Sudans step up diplomatic offensive in the region

Sudan’s drive to seek the region’s intervention in its bruising battle with South Sudan went into overdrive at the weekend when Khartoum sent parallel emissaries to Kigali, Kampala and the other East African Community member states. Khartoum sent a message to the Ugandan government seeking to defuse tensions between the countries and to intervene in its conflict with its southern neighbour.Prof Alphonse Luaba is understood to have delivered the message to Ugandan vice-president Edward Ssekandi in Kampala on Saturday. Uganda raised the issue of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in Nairobi in 2005 and the support Khartoum is alleged to be giving to the fugitive warlord Joseph Kony. Khartoums denied backing Kony and instead called for better coordination in pursuing him.The issue of the renewed fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo also came up with both countries calling for support for the Regional Joint Defence Protocol in defusing the fighting in the eastern DRC.On Saturday, Khartoum sent a similar mission to Kigali led by Ahmed Abdelrahman Mohammed a Member of Parliament who met Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo. He had led his delegation to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania before coming to Kigali.Luaba is the executive secretary of the international conference on the Great Lakes region. South Sudan, too, has launched its own charm offensive. At the weekend it declared its commitment to human rights, for which it received a ringing endorsement from the United Nations. Juba was encouraged to stick to its “very long and difficult path to peace, prosperity and a full realisation of human rights.” It was urged to address the pressing issues of arbitrary detentions, torture and violence against women. In a statement issued on the last day of her five-day visit to the country, the UN Chief for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said that the young nation, which gained independence from Sudan in July 2011, following a referendum, must strive to put a legal framework in place that recognises and protects the human rights of all its citizens.“To some extent South Sudan is starting with a clean slate, and when it comes to passing good laws and establishing effective institutions, that can be a major advantage,” she said. “I have therefore urged the Government to ratify all the main international human rights treaties as soon as possible.”During her visit – aimed at helping the development of the country’s long-term human rights infrastructure such as laws, institutions and practices – Ms. Pillay held meetings with President Salva Kiir and other Government officials, as well as representatives from civil society organizations and the peacekeeping operation known as the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).She said she was heartened to hear President Kiir say he is committed to ratifying all the core human rights treaties, and expressed her hope that her visit could speed up the ratification of other conventions concerned with the protection of children, persons with disabilities, migrant workers, and discrimination against women, as well as other basic human freedoms. “Human rights are not negotiable and cannot be cherry-picked. There are no excuses, not even the youthfulness of the state, for ignoring or violating them,” she said. “All the South Sudanese I have met during this visit have made it clear they want these rights to be reflected in their daily lives.” Mr. Pillay highlighted the need to combat impunity, particularly among members of the security forces who violate people’s human rights. She noted that there had been some progress during the ongoing civilian disarmament campaign in the state of Jonglei, during which several soldiers reported to have committed crimes have been promptly arrested and, in some cases, charged. “I met a number of civil society organisations as well as individual women who talked to me very frankly about both their own and other women’s situations. They talked of the extreme lack of rights for women living in rural areas of South Sudan. They described the tyranny of a dowry system that fuels the practice of early and forced marriage, in which neither the daughters nor the mothers usually have any say,” Ms. Pillay said.

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Sudans step up diplomatic offensive in the region