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Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north

October 3, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir pledged to protect southerners living in northern Sudan if the outcome of South Sudan referendum is in favor of separation.

President Omer Al-Bashir speaks in Juba, as first vice president, and Pdt of south Sudan, Salva Kiir stands left, during the 2nd anniversary celebration of the CPA signing 9 jan 2007 (Reuters)
President Omer Al-Bashir speaks in Juba, as first vice president, and Pdt of south Sudan, Salva Kiir stands left, during the 2nd anniversary celebration of the CPA signing 9 jan 2007 (Reuters)
Al-Bashir remarks brush aside threats by his information minister Kamal Obeid who threatened to expel southerners saying they will not enjoy citizenship rights, jobs and they would not be treated in hospitals.

It comes also two days after comments by his first deputy and head of southern Sudan government Salva Kiir Mayardrit declaring his support for separation. He also criticized his northern partners for not making unity attractive.

Kiir slammed remarks made by Obeid, He also expressed concern that southern Sudanese in the north need to be protected and repatriated back to Southern Sudan. “They are saying that nobody will buy the houses of southerners in the north,” he said

Addressing a youth forum on Sunday in Khartoum, Bashir affirmed his direct responsibility for the protection of southerners in the north. He emphasized that any citizen from southern Sudan or his property or his rights will not be affected whatever the outcome of the referendum.

“Their security is a government priority and direct responsibility that we bear entirely,” he added.

The Sudanese president also reiterated his commitment to run the referendum on self determination timely on 9 January. He said his government has fulfilled all its commitments to make unity attractive, adding Sudanese government has spent more than a billion dollars on development projects.

Last Friday Salva Kiir accused the North of “cheating” the South in the sharing of oil revenues during the interim period, explaining that it has been giving only 26% of oil revenues and not 50% as provided for in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

Bashir said southern Sudan ruling party, which is cosignatory of the 2005 peace agreement, breached the CPA because of its calls for separation putting aside making unity attractive.

He called to guarantee freedom of expression during the campaign of referendum in a way to allow unionists from southern Sudan to express their choice and programs.

The Sudanese president further defended the implementation of Islamic legislation in the north saying it is included in the peace agreement.

The referendum set to take place within 100 days in southern Sudan is the last and crucial step in the implementation of the CPA which ended a devastating civil war that killed two million people and lasted more than two decades.

The southerners settled in the north estimated to be more than 1.5 million people caused heated debates between the two peace partners when they discussed their participation in the referendum. Finally they agreed that those who are born after January 1956 can only vote in the referendum. But the others who are born before have to register and vote in the south.

Presidential assistant Nafi Ali Nafi today speaking from Atbara, capital of white Nil State welcomed the implementation of four freedoms (the right to work, reside, own and move freely between the two countries) between the north and the south if the south decides to secede.

He however said it is not logic that southerners will enjoy citizenship rights in northern Sudan, if the south decides to establish its independent state. He further accused the SPLM of misleading them saying their vote for separation would not affect their situation.

(ST)

23 Comments

  • Lorolokin
    Lorolokin

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    Dear Southerners,

    Be careful when dealing with NCP specially their principal don’t ever beleive that Bashir is good because he never ever said any thing good since he come into power instead lying and counter lying in public.
    These creatures of the NCP likes are the worse we ever met in our life time, Well if Bashir really mean that Southerners will be protected and to convince Southerners, he would have forced the information Director Mr Kamal Obeid to resign and even apologize otherwise Bashir is not new istead we are used to, I can term Basher qualified lier in Africa as a whole.
    So for you my country man and woman in the North specialy those who didn’t experience life in the Southern Sudan to please start moving by now back to the mother land.

    Kinkak

    Reply
  • Gatwech
    Gatwech

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    Dear readers,

    I cannot trust the words of Bashir. How many times does he vow or pledge and breaks them before he could finish saying them? Of course he is saying the opposite.

    NCP wants to hold southerners hostage in the North to either use them as a bargaining chip for political or economic concession from the South, or else work for their destruction in the last day (D-Day).

    Southerners in Khartoum, remember what Prophet Ngundeng Bong predicted about the fate of Khartoum during the break up of Sudan when he prophesied more than a hundred years ago that when he saw Khartoum in a vision, his eyes flow with blood. And he said it in Nuer language that, “The city you are seeing will have blood bath that will overflow the flags, and will be equal to no country.”

    That is comprehensively a description of a Somalia-like situation that will make Khartoum look like Mogadishu for so many years without a recognized central government. Rush out of it and go to the South before the D-Day comes!

    Reply
  • Ahmed Chol
    Ahmed Chol

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    Bashir,
    We have learned from the past that what you say is not what you do. You say one thing and your staff do a different thing. The fact is that war will be disastrous for Sudan, for the NCP and for SPLM. With war the oil production in the south will stop and your economy will be crippled. Your external debt will increase since you will borrow money to pay doctors, army and all the civil servants. And above all the south will leave and bitterness of the war will remain. With unity, there will be more civil wars so as long as their is no equality for all southerners and especially when sharia is the law of the land.

    Ahmed Chol, the future commander of Anya-nya III if the south join the north

    Reply
  • Ajiech M. Chol
    Ajiech M. Chol

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    You’re so right about that Mr. president. I don’t even think deaf & blind people will believe you. Any southerners living in the North will read between the lines & those who believe that statement will just stay, but they will see what’s going to happen in their own eyes. As a matter of fact, there seem to be a high tension now between SPLM & NCP due to what northerners predicted about the outcome of the referendum. However, it’s crystal clear that northerners are so frustrated about losing the South while they entirely depend on the South’s natural resources.

    Reply
  • Biliu
    Biliu

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    too late as usual, .. and too unrealistic, Bashir statements are a cover up for what his high rank members stated earlier [ Southerners in the North] will not be given a single needle in our hospitals if the Southerners favored separation.
    We received the message and we understand its meaning…no need to fool us around…Southerners in the North will be in a great danger, unless if the SPLM act now and make a quick repatriation before it’s too late.

    Reply
  • Gatwech
    Gatwech

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    Dear readers,

    There is no question about it that the US government and its people are standing with the people of South Sudan in their quest for freedom through the exercise of the upcoming referendum.

    I however want to know why US President Barrack Obama refused to meet with Salva Kiir in person during Kiir’s two weeks stay in the USA where he participated in the UN General Assembly meetings? Instead, Obama let only other officials to meet with Kiir.

    Is there a reason why Obama did not want to meet Kiir in person? I know that since he became President of the United States, Obama has never met with Kiir. Why is that?

    Reply
  • DASODIKO
    DASODIKO

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    Bashir is a big liar; the people of the South Sudan should leave North Sudan before 99 days left for the referandum. Bashir Yesterday release his uncle Newspaper Al- Intibaha closed for insulting Sudanese Arab boss Presidnet Gadafi. After referandum I am sure this newspaper known for its hate for the people of the South and the Africans origins in Sudan as well, would cause the death of the innocent people.

    Reply
  • telfajbago
    telfajbago

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    To hell with your pledges Mr. genocidaire-in-chief. Southerners vividly remember the mess they were trapped in after the untimely death of late Dr. John Garang and Iam sure; they will not wait genocide committed on them after they choose their independent State. Furthermore; the threat to retaliate against the Southerners residing in the north were made by right wing hard-liners Islamic jihadist such us Haj Majid Suwar who fixed Al-Bashir on power; so the fugitive president is in a very weak position to stop genocide against Southerners residing in the north, if he is not directly involved and used to make his misleading statements to fool the International Community. If there is slight humanity left on you stop the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

    Reply
  • paul baak anyaar
    paul baak anyaar

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    Oops! This is yet another instance of Bashir’s political experiment.Using the Hon.Minister for Information, Mr.Kamal as an apparatus to mix the feelings of Southerners and see the reaction. Now that he had seen that the reaction was vigorous and capable of violence, he is standardizing the reagents.
    May the next experiment exploit into your!

    Reply
  • bior angeth
    bior angeth

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    President Bashir should be credited of his statement. I think Bashir will protect the country from going back to war. Southerners are not interested to go back to war but some Northerners who incite war may force them back to war if they try to block their right. Thank you President Bashir! Work for the best of the country;keep the peace whether separation or unity.

    Reply
  • Jupiter Maguangdit
    Jupiter Maguangdit

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    Dear readers,

    This is nonsense.
    Omar Al-Bashir should have first dismiss his Information Minister Kamal Obeid for those irresponsible statements.
    By doing that one can believe that Omar is serious in his statement. Otherwise,don’t believe all what the man is saying.
    He is a big lier.

    Reply
  • doot
    doot

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    That true mr president,

    I only for one, afraid of event after 9 january !!!. protection of innocent southerners in north no matter what the outcome will be , should be top priority of northern goverment .Poltics and human life are two different things no need to blend them. I am afraid the “30th of july 2005” will likely to repeat itself.This apparatus need a collective policies from northern goverment and their counterpart in the south to form Neutral protection commission (NPC ) in the short run as the way to ensure that the life of innocent civilian both in the south and north is protected after referendum. This devices here required mind set since our country is passing through critical phase of its own self.

    I guest president Bashir `s statement on this issue is right though there is lack of trust and doubt in it , he is right because this statement is not hateful and offensive . Here and there, the good referendum is when no single life is lost both in the north and south .In someone `s view point , anger and frustration will ruthlessly spoil the walk to referendum why because it donot allow people to view critical things from different angles. Here , more calmness and good thinking is needed to reach the Bar .

    Reply
  • Ezekiel Athaya
    Ezekiel Athaya

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    Mr. President Bashir you spoke well if you will mean and again you should know that clock is ticking very fast cause one hundred days (100) sound long but finish very fast. That mean, time is coming when whatever you said will be confirmed.

    In other words,it is only action that speak between you there and us here in the South but our eyes are opened wide to see every move you will take within the remaining days.

    still we are skeptical on what your ministers said about the welfare of Southerners in the North. And here it would be rather shame on them if they don’t go by the guidelines and plan of their president.

    And if they still think of us as those days of 80s, 90s then they should forget as we have been in semi-autonomous government for six years now but we are really peace lovers and that was why we could put aside all atrocities inflicted on us for the last twenty two years.

    In conclusion,those ministers who are beating the drum of war should stop doing it and think twice for the outcome if come to war. My president said,”if you are squeezed to an extend that it is difficult to breath then what do you do? nothing but to accept to fight” But mustafa Ismail must know that his people can be bombed wherever they are as long as they are Sudan.

    Ezekiel Athaya

    Reply
  • Big Boy
    Big Boy

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    Hi There

    The rights of People’s in the north as you says, have been consistently subordinated to Sudanese security concerns. “Southern are being discriminated against. That is the fundamental problem,” as well as you says this point is not adequately understood on the mainland.

    “When we protested in last weekend remarks brush by your minister of information Kamal Obied, that Southern will not enjoyed citizenship rights, but that wasn’t a matter,” “It was more about the questionable treatment we are getting from the our own government.”

    Kamal, of information minister Kamal Obeid who remarks their comment on website (alrakoba) government of Khartoum think that Southern are being treated as second-class citizens.

    Arabs flip-flop even appears to have engaged young people, who have only ever known Southern with the bases.

    “You have some of the northern are working here in the south on a base and they learned alot because of the threatened to expel,” young civil servant. “But now more and more people are starting to think that there is something wrong there in Khartoum.” since military coup 1989.

    The relocation plan that sparked the wave of protest is currently stalled pending the NCP governor’s election in January 2011.

    It is the governor who can grant or deny permission for the plan to go ahead – and the staunchly anti-base mayor of all States, of northern sector, is challenging an incumbent whose view on Kamal threaten people’s who remains ambiguous.

    An splm/a victory could force the Southern government to choose between over-ruling its own citizens and their democratically-elected representative or jeopardising its key security relationship.

    Do not protest on the streets every day. But you watch and wait to see, we are looking to the election as a chance to make our feelings felt.

    Reply
  • unity state boy
    unity state boy

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    shime on you BASHIR we can not believe your say

    Tank by Amen
    in UK

    Reply
  • Mohammed Haiba
    Mohammed Haiba

    Sudanese president pledges to protect southerners living in the north
    Gentlemen,

    The do not worry the north of Sudan as usual will take the responsibility of protecting poor Southerners not only in the North but those in the South itself knowing that one day the lost son will come back after being slaved by Uganda and Kenya.

    Reply
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