Border States Inter-Communal Peace Talks Held In Aweil East The annual inter-communal peace conference for Sudan's Southern Kordofan and South Sudan’s Northern Bahr el Ghazal states has begun at Wanyjok in Aweil East County. 17 November 2013
*By Abraham Agoth* *AWEIL, 17 November 2013 [Gurtong]- *The conference brings together, the community elders, chiefs and youth representatives from Misseriya tribe of Southern Kordofan State of Sudan and their counterpart Dinka Malual in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state. A three-day peace conference that was officially opened on Saturday by the Deputy Governor who is also the State Minister of Law Enforcement Agencies Salva Chol Ayat is meant to pave way for the peaceful and safe border migration for both tribes especially Misseriya whose cattle are brought to Sudan’s bordering states of South Sudan for pastures and water. During the opening remarks of the conference, Chol urged the two bordering tribes to stick to peace and dialogue for the safety and maintenance of secure and stable border relations in order to allow strong bilateral trades with good diplomatic ties. “The world knows very well how active the peace is in Northern Bahr el Ghazal and this usually comes from ordinary community leaders like you the elders, youth and women with at least small technical support from the government and that’s why you have been living peacefully with your neighbours as well. We as the state and national governments are committed to peace always behind you our citizens and that’s why we always welcome our brothers Misseriya to come and graze their cattle, so I need the representatives of both tribes to abide by the agreement of this peace conference,” he said. Chol sent out a strong message for peace to the South Sudanese especially to unstable states of Jonglei and Lakes to abide by peace and develop the country and appealed to the citizens to refrain from conflict and use peaceful approaches rather than violence. “As our country has just attained the independence two years ago, we have long way to go in term of development and other social aspects of life, being free is not something that that one can do anything she/he likes but rather utilize the development and freedom opportunities for the betterment of our socio-economic sectors,” he said. He further urged every citizen to stick to peace and dialogue when there is conflict so that they can live like the rest of the world. Meanwhile, the commissioner of hosting Aweil East county, Awet Kiir Awet welcomed the initiative and promises to support and protect the agreement with his community elders in the state. “This is not the first time that such peace conferences are held in my county, they are held seasonally to allow Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two communities as to allow peaceful coexistence and safe border migrations of our citizens to and from for their common needs in the two sovereign states of Sudans,” Kiir said. On the other hand, a chairperson of Peace Committee for the bordering states of Sudan and South Sudan, Chief Deng Luol from NBGS said that they [the peace committee] from Southern Kordofan and Northern Bahr el Ghazal states want to live in peace and that is why they have come up with the peace conference initiative which is conducted every year to allow permission for their nomadic neighbours of Southern Kordofan to have three months accessibility to pasture and water in their state. Misseriya representative chief Rashid Ahmed from Southern Kordofan said they are more than willing to join hands together with South Sudan’s counterpart from NBGS to stick to peace and dialogue in order to promote harmony and unity of the two tribes. “We have come together to do what is possible to maintain peace within our communities, that is our first goal objective, we have realized that war is enemy to peace, and as such, we have joined our hands together to do one thing for our common interest in our countries and beyond so that we maintain stability and peaceful coexistence plus harmony with strong bilateral relations,” Ahmed told the participants. Posted in: Home<http://www.gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial/tabid/124/ctl/CategoryView/mid/519/categoryId/1/Home.aspx>, Foreign Relations<http://www.gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial/tabid/124/ctl/CategoryView/mid/519/categoryId/5/Foreign-Relations.aspx> -- 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14oqe5zJ1m3YqBWHStJEZPha1Vy-m5at7N2ksg%2BeaetXkjA%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
