Sudan’s Kiir meets Bush to bid farewell
By Daniel Van Oudenaren
January 5, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit met with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House on Monday morning.
Bush said that the two leaders spoke about two subjects: the North-South peace agreement and the crisis in Darfur.
The U.S. president said that Kiir had given him a clear briefing on Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and the challenges facing its implementation.
According to Bush, Kiir and he also discussed Darfur and the Sudanese leader spoke about the initiative he had taken in Juba to attempt to unite some Darfur rebel factions.
Bush then informed the Vice President that he has provided a waiver to the State Department so they can begin to move 240 containers’ worth of heavy equipment into Darfur. The outgoing U.S. president added that the Defense Department will be flying Rwandan equipment into Darfur to help facilitate the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission.
He then went on to make a statement about Gaza and concluded with a compliment: “I told the Vice President his hat made me feel very much at home,” joked the president warmly.
Speaking after Bush’s remarks, Kiir, who also serves as the president of the semi-autonomous region of Southern Sudan, noted “mostly we came here to thank him and his administration for the commitment they have shown to the people of Sudan to bring peace and continue to monitor that peace which ended the 21-year war. And that peace will remain in his record, that he was the only one who was able to continue monitoring the peace, negotiating it, until it was signed.”
“This peace is now in existence. And we came to thank him and the whole administration, and wish him the best of his life in his private mission that he’s now going to take up after the assignment in the White House,” he added.
“We have also told His Excellency the President that the people of Southern Sudan, the people of the marginalization in the whole Sudan, will never forget him for all that he has done for them,” said Kiir, referring to the Bush administration’s role in brokering the North-South peace deal.
“And the people in Darfur, in particular, will still be looking forward to seeing to it that peace is brought to Darfur. It is a joint mission that we have taken upon ourselves together with them that we have to bring peace to Darfur, the way we have brought peace to Southern Sudan.
Kiir also mentioned that they had discussed the Lord’s Resistance Army, a cultish guerrilla organisation he labeled as terrorist, which the Democratic Republic of Congo, Southern Sudan and Uganda recently launched joint strikes against, prompting retaliatory massacres in jungle villages.
The former Sudanese guerrilla fighter concluded, “So this is in brief that I came to the White House, to pass to His Excellency the President of the United States of America, and to keep Sudan very close to his heart, even if he becomes a private citizen in this country, because he has a role to play. And we came to pass him also our Christmas and New Year’s greeting, to see if you have enjoyed your Christmas.”
The Sudanese delegation then proceeded to the State Department.
Salva Kiir Mayardit was a senior commander in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement, and he took over as SPLM leader when founder Dr. John Garang died in a helicopter accident in 2005. Kiir was accompanied to the Oval Office by Blue Nile Governor Malik Agar, Southern Sudan Defense Minister Nhial Deng Nhial, SPLM Deputy Secretary General for Northern Sector Yasir Arman, Garang’s widow Rebecca Nyandeng De-Mabior, Government of Southern Sudan Head of Mission to the United States Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth.
Bush was joined by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer and the U.S. President’s Special Envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson.
Kiir and other ministers spent the evening with many members of the Sudanese community from the Washington area and elsewhere. He is expected to meet tomorrow with visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
(ST)