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November 30, 2011 (NAIROBI) – Sudan’s request to be admitted to the East Africa Community (EAC) has been officially rejected, in a major diplomatic blow to Khartoum’s ambitions of joining the regional bloc.
- The three heads of the East African Community partner states ( Kenya , Uganda and Tanzania ), in a group picture with the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi during the 7th summit meeting of the EAC at the Centre in December 2006 (AICC website)
Meanwhile, Sudan’s president al-Bashir has reacted by hinting at a conspiracy to turn his country into a pariah state.
Last June, Sudan requested to join the EAC which is a regional intergovernmental organization comprised of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The rejection of Sudan’s application was contained in a communiqué issued on Wednesday at the conclusion of the EAC’s head-of-states summit held in Bujumbura, Burundi.
The ill fate of Sudan’s application to join EAC came as no surprise in view of the objections raised earlier in the week during the EAC’s council of ministers by officials from two member states, Tanzania and Uganda, over Khartoum’s request.
A Ugandan official quoted by the Kampala-based Daily Monitor newspaper this week revealed that his country along with Tanzania had objected to Khartoum’s lack of democracy and treatment of women.
“We rejected their application after looking at several issues like their democracy, the way they treat women and their religious politics and we feel they don’t qualify at all,” Eriya Kategaya, Uganda’s minister for East African Affairs said.
Article 3 (3) of the EAC charter stipulates that membership is contingent upon adherence to universally acceptable principles of good governance, democracy, the rule of law, observance of human rights and social justice.
Furthermore, having shared borders is a requirement for the EAC membership which Sudan does not meet.
The fact that Uganda had objected to Sudan’s request is also of little surprise given long-strained relations between Khartoum and Kampala. Sudan accuses Kampala of providing a sanctuary to rebel group from Darfur region while Uganda appears to be distrustful of Khartoum’s claims that it has ceased support for the Lord Resistance Army (LRA).
In the meantime, Sudan’s president Omer al-Bashir on Wednesday accused unnamed “foreign quarters” of seeking isolate Sudan from its African milieu.
Addressing the 34th session of the Union of African Parliaments held in Khartoum, Bashir said that Sudan had successfully defied attempts to bring it down through economic sanctions.
“Now there are attempts by some foreign quarters to impose a state of political isolation on Sudan and keep it away from its African milieu,” he said.
South Sudan’s request to join EAC deferred
In a related context, the EAC’s head-of-states summit deferred application of the newly-independent state of South Sudan to join the regional bloc for further scrutiny.
According to the summit’s final communiqué, South Sudan’s application is to be deferred to the EAC’s council of ministers to decide whether it undergo further scrutiny to decide whether it met the benchmarks.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July this year after voting in a referendum granted under the 2005 peace deal which ended more than two decades of civil wars between the north and the south.
(ST)
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