September 6, 2015 (JUBA) - South Sudanese government said Sunday it was reaching out for assistances from the government of neighbouring Sudan from which the young nation seceded in 2011, to help implement the regionally brokered and internationally backed peace deal with armed opposition under the leadership of former vice president, Riek Machar.
South Sudan's foreign minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, on Sunday said Russian foreign ministry will organize a meeting between Sudanese and South Sudanese foreign ministers to discuss ways to support the implementation of the deal.
“We are also asking the region, particularly those countries which have played a significant role in the mediation of the resolution of the conflict to stand with us and provide their support in any capacity. We expect Sudan as one of the countries which played a very important role in the mediation to play another positive role in the implementation,” Marial said in an exclusive interview with Sudan Tribune on Sunday.
The government, he added, affirmed full commitment to implementing the compromise peace agreement, despite reservations and called on the people to stand with the president Salva Kiir who signed the deal on 26 August.
Marial said he received an invitation from the government of Russia to travel to Moscow for a discussion on bilateral relations with Sudan on matters related to cooperation agreement and implementation of the peace deal.
“Our relations with Russia have been recording tremendous movement towards developing strategic relations and both of us would like to build on this beginning for the benefits of our people and the two countries in number of areas,” he said.
He described the role of Russia in trying to reconcile the views of the two countries on a wide range of post secession issues as “act of a very important friend.”
The top diplomat revealed the meeting between him and Sudanese minister of foreign affairs, Ibrahim Ghandour, was being arranged by the Russian minister of foreign affairs of Russia, Seje Labrov.
The meeting, according to him, will be held for two days from 9 - 11 September during which the discussions will be moderated by the hosting official on a wide range of post secession issues.
One of the issues he expected to be discussed is how the government of Sudan would help in the implementation of the recently signed peace agreement with the rebels.
Russia is the chair of the United Nations Security Council this month of September and urged the two parties to respect the ceasefire or face sanctions.
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Près de 40 nœuds au compteur, le Watercat M18 AMC se faufile entre les îles de la côte sud suédoise. 19.9 mètres de long, 4.3 mètres de large pour un tirant d’eau de 1.1 mètre, l'engin en aluminium, conçu pour le débarquement de troupes, les évacuations ou encore les patrouilles, a été commandé à 12 exemplaires par la marine finlandaise à Marine Alutech. Un chantier installé en Finlande et qui teste avec le Watercat M18 AMC les performances du dernier-né de la gamme marine de Scania, le V8 de 16.4 litres.
Quand on est en situation de faiblesse, mieux vaut afficher une image plus impressionnante que la réalité pour intimider l’adversaire. Dans la nature, les cas sont légion et, la semaine dernière, les Britanniques ont offert un bel exemple de cette stratégie. Volontairement ou non, militaires et industriels sont parvenus outre-manche à faire passer auprès des medias anglais et internationaux un simple concept ship pour ce qui constituerait l’ossature de la Royal Navy dans 35 ans.
September 6, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's foreign ministry said its mission in Geneva is making intensive efforts to abort moves by the United States at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to relegate Sudan to agenda item 4 which means that human rights situation in the country requires the world's attention and monitoring.
Sudan's foreign ministry spokesperson, Ali al-Sadiq, has vehemently criticized Washington for seeking to move Sudan back to agenda item 4, stressing that Sudan's mission in Geneva would coordinate with the friendly nations within the UNHRC to resist the U.S. attempts.
“This is not the first time that some western countries target Sudan and seek to move it back to the square of trusteeship,” he told reporters on Sunday.
Al-Sadiq stressed that Sudan and its allies are capable of refuting any claim by the U.S., pointing to efforts made by the government to improve human rights conditions “away from the misleading fallacies by parties hostile to Sudan”.
In November 2013 the then Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti offered rare praise of the U.S. disclosing that it had played a significant role in the UNHRC's resolution which kept Sudan under agenda item 10 of technical assistance for another year, despite attempts by some parties to move Sudan back to agenda item 4 of monitoring.
Last week, media reports said that Washington has embarked on moves within the UNHRC to move Sudan back to agenda item 4 which allows intervention under chapter 7 of the UN charter.
The US representative announced during a procedural session at the UNHRC that his country intends to lodge a draft resolution to relegate Sudan to agenda item 4 which provides for appointing a special rapporteur for human rights in the country.
Observers say that Washington's move was intended to put pressure on Khartoum particularly as agenda item 4 allows for international intervention in the country's internal affairs on issues pertaining to human rights.
It is worth mentioning that recent reports of international rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused the Sudanese army and its allied militias of committing war crimes in the conflicts areas.
This week, a Sudanese rights group, the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) sent a letter to the members and observer states of the UN Human Rights Council saying that human rights situation in Sudan continue to deteriorate, and marked by harsh political repression and continued impunity.
"Over the past four years in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, the Sudanese government has engaged in indiscriminate and targeted aerial bombardment of civilian areas, killing and wounding hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians," said the ACJPS.
The group further urged the different delegations "to support the development and adoption of a strong and responsive resolution on Sudan under agenda Item 4 at the 30th session of the Human Rights Council in September".
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September 6, 2015 (JUBA) - South Sudanese president Salva Kiir has unexpectedly warned officers of the army of punitive actions against them if they continued to violate ceasefire in the peace agreement he signed on 26 August with the former vice president, Riek Machar, revealing that there are some of his officers whose actions aimed at derailing the peace deal by taking advantage of reservations of his government over the accord.
He said people who pretended to be loyal to him and his government were behind the ceasefire violations.
“There are people who want to take advantage of our genuine concerns and reservations. They are pretending to be conducting themselves as nationalists and they aren't acting with loyalty. These people are coming out, and any officer, no matter what position of service, showing lack of discipline will have to answer,” president Kiir told a tribal Jieng [Dinka] Council of Elders on Sunday.
“We have signed the peace [agreement] and we have to show our commitment, so that we are not portrayed as not interested in ending this war. They want to turn our people against us. We have to observe ceasefire requirements,” said the head of state in his first public reaction on ceasefire violations.
President Kiir made the comments admitting sabotage by some of his officers two days after the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) reported that government's attack helicopters attacked rebel positions on the west bank of the Nile near Malakal, capital of the oil-rich Upper Nile state.
Also the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) led by former vice president, Machar, alleged that they destroyed a number of war barges and gunboats which attacked their positions.
However, government spokesman, Michael Makuei Lueth, in an indirect refusal of the claim said one of the war barges exploded when a careless soldier lit a cigarette causing the explosion.
But president Kiir in his remarks said the barges came under attack by the rebel forces when they attempted to cross opposition controlled areas in Jonglei and Unity states.
US secretary of state, John Kerry, also called the South Sudanese leader on phone on Thursday, urging him to order forces to stop attacking rebel positions.
Kiir also told members of the Dinka elders, his tribesmen that the world was working to isolate his government unless they abided by the ceasefire and fully implement the peace deal with the armed opposition faction led by Machar.
“There are people in this country and in the region who are working to isolate us from our people by portraying themselves to be the ones who care about them and they are the ones who feel the suffering of our people more than us whom they have elected,” he further lamented.
“That was why they designed the peace [agreement] in the way that if we reject, they then go around the world and say look, they have rejected to sign the peace to stop the war and continue to claim they represent the people they have refused to stop the war and to end the suffering of their people,” he added.
The president, according to a presidential aide, made the remarks at his residence on Sunday during a meeting with some members of the Dinka council of elders who visited him to update him on the outcome of the meeting they held on Saturday where they discussed how they could reconcile and harmonise with the president their views which opposed key provisions in the peace deal.
President Kiir faces a division within his government as some senior political and army officials have been rejecting and criticizing the peace deal, with fears that they could be the ones that encourage ceasefire violations to try to spoil the implementation of the IGAD Plus compromise agreement.
United Nations Security Council is working on a US-led draft of sanctions that would be imposed on party seen to be violating the ceasefire or spoil implementation of the peace agreement.
Observers say Juba made a diplomatic mistake when president Kiir refused to comply with the 17 August deadline to sign the IGAD compromise peace agreement, making him a troublemaker in the eyes of the international community, while the opposition leader, Machar, came out as peace maker and earned respect in won the diplomatic manoeuver when he complied and signed the agreement unilaterally.
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September 6, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's interior ministry and police officials from the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) on Sunday have discussed the situation in the contested area of Abyei.
The deputy director-general of police, Lieut. General Omer Mohamed Ali has discussed with the UNISFA senior police adviser, Mohamed Suraji, the security situation in Abyei in the presence of the Abyei dossier official at Sudan's police, Maj. General Salah al-Din Nur al-Dai'm, and the head of the general-directorate of international relations, Maj. General Abdallah al-Amin al-Shingaiti.
The police press office has quoted Nur al-Dai'm as saying the meeting aimed to coordinate efforts and to ensure complementarity of roles between the two sides in order to achieve security and stability in the area.
He said the two sides reviewed efforts and tasks carried out by the UN Police (UNPOL) to maintain security in accordance with Abyei Protocol, adding the meeting urged all parties to speed up the establishment of the Abyei police force to carry out its functions and duties to achieve security in the region.
The South Sudanese side refuses the establishment of a joint administration and a police force in line with the 20 June 2011 agreement. Juba propose to go beyond this deal and hold the referendum on the future of the region.
However, the police official added the two sides agreed to establish a link between Sudan's police and the UNPOL in Abyei to control any security breaches in the area.
According to Nur al-Dai'm, Sudan's police promised to provide assistance to the UNPOL at the federal and state levels in order to carry out its duties.
Abyei was scheduled to hold a referendum to determine the fate of the border region in January 2011. However the vote was suspended because the two countries continue to disagree over the participation of the Misseriya nomads in the process.
UNISFA's establishment came after the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) reached an agreement in Addis Ababa, to demilitarize Abyei and let Ethiopian troops to monitor the area.
Composed mainly of Ethiopian troops, the 5,000 strong force was established following the seizure of Abyei by the Sudanese army in May 2011 after clashes with the southern army (SPLA) in the area.
The operation has been tasked with monitoring the flashpoint border between north and south and facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, and is authorized to use force in protecting civilians and humanitarian workers in Abyei.
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