Juba accuses Khartoum of seeking to ruin bilateral ties
December 20, 2014 (JUBA) – The speaker of South Sudan’s parliament claims Sudan’s latest accusations against his country were intended to disrupt bilateral relations between the two nations.
He claimed Sudan wanted to create a scenarios similar to the Berlin Wall in Germany as a mechanism to divide the population. The Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989, constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until it was opened in November 1989.
Demolition of the Berlin Wall officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992.
“Our people are mutually bound together and we must work for ways to maintain these growing relations because it is for the benefits of our people in both countries,” said the speaker.
According to the speaker, North and South Sudan share one of the longest borders, are inseparable by history and thus armed confrontation should not disrupt their relations.
“When politicians start to use excessive vocabularies, issuing unorganised statements anyhow, it creates tension and then hostilities resume and people begin to fight. And when fighting take places, it blocks movement of innocent people and goods from crossing to other side. It becomes source of division. It becomes like an encounter, like what happened with the Berlin wall, the people, you know, when it was broken they clasped each other because they did not see each other for a very long time,” Rundial said.
“They were all divided by the regime. This is what some elements in the national congress party want to do because this has been their way of living but I don’t think it is for the interest of the two countries,” he added.
Rundial said parliament, through its foreign affairs committee was working to strengthen efforts of its international cooperation ministry.
“We would like the two ministers, our minister of foreign affairs and the minister of foreign affairs in the government of Sudan to meet on regular basis. These meetings should also take place between the two ministers of defenses and senior security officials so that they are able to discuss issues of concerns to both sides and see how they can be addressed, within the framework of the cooperation agreement,” he told Sudan Tribune.
Relations between the two Sudans have been shaky since the latter seceded from its northern neighbour on July 2011. Khartoum and Juba continue to trade accusations of support to rebel groups from both sides since South Sudan attained independence.
(ST)