Sudan’s far-right group happily calls for donations to deport southerners

April 8, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Al-Tayib Mustafa, leader of Sudan’s ultra-conservative Just Peace Forum (JPF), has expressed happiness at the passing on Sunday of a deadline that effectively rendered all citizens of neighbouring South Sudan as foreigners in what was once their country.

The 8 April deadline has condemned more than half a million South Sudanese still living in Sudan to legal limbo after Khartoum revoked their citizenship in the wake of their massive vote for their region’s independence which was declared in July last year.

In a press conference held in the capital Khartoum on Sunday, JPF leader Al-Tayib Mustafa described the 8 April as a “happy day” as it marked the actual implementation of South Sudan’s secession.

Mustafa, whose party and its mouthpiece Al-Intibaha newspaper are highly critical of South Sudan, called on Sudanese citizens to donate money to finance mass deportation of southerners.

He went on to announce that his party is willing to provide enormous amounts of money to help in transporting southerners back to their homeland.

The JPF leader turned to lambast the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in Sudan for what he sees as too many concessions given to South Sudan in negotiations over post-secession issues.

Last month, Sudan and South Sudan initialed an agreement on the “four freedoms” which gives nationals of each state in the other the right to freedom of residence, freedom of movement, freedom to undertake economic activity and freedom to acquire and dispose property.

The deal, which faced stiff opposition from the JPF and its ilk of fundamentalist Islamist groups, was supposed to be signed at a summit between Sudan’s President Omer Al-Bashir and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir Mayardit in Juba.

But Khartoum scrapped the arrangement following the eruption of clashes along the borders between Sudan and South Sudan armies at the end of March.

Mustafa renewed his criticism of the four freedoms agreement, saying it was premature in view of what he described as the hostilities being conducted by South Sudan against the north.

He unleashed a volley of criticism against the NCP’s negotiators who signed the four freedoms deal, describing them as “grovelers” who are responsible for all the capitulations that befell Sudan in the course of its negotiations with South Sudan and its ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Mustafa also said that his party had objections against the confidence given by Khartoum to the African Union High Level Panel (AUHIP) of former South African President Thabo Mbeki in facilitating the talks between Sudan and South Sudan.

According to Mustafa, the AUHIP is not impartial and adopts the view of the late SPLM’s leader John Garang on Sudan’s African identity.

Mbeki was in Khartoum last Friday to try and persuade President Al-Bashir to go ahead with the planned summit with Kiir.

His visit came after security talks between Sudan and South Sudan in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa failed to yield results due to Khartoum’s insistence on eliciting a confession from South Sudan on its alleged support to Sudanese rebels in the country’s border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

Sudan’s news agency SUNA reported on Monday that Mbeki, who later visited South Sudan and met Kiir, proposed that the summit be held in Addis Ababa but the South Sudanese leader insisted that Al-Bashir comes to Juba.

Also according to SUNA, Khartoum informed Mbeki that the summit must be preceded by an agreement to cease South Sudan’s alleged support to Sudanese rebels in South Kordofan, Blue Nile and the western region of Darfur.

Mustafa warned at the press conference against any new attempts to lure President Al-Bashir into visiting Juba, claiming he was in possession of intelligence indicating that South Sudan’s government is plotting to arrest Al-Bashir.

“It will be a big blunder if the NCP’s grovelers agreed to Al-Bashir’s visit to Juba,” he stated.

Mustafa appealed to Sudanese citizens to oppose the government and the NCP’s policy of negotiations with South Sudan, urging the people to take to the streets in order to force the government to stop what he termed as the senseless concessions offered by its negotiators.

Eye witnesses attending Mustafa’s press conference told Sudan Tribune that an emotive scene had unfolded when a South Sudanese citizen stood up and urged the JPF leader to refrain from inciting the government to nullify the four freedoms deal.

“I ask you in the name of Allah to let the four freedoms deal be implemented and if any southern citizen wronged the government after that you can deport him” he said with his eyes full of tears.

The southern citizen accused the JPF leader of pursuing a policy of scapegoating, saying that they as Southern Sudanese in Sudan are not responsible for the decisions of their government in Juba.

The witnesses recounted that JPF members at the conference had dismissed the pleading southern citizen and reiterated their calls for the immediate expulsion of all South Sudanese.

In a related development, a delegation from South Sudan’s Ministry of Interior arrived in Khartoum on Sunday to begin the process of issuing identification cards to South Sudanese citizens in Khartoum.

The delegation announced upon arrival that it is determined to complete the process within two days.

(ST)