Kiir to meet Bashir on Thursday over crisis in national parliament
April 5, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit is due to meet on Thursday with Sudan’s president Omar Al-Bashir in Juba to discuss the current crisis over disallowing south Sudan MPs to retain their seats in the national parliament after the region voted for independence in a referendum earlier this year.
Al-Tahir cited article 118 of the constitution to justify his decision, interpreting it as saying that Southern MP’s have no representation authority because the constituencies they won are now in the south.
The current standoff highlights the challenges facing the bifurcation of the country after the south voted almost unanimously for secession from the north in a referendum conducted earlier this year under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended decades of north-south civil wars in 2005.
Salva Kiir, who also serves as vice-president of Sudan, met on Monday with a delegation from his party the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and received briefing on the crisis.
According to Sudan Tribune sources, the SPLM’s leadership had considered a decision to withdraw all southern ministers in the national government while keeping the ministers of oil and humanitarian affairs to serve until the end of the CPA’s interim period in July 9.
Kiir preempted his meeting with Al-Bashir by calling for the necessity of untangling north and south Sudan in a smooth manner that guarantees continuation of ties between the two sides after secession. He further reiterated the SPLM’s commitment to implementing the remaining phases of the CPA.
However, the SPLM’s secretary-general Pagan Amum stroke a critical tone in a press conference he held on Tuesday following his return from a visit to the US, describing the speaker’s decision to terminate membership of southerners in the parliament as inconsistent with the constitution and the CPA which stipulates that the outcome of the referendum be carried out by the end of the CPA’s interim period.
“According to the CPA, all protocols concerning power and wealth sharing in the national government and the parliament should remain in effect until 9 July,” Amum was quoted as saying.
The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in control of the North has stated in the past that all Southerners in the central government, military and civil service will be dismissed once results are certified.
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Adam
Kiir to meet Bashir on Thursday over crisis in national parliament
I hope all Southerners with no exception leave the North. We have now our state and we should all join hands to build it. Why SPLM is insisting that its MPs should be in the North Assembly? I don’t see any point on Amum’s remarks.
We need everybody to help solve our dilemmas.
Let all leave the North and be dignified. Any sane person, who reads what the SPLM leaders have said about the North, would not accept their presence in the North. It is evident that the Northern Sudan is feeling relieved from the big headache of the South and wants to get rid off the remaining trouble-making individuals.
Are we not ready to take our responsibilities towards our new state? There is nothing to discuss in the National Parliament. Pending issues have special committees.
I hope the efforts should be directed to solve our security, political, humanitarian and economic mess.
Adam Milawaki, Kansas City
Janafil
Kiir to meet Bashir on Thursday over crisis in national parliament
Adam
The sharing of the seats is suppose to end in 9th July 2011 after the announcement of the South to become different state, ok if that is the suggestion of the North to close off the seats that belong to the Southerners in the National unity government before July then the declaration of our state need to be done before July too.
AUGUSTINO DENG
Kiir to meet Bashir on Thursday over crisis in national parliament
Whoever made the decision for Salva Kiir Miyardit to meet Bashir on Thursday in order to discuss over the crisis in National Parliament, he is completely wrong. If Salva Kiir Miyardit is the one who made that decision, then he is out of his own word. Why do we Southerners always tried to attach ourselves to Arabs? Why do we Southerners have to retain the seats in the National Parliament and we have our own government in Southern?
Salva Kiir needs to learn the policies and the way how to run the government. This government of Southern Sudan is the worst government whereby anyone can come up with his own decision and implemented it according to his own wish which is a ridiculous thing. Why Salva Kiir Miyardit is worried about the seats being needed to be retained in the National Parliament and Southern Sudanese people are waiting for the independent of Southern Sudan on July? If we needed our own seats, then why do we not have our own seats in the Southern Sudan Parliament instead of claiming seats from the North?
I believes there is a common interest between Salva Kiir Miyardit and Omar Hussein Bashir. If I knows that SPLM/SPLA vision would be like the current move which I see now happening in Southern Sudan, then I could not even join this “bourgeois” movement of Salva Kiir Miyardit. 23 years in the bush and still there is no good achievement. In fact, it is time for Mr Kiir Miyardit, but he will still leave this office in anytime. I totally loss my confidence in this Movement so call SPLM/SPLA even if I lost those who are related to me in blood and my some fellows brothers whom we were together in Tharpam and Panyidu camp. This is a great sorrow!
By Augustino Deng. Jech la mer from Tharpam.
Mabor
Kiir to meet Bashir on Thursday over crisis in national parliament
Mr.Speaker sir, that has not been a good decision you had taken to disallow the southern members of parliament in the GONU befoer the expiry of CPA, so think again that is not the right decision do not be encourage and influence by your ruling members choices otherwise.