By Ngor Arol Garang
November 25, 2009 (JUBA) — General Salva Kiir Mayardit, First Vice-President of the Republic of Sudan and President of the semi-autonomous region of Southern Sudan, has on Wednesday 24, in both Moyo and Adjumani Districts of Uganda, urged Ugandans to lead recognition of the independent state of South Sudan if referendum votes favor secession.
- Sudan’s First Vice President speaking at Moyo, northern Uganda on Tuesday 24 November 2009 (photo by Larco Lomayat)
"If referendum favors southern secession from the North to become an independent state, South Sudanese in Uganda expects Uganda to take the lead in recognizing South Sudan as an independent country if South Sudanese voted for secession in the 2011 referendum," Kiir said.
The Sudanese First Vice President, who left Juba for Uganda for bilateral talks on border dispute, after an official invitation from Ugandans President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, further said, Ugandans and Southern Sudanese are the same and one people.
"Ugandans and South Sudanese are people of one common objective; and that they have to work together so that they get set goals," he said.
Commenting on the issue of border disputes which necessitated his visit, he said misunderstanding arising from territorial rivalry should not divert us from the joint Southern Sudanese and Ugandan vision.
"I think we can find solutions to whatever misunderstanding that might have occurred," he commented saying South Sudanese in Northern Uganda and elsewhere in the country, should live with Ugandans as one people without giving in for ill separation, the President said. The same applies to Ugandans in any part of Southern Sudan, Kiir added.
Kiir is further said that the border conflict and insecurity in southern Sudan started after the peace agreement peace in 2005; it was not there during the war.
"Not only in Moyo (northern Ugandan near Sudan’s border) that we are having problems; there are also tribal wars in Southern Sudan; all these conflicts are happening because someone is behind them, their aim is just to create chaotic situations for reasons best known to them, that means there are some people who are working day and night so that there is instability in South Sudan. Let us not allow it. Let nobody agitate you so that you quarrel amongst yourselves," he stressed.
Kiir who seems turning his back on Sudan’s unity after four year of a peace deal signed with the National Congress Party in 2005, tried during his European tour to campaign in favor of separation and to draw EU support for southern Sudan independence.
However, last month his government dismissed remarks where he called for southern Sudan independence describing vote for a united Sudan as voting for "second class" citizenship.
Ugandan President, Yoweri Kaguta Musevesni, stressed that what is happening in the border area is not a dispute, "it is simply misunderstanding which will be handled and solved by the brothers and sisters of our two sister countries amicably." He is further reported having said misunderstanding
(ST)
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