South Sudan to work out land policy
August 2, 2007 (JUBA) — The Southern Sudan Land Commission is holding a three-day conference in Juba to devise policies that will “guide land use and distribution in southern Sudan.”
Speaking at the opening workshop in Juba on Wednesday, the Minister of Presidential Affairs in the Government of Southern Sudan, Luka Bion, said that the authority to distribute land is a concurrent power, meaning that governments at different levels have this authority.
He added that both the Governments of National Unity and Southern Sudan are committed to guaranteeing people’s right to land as stipulated in the CPA, the Sudan Radio Service (SRS) reported.
The workshop, attended by the ministers of physical infrastructure in the ten states of southern Sudan, was organized by the Southern Sudan Land Commission with support from the United States Agency for International Development, USAID and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO. Sudan Radio Service is following the conference closely and will update you on this very important event regularly.
In a ministerial reshuffle announced last month, the Vice President Riek Machar was stripped of his additional housing and lands portfolio. There have been no suggestions of corruption regarding Machar but it is commonly agreed that Machar has no clear vision in this regard.
(SRS/ST)