Sudan’s Garang reiterates commitment to democratic change, unity

CAIRO, June 18, 2005 (Sudan Tribune) — The following is an Excerpt from speech by John Garang, leader of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, at the ceremony of the signing of the peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the opposition National Democratic Alliance in Cairo on 18 June, broadcast by Egyptian satellite TV on 18 June:

John Garang, leader of Sudan’s People’s Liberation Army gestures as he talks after signing the Sudanese reconciliation accord between the Sudanese government and the National Democratic Alliance, an umbrella opposition grouping, Saturday, June 18, 2005 in Cairo . (AP).

[Garang in English with simultaneous Arabic translation, processed from Arabic]

Your Excellency President Hosni Mubarak; Your Excellency President Omar Hassan al-Bashir; the first vice-president who is my spokesman in Naivasha, Mr Shaykh Ali Osman Taha.

[Passage omitted: saying humorously that they discussed calling him a Shaykh] His Eminence Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani, the chairman of the NDA [National Democratic Alliance].

Let me start – [changes thought] First of all, everything I wanted to say has been said by His Eminence Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani, the chairman of the NDA [National Democratic Alliance], of which I was a member.

[Passage omitted, thanking officials]

We have started the process which ended with the signing of this agreement we witnessed today. We have started the process of rallying our people together from all parts of the country, from Nomali to Halfa, to Cairo and then to Alexandria.

[Passage omitted: speaking about building a branch for Alexandria University in Nomali]

We have started the process of rallying our people from all parts of the country and we finished five weeks ago in Nairobi a south-south dialogue to rally the south around a comprehensive peace agreement which we signed in Naivasha. Today, we witness a continuation of this process in what can also be called a north-north dialogue.

[Passage omitted: congratulating the north]

We should continue with the same process, so that we can have a west-west dialogue, a Darfur-Darfur dialogue, an east-east dialogue and a Sudan-Sudan dialogue, so that we really put our house in order.

[Passage omitted: on greatness of Sudan]

By rallying the Sudanese together and now with the comprehensive peace agreement we signed, and by going in a new direction and completing the process we started, we can have a true democratic change in our country and we can have a true new Sudanese unified state, a new Sudan. This is the only way we can keep our country united and go in a new direction. We are committed to that, committed to the democratic change in our country and committed to the unity of our country on the new basis. As I spoke earlier in Egypt, we ask President Mubarak and sisterly Egypt to help us in reconstructing our country, especially southern Sudan and the war-affected areas, so that at the end of the six years [transition period] everything will be restored. Some years ago we looked at the unity of Sudan as an attractive option; the way to maintain the unity of Sudan is with the help of you here in Egypt and the Arab world in general. I call on the Arab world from here to provide resources to Sudan.

[Passage omitted: thanking various sides] Thank you very much.

Matreial provided by the BBC Monitoring service.