Karti raps critics of nationality deal with South Sudan
March 15, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese minister of foreign affairs, Ali Karti, has defended the framework agreement initialed by his country and neighboring South Sudan on nationality, saying those who rushed to criticize it had failed to understand its wisdom and political implications.
The two countries also initialed an agreement on demarcating their poorly defined borders.
The deals marked a rare sign of progress in protracted talks between Khartoum and Juba to tackle issues arising from the secession on 9 July 2010 of South Sudan from Sudan under a 2005 peace deal that ended nearly half a century of north-south civil wars.
The two agreements are due to be signed in a planned summit between Sudan’s President, Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, and his South Sudanese counterpart, Salva Kiir Mayardit, in South Sudan’s capital Juba.
But the deal on nationality has come under fire before it is signed.
Sudan’s far-right political group, the Just Peace Forum (JPF), and its controversial leader, Al-Tayyib Mustafa, quickly lambasted the agreement as a threat to Sudan’s national security, vowing to mobilize the public against it.
Mustafa, who happens to be a close relative of Al-Bashir, further warned in a press conference held Wednesday that the government must either scrap the deal or exit power to allow the people to elect those who can defend their “scared principles.”
Speaking to reporters in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Thursday, Ali Karti, launched a counter-attack on the critics of the deal, saying they lack understanding of its contents.
“Those who rejected the agreement had failed to understand it” he said.
Karti explained that the deal is a mutually beneficial arrangement. He said whereas it gives southerners the right to enter Sudan and acquire properties, it also gives northern Sudanese equal rights in the South.
Sudan has stripped its former southern citizens of their nationality after the voted for the independence of their region. Khartoum also said that southerners staying in Khartoum after 9 July this year would have to regularize their stay as foreigners or go home.
Karti went on to voice his support for the deal, saying it is a good seed for maintaining social and economic connections between the people of Sudan and South Sudan.
Furthermore, Sudan’s top diplomat sees a strategic objective: the deal prepares the ground for upcoming round of negotiations between the two countries.
Karti said that reaching agreements on the issues of borders and status of nationals would be the beginning of reaching solutions to the disputes over oil and financial issues.
Negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan on a fair charge to transport southern oil via Sudan have so far failed to reach an agreement. South Sudan shut down oil production in January this year after Khartoum moved to confiscate its oil in lieu of what Sudan claims are unpaid transit fees.
Karti said that “this new spirit” would help open a new track of negotiations on security affairs.” He further revealed that the joint security committee between Sudan and South Sudan would hold a meeting in the near future.
The Sudanese minister further said that negotiating security affairs would eliminate doubts that the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) is harboring and supporting rebels from Sudan’s western region of Darfur and border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Equally, he said, the security committee must listen to the security concerns of South Sudan and take them under consideration.
Karti added that the upcoming dialogue would be serious and transparent.
Meanwhile in Juba, South Sudan’s chief negotiator Pagan Amum echoed similar optimism. He told reporters following his return from Addis Ababa on Wednesday that relations with Khartoum have become “positive”
“When we were one country, we spent all the time together fighting each other and killing each other, and there has been a lot of that… but that is over now”, he said as reported by AFP.
Amum said that Sudan and South Sudan’s old approach to negotiations has “led us literally nowhere.”
“Now we are going to try this approach, which is basically positive thinking, applied to problem solving,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese council of ministers held its regular meeting on Thursday and approved the four freedoms agreement with South Sudan.
The council’s meeting, which was chaired by President Al-Bashir, received a briefing from the head of Sudan’s negotiating team Idris Abdul Gadir.
In a related development, the Sudanese opposition National Umma Party (NUP) issued a statement on Thursday welcoming the deal on four freedoms.
The NUP led by former Prime Minister Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi urged the government to commit to the understandings signed with South Sudan and implement them with a strong political will.
The NUP also urged the government to show no leniency in responding to the “mongers of war” who seek to poison the relations between the two countries by whipping up racial sentiments.
The NUP said that the agreement must be complemented by giving the right of dual citizenship to southerners in Sudan and northerners in South Sudan.
(ST)