I didn’t call South Sudanese "insects", Bashir says ArticleComments (22) EmailPrintSave
April 12, 2013 (JUBA) – Sudanese president, Omer Al-Bashir on Friday denied describing South Sudanese as "insects" saying he only used the term against the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir (R) welcomes his Sudan counterpart Omar Hassan al-Bashir outside his Presidential office in Juba April 12, 2013. (Reuters) Following the seizure of Heglig/Panthou in April 2012 by the south Sudanese troops, Al-Bashir in a speech he delivered, replaced the term used to call the SPLM "popular Movement" by the "popular insect", and vowed to crush it. The South Sudanese government at the time compared the expression with the term of "cockroaches" that the Rwandese Hutus used to describe the Tutsi before the 1994 genocide they perpetrated against the latter. The statement also attracted outrage and anger among citizens on the country’s streets. "I didn’t call the people of South Sudan insects. I cannot do this because I ruled them for 20 years, I was only making a play in Arabic about the SPLM which you in the media did not covey well," Bashir said when he was asked about the issue by a reporter during the joint press conference with president on Friday. He further explained that Sudan was simply hurt when the SPLA, which became tje official army of South Sudan after its secession from Sudan in 2011, took control of Heglig/Panthou. "Sudan was hurt by the act which had no justification," Bashir said. While addressing a mix of South Sudanese Muslims and Sudanese nationals in Juba at the Kuwait Mosque where he performed Friday prayer, the Sudanese leader said he came to the South Sudan capital because the two countries’ leaders have the biggest chance to make peace and avoid a repeat of war. “We have agreed to work together with my brother Salva Kiir. There are also things which hold us together. We have common things between us, socially or economically because we were one country. So we have agreed to follow the path of peace", he told worshipers. Ali Ahmed Karti, Sudan’s Foreign Affairs minister, in statements before the country’s national assembly on 14 May last year, criticised Bashir without mentioning his name, saying the use of words like "insect" has had a disastrous effect in Sudan’s foreign policy, particularly in Africa. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
