Bashir meets Kiir in Juba, refuses to allow southern mps back in parliament
ARTICLECOMMENTS (19) EmailPrintSave April 7, 2011 (JUBA) – Sudan president Omar Al-Bashir has refused to reverse a decision banning south Sudan’s members of the national parliament from attending sessions after their region voted massively to split from the north in a referendum this year. First Vice President of Sudan and President of the Government of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit (R) welcomes Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir for a presidency meeting, at Juba airport April 7, 2011 (REUTERS PICTURES) Sources who asked not to be named have told Sudan Tribune that the issue of the participation of southern mps in the national parliament was not directly included in the agendas of a meeting held on Thursday between Al-Bashir and south Sudan leader Salva Kiir in the region’s capital Juba. They added that the issue was discussed on the margins of the meeting and Al-Bashir stressed that he would not overrule the constitutional articles which prohibit the participation of southern MPs in the parliament if the region voted for secession. However, the sources added, Al-Bashir insisted that south Sudan’s ministers in the national government continue their duties until the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended north-south war and shared power in 2005, expires in July this year. Meanwhile, Al-Bashir-Kiir meeting has reached an agreement to start, as of Friday, the implementation of a UN-moderated agreement signed last January in Sudan’s town of Kadugli to provide security and allay tension in the north-south contested region of Abyei. According to Thabo Mbeki, the chairman of the AU high-level implementation panel on Sudan who attended the meeting, the north-south joint political committee tasked with overseeing Kadugli agreement would hold a meeting today, Friday, to discuss views of both sides on the security situation. Several talks between north and south Sudan have failed to yield an agreement over the oil-producing area of Abyei, where clashes recently occurred between south Sudan police and members of the north-linked nomadic tribe of Messirya. Separately, Mbeki told reporters in Juba that north and south Sudan had decided to participate in a meeting due to be held in Washington on 15 April with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and Sudan’s creditors to discuss the issue of the country’s hefty external debt as well as pending economic issues between the two sides. North and south Sudan agreed last month in Ethiopia to embark on joint efforts to secure relief of the country’s external debt. Another meeting was held in juba between the chief negotiators of north and south Sudan on post-referendum arrangements. Pagan Amum, the secretary-general of the SPLM in south Sudan, on Thursday told reporters that his meeting with Salah Gosh of the NCP in north Sudan had discussed the issues of border demarcation as well as the remaining disputed points in the citizenship issue. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
