on 2 May an AUPSC road map to end difference between the two countries over the border and oil fees and other outstanding issues after the capture of Heglig/ Pantou by the South Sudanese army.

The road map gives the parties a three month period to end the talks and threatened to impose economic sanctions.

Last Friday after his return from the meeting of the Joint Political and Security Mechanism, in Addis Ababa, Sudanese defense minister told reporter that Juba wants to fail the talks and brings the border dispute before the international justice.

Khartoum and Juba despite the resumption of talks kept troops mobilizations and continue to carry out hostile media campaign against each other.

Salva Kiir, defended his country’s decision to halt oil production, saying it was not anger-driven, but done in practical terms to protect the interest of the people and defend the foundations of independence for which lost their lives.

"We offered almost $3bn [dollars] in assistance for Sudan [to] offset its revenue losses resulting from our independence. We paid all operating fees for oil transport. We offered to negotiate a transit fee above and beyond fair market rates," Kiir told a fully-packed assembly.

"There was no lack of generosity in our dealings with Khartoum. Even so, Sudan wanted more,” he added.

"Having exhausted all efforts of diplomacy with, we could no longer secure delivery of crude oil to buyers through the territory of Sudan," said Kiir as lawmakers applauded.

Revenues from oil, prior to the shutdown, accounted for nearly 98 percent of the South Sudan’s annual budget.

The President also briefed MPs of events that transpired during their recess period, particularly on the AUPSC communiqué, which was later adopted by the UN Security Council (UNSC) in its resolution 2046. The resolution, he said, called for the complete withdrawal of both Sudan and South Sudanese troops from the disputed oil-producing Abyei region.

According to the President, while South Sudan complied and withdrew its forces 10km away from the 1956 border, Sudan reportedly disagreed, which culminated into last week’s deadlock on the ongoing talks facilitated by the AU High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP).

The President also said his office, through the country’s Vice-President, Riek Machar is currently looking at the possibility of renewing the mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UMISS), which on 9, July this year. He said more attention will be focused on the renewal of Chapter Seven mandate of the UN, a decision, which he noted was taken after a careful study.

“We are confident that the Security Council will consider our views with full respect for the sovereignty of South Sudan,” he observed.

Meanwhile, Kiir also told MPs that government has put in place a modern financial management information system as part of efforts to improve accountability and transparency all at state finance ministries in South Sudan.

The system, he noted, reportedly tracks records of all revenues generated, what goes out inform of expenditures and these are electronically reflected within the finance ministry at the central level. Such a system, he added, will “discourage fraud, waste and abuse."

Last month, the President wrote to 75 former and current officials asking them to account for at least $4bn believed to have been misappropriated in dubious dealings, or directly stolen from government coffers. The South Sudan leader also wrote to eight governments in various countries seeking assistance to recover these funds.

Starving Its Own Children (From NY Times)

From http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/kristof-starving-its-own-children.html?hp

by By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: June 2, 2012

Dominic Nahr/Magnum Photos

Two hungry children in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, sleeping inside a cave for protection from government bombers.

IN THE NUBA MOUNTAINS, Sudan PERHAPS hundreds of thousands of people here have no food and are reduced to eating leaves and insects, as Sudan’s government starves and bombs its own people in the Nuba Mountains. Children are beginning to die.
“Yes, my children may die,” Katum Tutu, a 28-year-old mother, told me. She recently lost her 2-year-old daughter, Maris, to starvation and has nothing to feed her four remaining children. “I think about it every day, but there’s nothing I can do,” she said.
This week will mark a year since Sudan began its brutal counterinsurgency campaign in the Nuba Mountains, intended to crush a rebel force that is popular here and controls much of the region. Sudan has expelled aid workers, blocked food shipments and humanitarian aid, and dropped bombs haphazardly — and almost daily — on its own citizens.
Read the rest at http://nyti.ms/L9Fn9p