The Citizen

Uganda Minister of Trade, Industry, Co-operatives Arrives Juba

Monykuer Jr — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:23:54 +0000

JUBA - The Uganda Minister of Trade, Industry and Co-operatives Amelia Anne Kyambadde, arrived Juba yesterday for official visit and during interview in Juba International Airport with the media, she said the purpose was to consult her counterpart on bilateral relationships between the two countries.

She said another purpose of the visit was to create enabling environment for business communities both for South Sudanese and Ugandans to make harmonies exist in the policies that will push trade relations between the two countries.

Kyambadde further thanked the government of South Sudan for receiving them in the country and to look forward for discussing trade issues between Uganda and South Sudan which are in their highest level. She said there was some trade barrier that they need to improve upon and that is what she will discuss with her counterpart in Juba.

She said she would also discuss with South Sudanese authorities matters that delay the transportation of goods and their clearance at the borders and to address these issues so that goods can come into South Sudan smoothly with delay.

Meanwhile South Sudan Minister of Commerce, Industry and investment Garang Diing Akuong who welcomed his Ugandan counterpart appreciated the cooperation from her country.

Diing said that they would discuss a lot of issues regarding trade between the two countries and that they would work out ways to regulate it.

He said proper policies and regulations that will recognize trade between the two countries would be put in place.

Diing said they have issues to discuss with the Ugandan minister and hope to come up with understanding that would be beneficial to the citizens of both countries in trade.

ANC Supports Pipeline Closure, Urges Government to Check Oil Companies

Monykuer Jr — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:20:57 +0000

JUBA – The African National Congress (ANC) Party issued a release in which it asked the Government of South Sudan to review and audit the records of Companies which are operating in the field of oil exploration in South Sudan but where registered by the Sudan Government.

The Party recommended that the government should choose Companies which respect the gains of the people of South Sudan and dismiss those whose records are contaminated with theft of wealth and resources of the country and said that any company contributing to the construction of a tie-in pipeline by Sudan deserves expulsion.

ANC appreciates the decision of the Government in shutting down oil production “but this decision is too late, it was suppose to come up since 9^th of July 2011 because these are the decisions issued by the State which has gained its independence and it has sovereignty over its land and resources” the press release signed by the ANC Party Spokesperson Albino Akol Attac said.

The party urges the Government not to reverse the decision and not to allow the export of South Sudan crude oil through the territory of Sudan else Khartoum agreed to be paid by South Sudan transit fees which should range between 12 to 60 cents per barrel as internationally acceptable.

“We in the ANC and the entire people of South Sudan will not accept to pay land transit fees reaching one dollar, the government and the political parties to get prepared to take responsibility of protecting the country’s wealth from being looted and robbed,” the release said.

The party advised the Government to pursue reliance on non-oil revenues and other resources that South Sudan is rich with such that the country cannot become vulnerable to extortion by any country and the agriculture and small industries should be encouraged including proper system of taxes and customs collection to be reformed as well as to create refinery for domestic use.

Debate on Political Parties Bill Kicks-off

Monykuer Jr — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:15:53 +0000

JUBA – The debate on the political parties bill began yesterday in the parliament where the members of the National Legislative Assembly argued that the bill should not to be treated as an urgent matter because it is a very important bill and should be debated on carefully.

The Chairperson of the Committee of Legislation and Justice Hon Dengtiel A.Kuur presented the report on the political parties bill to the parliament and the Speaker of the Assembly James Wani Igga asked the honorable members to debate on the bill.

The document was drafted by the Ministry of Justice and it establishes the political Party’s Affairs Council to register and regulate political parties that are operating in the Republic of South Sudan. (Section 6) of the bill prescribes the process and the time –frame for registering the previously registered parties in Sudan and unregistered political parties in South Sudan, which are required to register by submitting their constitutions to the Council within 90 days the date the bill comes into effect.

However the Member of Parliament representing Lakes State in the National Assembly Akol Paul said that “the bill is important to the Republic of South Sudan where there is too much conflict of ethnicity which is believed to have been politically motivated,” he said. Paul added that the country is just about six months old and had already have more than 30 political parties which is not good enough.

Meanwhile the MPs raised the issue of the identity and names of the political parties saying that the political parties should not share any identical names with any other political parties because people will not identify the differences between the parties. Philip Thon Leek said that some parties would benefit during elections e.g. SPLM and SLPM-DC” and that a party should have a name. According to the bill the political party shall not accept any financial donations or contributions from any foreign person or from any foreign body and the finances of a political party shall consist of, member subscriptions and donations and contribution from the national and non-governmental entities, corporations, companies and individuals provided that such contributions shall be registered with the council and be made public.

South Sudan should make special arrangement to engage all our medical doctors

Monykuer Jr — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:11:56 +0000

In most developing countries, the ministries of health have special consideration for their medical doctors because one of the development problems in those countries is health service to their people. For that reason some of those countries tailor special programmes to select their young people for medical training in colleges of medicine in their universities. On graduation, these medical cadres are employed and later sent to specialize in different fields of medicine and surgery. Specialization is done with the aim that these countries should be able to treat their patients in their own hospitals instead of sending them abroad which is costly because it involves payment with hard currency. Countries to which some patients from other states are referred to advanced medical treatment have worked very hard to improve and standardize their medical system. It has taken for them many years of hard work which involved medical research and quality production of medical equipment. Every nation has all the characteristics of development and these include the medical field. It is a matter of proper planning of development programmes and their execution to realize success from the efforts. South Sudan is a young country which still has a long way to go in all its development endeavours and this includes its health services. When our golden chance for achieving independence was in the offing, one of our worries was whether we have medical doctors to face the many medical challenges like the endemic, pandemic and epidemic diseases that bedevilled our country because Khartoum for many years had been implementing policies of zero development in several sensitive fields including health in South Sudan so that we could always be dependent on their doctors deliberately orchestrating our helplessness. Khartoum had trained many doctors at our own expenses and a big number of them serve as expatriate specialists in the Gulf countries and in the Arabian peninsula. But on celebration of our independence on 9^th July, 2011 it was discovered that during the years of struggle our young men and women had as their part of struggle for independence studied medicine and became doctors. This situation has somehow reduced our fear of being helpless in facing diseases like kalazaar, river blindness, leprosy, malaria to mention only a few among the many diseases prevalent in our beloved country. Our own young men and women who had chosen to study medicine will continue the struggle against the horror of diseases. It is understandable that as a young nation South Sudan cannot meet its obligations to render all the necessary services including health to its citizens. But in the case of our ministries of health at national and state levels they have to make use of the presence of the few doctors and engage them permanently in our young medical service and explore facilities and places for their specializations in friendly nations so that our people instead of going out of the country in search of better medical care they are treated here. Many countries have benefitted from the services of the World Health Organization (WHO) and South Sudan as a new member of the United Nations, should be supported by this agency whose mandate is to deal with health service globally. It should afford South Sudan some services in the field of training, avail it facilities for delivery of services to its citizens and consider it as a country starting from the scratch and therefore give it preference.

The appointment of Mutrif Siddig as Sudan ambassador in Juba is the NCP plan B against the new nation (Part 2-2)

Monykuer Jr — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:05:51 +0000

The first of this article had narrated unofficial translated life story of the man whom Khartoum had selected to represent it in Juba, as it had been written by Gamar Dilman. That security general Mutrif Siddig was in charge of the file of the assassination of former Egyptian President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, which had failed. That throughout the times he was responsible for the security file. That Security General Mutrif Siddig had led delegation of Khartoum regime to China to negotiate a purchase agreement of weapons, including ballistic missile of medium and short-range missiles and anti-tank missiles, and although Beijing denied the deal, but the Chinese magazine (Knawa) had confirmed after a year of the deal that Sudan had purchased an unspecified number of missiles, WS 2 multi-ever from China. Khartoum regime had already used the weapons in its war against the citizens of the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile, this deal shows precisely the tasks of Mutrif Siddig under cover of diplomatic and humanitarian affairs. In that part, question was raised about what is the mission that will be conducted by Major General of Security Mutrif Siddig as Ambassador for Khartoum in Juba? We mentioned that Mutrif Siddig while in South Sudan shall launch intelligence services for LRA fighters and Somali Shabaab Islamic terrorist groups, for Juba is wide open for the citizens of the neighbouring countries of Africa.

That General of Security Mutrif Siddig shall work with South Sudan NCP cells to provide much information about oil, the Nile Water in addition to plans of RSS government and the ruling party. That with his security background he will work to establish and support the South Sudan armed militias to destabilize the region for the National Congress Party is well known with arming of the tribes, in destruction of social system and inciting the tribes against each other. Another question was raised whether Juba will accept such an Ambassador who is behind the suffering of the people of South Sudan through the files; he had been holding (most notably southern militias and LRA file?)

After the South Sudan media houses had provided such classified information about the life story of a very dangerous person like Mutrif Siddig, the option is left to the leadership of the SPLM to decide whether such a person could bring peace or destruction to this new nation.

Appointing of such a person, who does not fear God and who is responsible for arming South Sudan tribes to slaughter themselves as it is now happening in Jonglei State, is considered as most dangerous plan planned by the NCP to reoccupy the oil fields to end the closure of oil pipelines as they did during the war when they had been using the South Sudanese militias to occupy the oil areas and where they had dug the oil wells by force with the help of countries like China, Iran and Russia among others.

The new nation should take precaution of some Sudanese Arab traders who are still operating in different places in the country including Juba, as well as Islamic organizations which are still operating in South Sudan, such as Islamic Daawa Organization, Islamic Relief Agency among others and whose staff are security personnel as well as others who work in international NGOs such as UNMISS and other UN agencies, companies staff who are Sudanese Arabs who are Mujahideen (Muslims warriors). Some pretend to be business persons but secretly they are security personnel of Sudan. Precaution should be taken when granting South Sudanese citizens to those whose parents are South Sudanese. They should not be trusted although they may be permitted to obtain the country’s nationality, because during the war, the Arabs from South Sudanese parents who know their mothers’ languages served as intelligence personnel for the security and they were responsible for human rights abuses and mass massacres of many poor innocent civilians in South Sudan. Therefore, the Arab traders in South Sudan should not be trusted because they will adhere to rules of South Sudan for most of Northern Sudanese traders during the war were security informants and they also were responsible of murdering South Sudanese within the SAF controlled areas. Furthermore, although we do sympathize with other Sudanese from Africa origin, precaution should be taken from them for not everybody who says SPLM Oyee believes in the SPLM vision. Finally, the senior leadership in the public institutions are advised to review the continuous process of hiring the foreign technicians to do sensitive works such as installing or repairing electricity among others in our public institutions and in the country’s VIP residents. This should be reviewed for security purpose, for there is no guarantee that such workers may reject a lot of US dollars they may get from the enemies, for they come to this country to get them and not because they love us.

In conclusion, the leadership of this new nation are advised to review the life story of the person the NCP had nominated to represent them in Juba before they could accept him as Khartoum ambassador in Juba whether the man could work for peace and mutual bilateral relations that could serve the two nations.

The author can be reached at: willitor2000@yahoo.com

Public Notification by Doctors’ Committee after recent strike in Juba Hospital

Monykuer Jr — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:02:49 +0000

You have been following what has been going on between the Doctors of Juba Teaching Hospital in one part and administration of the hospital and Ministry of Health on the other part.

It was a reaction of doctors towards the inefficiency of medical services which are supposed to be rendered to the patients by medical practitioners.

On 18^th Feb, 2012 we decided to stop work at the hospital for the following reasons:

1. No water and electricity supply in the mess of doctors.

2. No emergency drugs as well as medical equipment in hospital.

3. Patients are charged to see the doctors without our consultation.

4. Doctors are not valued by hospital administration.

5. Doctors are not employed in the system but working on contract basis and are not paid for almost two months.

Based on the above issues we completely stopped work and as a result a meeting was initiated by the Undersecretary of Ministry of Health on 19th Feb, 2012 and was attended by Hospital administration, Consultants and the Doctors’ committee.

After a long discussion of five hours, the Doctors’ committee refused to give their final decision but decided to call for a general meeting with all Doctors.

On 19th Feb night a general meeting held at 11 p.m., in that meeting the doctors lifted the strike partially i.e. covering only the emergency cases of all kinds for a period of one week meanwhile the Ministry of Health and administration of the hospital should fulfil the following:

1. Provision of emergency drugs- and equipment of one month for the hospital.

2. Improvement of hospital environment in outpatient department, pharmacy, wards, labour room, nursery and all operation theatres.

3. Payment of Doctors’ salaries to sustain their living.

But unfortunately the Undersecretary rejected the decision and instead wanted full resumption of activities while the Ministry is not in position of offering any of the above.

Then on 21^st, Feb 2012 the Undersecretary Ministry of Health again called for a meeting that should involve all Doctors, the meeting was conducted at 7 p.m. and lasted for almost four hours.

At the same meeting the representative of pharmaceutical supply Ministry of Health proposed a drugs sheet to be presented by pharmaceutical department of the hospital to find out if any of the drugs needed is present in stores of the ministry. Also the Undersecretary proposed some administrative arrangements and more effort to pay and appoint the unemployed Doctors but refused to give a definite dateline. Finally the Doctors decided to hold a separate meeting without the other parties to make their last decision.

On 22nd Feb, 2012 the Doctors met and came out with the following:

1. For the sake of patients and our patriotism we have decided to lift the strike for a period of two weeks from tomorrow the 23rd Feb 2012.

2. We will cover the whole outpatient department 24 hours.

3. Follow up of patients in all emergency wards.

4. All emergency operations will be done.

On the other hand we are giving time to the Ministry of Health to do more in finding the solutions to our demands. What won’t be done by the Doctors during the next 14 days include:

1. Referral clinics.

2. Elective operations.

3. Follow up of patients in chronic wards.

These are left for consultants to cover.

If the ministry of health and Juba hospital administration fail to fulfil the following:

1. Continuous water and power supply to doctors mess and Hospital.

2. Transportation of doctors not living nearby hospital.

3. Provision of emergency drugs and equipment promised.

4. New administrative regulations to improve the hospital and provide acceptable services to the nation.

We will resume the strike again to the higher degree after two weeks’ time.

Putting in mind that the Ministry of Health explained the difficulties they are facing in the permanent appointments of unemployed Doctors and difficulties for Doctors’ salaries which it frankly accepted because of the situation of the nation and the austerity measures on process.

Long live people of south Sudan

Long live leadership of President Kiir.

Doctors’ Committee:

Dr. Duk Stephen Chairperson

Dr. Abraham Majair Deputy chairperson

Dr. Festo Lado Secretary General

Dr. Victoria Athieng Member

Dr. Madot Athian Member

Dr. William Manot Member

Failed state symptomatic of reactionary leadership

Monykuer Jr — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:00:49 +0000

Introduction

A statement that a failed state is symptomatic of reactionary leadership is likely to be received with mixed emotions. Eye brows may be raised in anticipation of further elaboration. However, a critical analysis of realities on the ground may increase an understanding of the extent to which a failed state is symptomatic of reactionary leadership.

People in the world are of multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious societies. It is therefore not difficult to comprehend what the root causes of internal conflicts in a society may be. The root cause of internal conflicts is the lack of sensitivity to the differences within the society. There is always the unfair power and wealth sharing among the different groups. For example, one ethnic group may always try at any cost to maintain a dominant grip on power and wealth to the exclusion of others.

A challenge to such ethnic domination is considered by those in power as a threat to national unity. However, such tricks for ethnic domination disguised as endeavours for national unity are a deceptive cover for ethnic hegemony. This brings in the concept of reactionary leadership in relation to the extent to which a state becomes a failed state in the context of Sub Saharan Africa.

Characteristics of a failed state

It may be interesting to know what the characteristics of a failed state are. Foremost the glaring characteristic of a failed state is the absolute breakdown of rule of law and order. Many factors contribute to breakdown of rule of law and order. Human rights violation is one factor when it occurs in a scale that the system is unable to cope with and the subsequent massive reaction of those whose human rights are being violated that each takes the law into their hands. Another important factor is when heinous crimes are being perpetually committed and the system is unable to bring the perpetrators to justice leaving the victims with the perception that the state has failed them. One factor is the absolute lack of discipline in the system where juniors blatantly defy orders from seniors or from above. The management of the system is in shambles as indiscipline is rampant. Absolute irregularities in finances make the system to be heavily infested with greedy and corrupt money grabbers.

One important characteristic of a failed state are tribal or clan wars and also religious wars. Somalia in the Horn of Africa is a typical example of a failed state because of clan and religious wars. Recently radical Islamists have entered the scene in consolidating Somalia as indeed a failed state. In the final analysis a failed state is characterized by the absolute lack of a robust central system that can cope with all sorts of scenarios. The system itself may become part of the problem. This could be because the system was nothing but a composition of reactionaries involved in all sorts of things ranging from land and money grabbing to turning a blind eye to criminal activities because of vested interest. Naturally this wouldn’t be the way to build a nation.

Reactionary leadership

The word reactionary may be defined as tending to oppose especially political change to return to the former system. Reactionary leadership may therefore be seen as opposing reforms. In a country considered to be multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious reforms are inevitable for flexibility in accommodating diversities in nation-building. People fight a liberation war for a political change but not to return to the old system of oppression. Reactionary leadership tends to live in the dream world of the past. It is therefore not strange to associate a failed state with reactionary leadership that does not look beyond their noses. Mohamed Siyaad Barre of Somalia was probably a reactionary leader who contributed greatly to Somalia now being a failed state. He was instead paranoid of the unity of Somalia. Siyaad Barre increasingly personal and repressive rule did not bring in the necessary reforms to address the challenges facing his government. Ultimately Siyaad Barre’s repressive rule brought Somalia into a non-state situation people see today. Siyaad Barre’s reactionary leadership of turning clans against each other has made Somalia a failed state by all standards. The Somalia’s situation may offer a lesson to others in nation-building.

Revolutionary leadership

The word revolutionary involves great and often violent change or innovation and to innovate is to bring in new methods or ideas to make changes. It can be seen that revolutionary leadership is associated with change and innovation. This suggests that a revolutionary is creative and innovative unlike the somewhat backward looking reactionary. A revolutionary does not accept fossilised principles as a faith but a developing and creative science that reflects objective reality. They scrutinise reality, studying all aspects and developing theoretical conclusions to bring them in line with requirements of life on the ground. In short revolutionaries base their actions on scientific analysis and objective reality in addressing challenges. This is in contrast to the utopia of reactionaries who are whimsical in their actions. Reactionaries may rely on daydreaming in addressing challenges. In most case they get it wrong because of poor targeting and being unrealistic where challenges are not properly addressed. It is therefore no wonder that when the leadership is reactionary progression to a failed state situation may be rapid. Dynamic, progressive and revolutionary leadership may fare better in addressing challenges than reactionary leadership.

Choice to make

The choice here is between reactionary and revolutionary leadership. However, it is not so simplistic. There is no black and white dividing line between reactionary and revolutionary leadership. There are elements of both reactionary and revolutionary in a leader. It may be the degree to which one is inclined to either be a reactionary and revolutionary. Formation of political parties may give a clue as to whether they are reactionary and revolutionary. This may be revealed in their respective manifestos. However, manifestos may mostly reveal intentions of future course of action but not necessarily what has already been achieved. It is therefore unreliable to conclude from manifestos that one party is reactionary and the other is revolutionary. According to their manifestos all political parties would appear revolutionary. One factor, however, is missing from the equation. The equation is manifesto plus action equals reactionary or revolutionary (manifesto+action=reactionary or revolutionary). The missing factor is action. Evaluation is often carried out on the basis of what has been done (action) corresponding to the expressed intentions or objectives. More often action does not tally with the manifesto hence in practice mismanagement of state affairs may be sky high which may also progressively lead to a failed state situation. It is therefore what has been done (action) that can demonstrate whether a state has reactionary or revolutionary leadership. Making an informed choice is dependent on knowledge of leadership that is pragmatic, patriotic, uncompromising and has done what they had announced in public as their priorities. After a year in office one may have a fair view whether a leader has been reactionary or revolutionary. At the end of the term of office a fairly clearer picture will emerge whether the state was ruled by a reactionary or revolutionary leadership. The electorate then will have an informed choice assuming bribery or irregularities do not take place.

Political reforms

In any political system reforms are naturally inevitable. This is because the world is not monolithic but dynamic. Changes occur and it is through reforms that people keep pace with developments. Dictatorship either by reactionaries or revolutionaries may lead to tyranny and creation of the world of psychopants who sing songs the one in power wants to hear and be entertained with. How damaging this may be to nation-building is not clear. However, to steer clear of dictatorship reforms are necessary. One political reform is where any member of a party can nominate themselves or be nominated to fill any office in the political system. The restrictive nomination and endorsement system by a party polit-bureau is undemocratic as the bulk of ordinary members and sympathizers are excluded from the exercise. An example is the overwhelming success of one independent over the official candidate for the governorship of Western Equatoria State. The official candidate was nominated and endorsed by the party polit-bureau but the one not nominated and endorsed by the same party polit-bureau convincingly won in the elections. Other members were also nominated and endorsed by the party polit-bureau but failed miserably. This seems to call for reforms for the party to be reflective of democratic principles.

Conclusion

An electoral system where nominees battle it out in the open for members and sympathizers to elect the most popular nominee for a candidate for a political office is worth consideration. This system brings out the most popular candidate for election to political office. The popular candidate becomes the flag bearer of their political party. This is unlike when nominations and endorsements of candidates are done behind closed doors in the absence of popular participation by ordinary members. Some of the results in the last election showed clearly that what the party polit-bureau considered suitable candidates were not necessarily suitable to the electorate. This clearly should be a lesson for reforms to take place.

In conclusion, reactionary leadership is most likely to lead a country to a failed state situation. This is because reactionary leadership is preoccupied with survival skills of destruction without being innovative to overcome the characteristics of a failed state. When making a choice it is important to evaluate what has been done in relation to the party’s manifesto. More often the party’s manifesto hardly tallies with the actions promised to be carried out. In such a situation the choice should be obvious.

The author can be reached at jklupai@googlemail.com

Doctors Lift Strike in Juba Teaching Hospital

Monykuer Jr — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:00:52 +0000

JUBA – The doctors in Juba Teaching hospital resume work today on condition that they will resume their strike in two weeks’ time when their demands are not met. According to their document of public notification obtained by The Citizen, they have accepted to lift the strike after meeting with the administration.

Although the administration did not agree to implement all their demands they are resuming work because of their consideration of the suffering of the patients. The doctors agree to render all other services except referral clinics, elective operations and follow up of patients with chronic diseases. The doctors said they are resuming work on patriotism. Meanwhile the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health Matur Makur Kariom advised the doctors, registrar and housing officers at Juba Teaching Hospital to go back to work after five days of strike.

On Friday the Medical Staff at the main hospital in Juba notified the patients that they had halted all services in the hospital due to lack of water supply in doctors’ guest house for one month until then, lack of electricity in the mess, lack of basic facilities in the hospital to deliver acceptable services and said that dignity of doctors was not respected by the administration of the hospital among others.

The undersecretary said the reasons given by doctors for strikes were “genuine” but the actions that was taken by them was based on “misinformation”.

He said all the demands cannot be addressed immediately but the Ministry was trying its best to see that the patients got treatment.

“We cannot do some things today or next week and the doctors can go to work while we address those which can be done immediately,” Kariom said in an interview in his office yesterday.

In Juba Teaching Hospital only a senior medical doctor was the one giving medical services to all outpatients while the in-patient did not received doctors at early hours since Friday last week.

“Some doctors came and move around the wards but failed to give medicines or medical advice as usual since Friday and the people who are suffering most are the in-patients because they do not receive drugs nor any medical attention” a nurse working at Juba Teaching Hospital who preferred anonymity due to sensitivity of the matter told the Citizen.

The source further said that for some months now many patients bought their own drugs in the Pharmacy due to lack of medicine in the Hospital despite their admission.

“There is lack of medicine to supply all the patients coming to the hospital and some doctors have even resorted to working privately then paying attention to the patients at the hospital because of inadequate drugs and lack of facilities in Juba Teaching Hospital” the source said.

An old woman Parida Nasisa taking care of her daughter who was admitted two weeks before said that services got worse in the hospital on Friday when the doctors went on strike, and to make the matter worse there have been no medicine in the hospital and we used to buy outside but a poor person like me cannot afford buying medicines for weeks. It is a bad situation doctors do not work and no medicine for the patients,” she said through a translator.

Wau Security Arrests University Student with Pistol

Monykuer Jr — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:33:57 +0000

WAU – The confrontation between Bahr El Ghazal students divided on languages line, English and Arabic patterns has worsened with a first year student in the College of Economic and Social Studies from Arabic pattern group who is also a 2nd Lt in Sudan People’s Liberation Army caught with a pistol trying to confront a fellow student of English pattern last Monday.
The administration of the university has tried its best to convince students whose intention is to cause insecurity in the campus on the basis that the Arabic pattern in the University are marginalized by fellow students from English pattern whom several students from the former group expressed that the government supports them.
“Our government always takes side with English pattern in this University which we think will encourage more division within students in the campus,” said one student.
The security personnel sent by Western Bahr El Ghazal State authority intervened yesterday to quell the tension that was triggered by Economic and Social Studies students in the University which led to two students injured apart from previous incident caused by the second year students of the same college.
The English pattern in the University of Bahr El Ghazal are the majority thus the senior classes condemn the incidences and called upon their fellow students in junior classes of Economic and Social Studies to refrain from being irresponsible and to use good approach to handling issue of Arabic ban.
The University Dean of Students Affairs Stephen Gum denounced the action taken by some students by triggering insecurity in the campus and urged them to maintain their intellect sense.

Juba Says Committed to Fair Deal with Khartoum

Monykuer Jr — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:31:35 +0000

PALOUGE – The National Minister of Petroleum and Energy Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau yesterday upon visiting oil fields in Palouge of Upper Nile State confirmed technical completion of oil pipeline shut down but said South Sudan remains committed to reach fair deal with Khartoum to pay them transitional fees of less than one dollar per barrel. “We are committed to reach fair deal with Khartoum to pay them transitional fees of less than a dollar per barrel for oil production to resume,” said the Minister.
South Sudan last month decided to fully shut down its oil output over a row with Sudan about export transit fees pending agreement between the two on a transit fee and South accusing Khartoum of its oil theft.
Dhieu further said that government in Juba is committed to negotiate with Khartoum under the brokerage of African Union High Implementation panel in Addis Ababa.
“We will not pay Khartoum what it wants, we will pay them only what they deserve,” reiterated Dau.
The minister however stated that they will not resume oil production under restricted condition demanding $36 dollars.
“No resumption of oil production on the condition of Khartoum but on our own condition of less than a dollar per barrel and there will not be resumption unless our condition is met,” he said.

Meanwhile the South Sudan chief negotiator and the SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum Okiech doubted the possibility of oil production between the two countries to say we can resume pumping our oil to Sudan unless they change their decision of $ 36 dollars.
“South Sudan sees no possibility of oil production resumption with Khartoum,” maintained Amum adding that they are ready to pay transition fees as paid internationally citing example of Chad and Cameron.
He added that Khartoum decision to highly charge them with $36 per barrel as transitional fee forced them to think of building an alternative pipeline to other countries.
Juba after independence took three-quarters of Sudan’s oil production the lifeline of both countries’ economies but still needs to sell its crude through northern export facilities where theft of its oil was witnessed.
Government in Juba weeks ago decided to ink oil pipeline deal to Ethiopia via Djibouti.
Among the high delegation to Palouge were the Minister for Water and Irrigation, Deputy Ministers of Interior and Environment respectively.