Taha urges UN members to relieve Sudan of it’s external debts
September 27, 2010 (NEW YORK) – Sudan’s Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha has implored members of the UN’s General Assembly to waive Sudan’s external debts and demanded that the UN withdraws the case of Darfur crimes from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Sudan faces possible breakup as it approaches a crucial referendum vote on the full independence of its already semi-autonomous region of south Sudan in January 2011. Delays in preparations for the plebiscite as well as little progress over post-referendum issues have recently catapulted Sudan to the forefront of international agendas.
“From this rostrum we call for the forgiving of the debts of Sudan according to the same standards applied to the least developed countries,” Taha said.
Sudan has long complained that political discord with the West has prevented it from joining the debt relief program known as the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC).
HIPC is a program that was initiated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in 1996 to provide insolvent countries with debt relief and low-interest loans to cancel or reduce external debt repayments to sustainable levels.
The IMF puts Sudan’s external debts at about $35.7 billion, of which less than half is the original amount borrowed and the rest is divided between interest and late payment penalties. According to IMF, the figure is projected to reach $37.8 billion in 2010.
Taha further urged UN state members to support Sudan’s unity and monitor the referendum. Many analysts believe that south Sudan’s referendum is likely to split Africa’s largest country in two.
Taha did not omit to fulminate against the ICC, describing it as a tool to break the will of third world nations and “a direct threat” to peace in the region. He demanded that the UN withdraws Darfur case from the ICC and remits it to the Sudanese judiciary.
Darfur region sprang from oblivion in 2003 when rebels belonging mostly to African ethnicities in the region took up arms against the central government in Khartoum, accusing it of marginalizing the region.
An abusive counterinsurgency by the Khartoum government triggered one of the worst humanitarian situations in recent history. The UN estimates that the conflict killed 300.000 people and driven more than 2 millions away from their homes into refugee camps.
The UN Security Council referred the case of Darfur to the ICC which charged Sudan’s president Omer Al-Bashir with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed during the seven-year conflict.
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Wal P Muoranyar Biet
Taha urges UN members to relief Sudan’s external debts
Debt used to massacre millions can not be forgiven! Explain to the world what NCP spent $35.00 billions on, and your debt might be forgiven. I’m afraid that it may result in more charges against Bashir!
Wal Peter Muoranyar
Sudan virus
Taha urges UN members to relief Sudan’s external debts
No debt relieve on Sudan!
julius mowanga
Taha urges UN members to relieve Sudan of it’s external debts
This heavy debts are accounted on the wellbeing of all the Sudanese,and North Sudan in particular.
When Pre. Jafaar Alnemeri’s regime toppled in Apr 1985, Sudan has inherited 16 Billion US$ as core of International Debts,but the successive governments ignored to pay its premiums on time, till reached this 35.7 Bn$.
Just a clarification point for those who thinks the funds used to fuel the civil war in South Sudan.NCP had attracted enough sponsorship for their dirty war”Jihad” from various radical Islamic States,Terrorist Organizations, even muslim individuals as the Saudi multi-billionaire Osama Ben Laden.
This huge debts will weaken the Northern Sudan economy and may lead to further military intrusion in the South Sudan republic’s Oil-Fields to secure their survival,as USA invaded Iraq for the same purpose.