South Sudan secession should be made attractive – Juba Archbishop
Jan 25, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The president of Sudan Catholic Bishops Conference (SCBC), H.G. Archbishop of Juba Paolino Lukudu Loro, said yesterday in a workshop that separation should be made attractive. “Somewhere else separation should also be made attractive, so that, either we are attracted to unity or we are attracted to separation”, he asserted.
Addressing a peace and reconciliation workshop organized by SCBC on the Diamond Jubilee of St. Paul’s National Major seminary, H.G. said as religious people, they want true peace. “We are trying to put Sudan into that sense of sincerity, where unity becomes real unity”, he said.
His grace stated that he will not believe the yes and no vote for unity and separation for a period of time. He said he believed in the period of time in which the northerners and southerners live apart for a long time. “Our ancestors, he said, were still drinking milk when the northerners were already eating bones, we southerners, who are still drinking milk, cannot live together with the northerners”, the president stressed.
His grace told the UN officials who facilitated the workshop :”We, in the Sudan, are struggling for human rights”.
He pointed out that there is a history of slavery in the Sudan, which is a stigma until today. “We have the history of slavery in our country, we have been slaves and that stigma comes until today”, His Grace explained.
He disclosed that it was religious leaders who came out with the issue of referendum for the south Sudan.
“Without the referendum, the possibility for the south to secede would have not come out”, his grace pointed out again.
Earlier on, United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) Chief political affairs officer Jack Christophides, who facilitated the workshop, answered a question saying that the Security Council has mandated them to make unity attractive.
“The Security Council gave us a mandate to make unity attractive in the whole country”, Christophide told the workshop.
(Khartoum Monitor)