25 Sudanese governors hold talks in Wau

By Manyang Mayom

May 5, 2009 (WAU) — Thousands of people turned out in Wau to welcome the First Vice President of the Republic of Sudan and President of the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) Salva Kiir Mayardit, as well 2nd Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, as they arrived for a convention hosted for all the country’s 25 state governors.

The governors’ forum brought together the two partners of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), in the state capital of Western Bhar-El-Gazal state beginning Monday.

Only the governor of Central Equatoria state, Maj. Gen Clement Wani, was absent due to reportedly saying that he is very sick, said a protocol member.

Everyone lined up at the airport and all along the way leading to Wau Peace Hall where talks are taking place.

The opening session was attended by Kiir and Taha, GOSS Vice President Riak Machar, Federal Minister of Finance Awad Al-jaz as well as various officials from the GOSS and the Government of National Unity taking part in discussion.

Kiir addressed the forum and later this afternoon flew to Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan, while Taha and Machar remained to carry on talks.

“The top agenda of Monday was the economic downturn, which has been discussed in Wau Peace Hall” said one official.

Participants recommended building the railway to connect Wau to Khartoum plus road construction and electricity within Southern Sudan, affirmed the official.

In a five minute talk, Minister Al-Jaz told the gathering that the economy should be a partnership in this country and absolutely was a priority to the Sudanese nation. Meanwhile, Machar pushes the talk toward discussion of the future of New Sudan.

Vice President Taha strongly linked implementation of the CPA with boosting the country’s economy.

“On Tuesday, the second session in the hall was agriculture across Sudan, providing for Sudanese states to make use of tractors as a mainstay of cultivation especially in Southern Sudan,” said an official.

Taha also visited the National Congress Party (NCP) premises in Wau and addressed the party supporters saying that the NCP is prepared to facilitate everything in gear for unity in Sudan.

“Those who speak for separation are brainless people who have no ambition and indeed we have more things that signal unity as stronger in Sudan,” he said.

He added that those favoring separation are not within NCP, hence of little importance, since “we have ruled for a long time and now we are still in power and surely we will win the coming election. We need development in Southern Sudan in agricultural schemes and that is what the two rival party partners are discussing today in Peace Hall.”

“Despite the International Criminal Court, whether [ICC prosecutor] Luis Marino Ocampo wants it or not Bashir is still our Sudanese president,” said NCP supporters.

Meanwhile Taha said that “NCP is not hungry for power; we have ruled for a long time and we have even offered our chairs to other people for the sake of the search for peace in this country Sudan… so NCP is the designer of peace in this country.”

He also added that politics is not to be use for gossiping and harassment, no NCP does not want that kind of politics.

The NCP figure also described separatists as like those who do not like their brothers to eat with them: they do not “have a vision of brotherhood and definitely they are young people roughing into politics.”

Federal Minister of Agriculture Bashir Taha, in an address to NCP supporters, affirmed that “we have not opened the case against Satan Luis Moreno Ocampo because Ocampo is a liar accusing our president Omar Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir with fall allegations.”

He affirmed that “NCP is the mountain that cannot hide easily.” There is no going back to war, he said, but NCP is heading toward development of Sudan starting from Darfur until reaching Southern Sudan.

Ali Osman Taha further accused the Western world’s media for taking away negative images in Sudan and terming Darfur as woe-torn region of conflict. He suggested that the West was seeking another form of colonization, and that the media ignored the good things NCP leadership had done including opening dams, achieving peace, improving the economy, and drilling oil.

“Sudan has now become an oil country and we have now discovered new oil in Sinar, El-Obeid and Darfur and yet we will drill it and use it for our country’s development,” he said.

Taha added that the party has confidence in winning the coming election and have prepared themselves from the ground as a ruling party to win votes across the region.

He then noted that the International Criminal Court (ICC) decision is a headache to Luis Moreno Ocampo himself now rather than the Sudanese president. Nowadays President Bashir has traveled recently to seven countries outside Sudan and therein Mr. Ocampo failed to capture Bashir, recalled the NCP figure.

Taha ensured NCP supporters that “Ocampo will be arrested without fail in a case that we have opened against him in the court,” though Taha did not mention the name of the supposed court.

Nonetheless, Taha also appealed to Sudanese youth to join a training in Khartoum that is targeted at developing skills for using the internet. He added that they would train those youth and also we provide laptop computers to ease their job and to deal with ICC allegations over the internet.

(ST)