Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for South Sudan
Newsline: UK embassy investigates arrest of Briton in Sudan
The British embassy was “urgently” investigating on Sunday the arrest in Sudan of one of its citizens, who was among four foreigners the Sudanese military said it captured in the tense Heglig oil region. “We are urgently investigating the arrest of a British national in Sudan,” an embassy spokesperson told AFP. “We immediately requested consular access”. Sudanese army spokesman, Sawarmi Khaled Saad, on Saturday identified the foreigners as a Briton, a Norwegian, a South African and a South Sudanese. “We captured them inside Sudan’s borders, in the Heglig area, and they were collecting war debris for investigation,” Saad said after the four were brought to the capital Khartoum. A colleague of one of the men said they were deminers working on the South Sudanese side of the border. The four were on a de-mining mission “and one of them was from the UN”, said Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. “We’re uncertain of the circumstances,” she added. In the most serious fighting since the South’s independence, Juba’s troops occupied Sudan’s main oil region of Heglig for 10 days, a move which coincided with Sudanese air strikes against the South. Sudan declared on April 20 that its troops had forced the Southern soldiers out of Heglig, but the South said it withdrew of its own accord. South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July last year after a peace deal ended one of Africa’s longest civil wars, which killed about two million people between 1983 and 2005.
http://www.emirates247.com/news/world/briton-among-four-arrested-in-sudan-embassy-2012-04-30-1.456365
Newsline: South Sudan Inaugurates Embassy in China
President Kiir on his visit to China inaugurated the South Sudan Embassy located in Beijing, China’s Capital City. The ceremony was attended by diplomats of foreign missions accredited to the People’s Republic of China. According to President Kiir, the presence of this embassy in China is a signal to a new chapter for the people and the governments of the two countries. The presence of the embassy will help to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries and South Sudan hopes that relations between the two countries will be for mutual benefit in trade, economy, technology, people to people contacts on business opportunities as well as tourism.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201204270892.html
Newsline: Diplomatic battle over South Sudan’s troop exit
The rival Sudans kept up a diplomatic battle over the disputed oil town of Heglig, even as South Sudan said it would withdraw its troops. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the two sides to return to negotiations “immediately” as their envoys traded barbs at the UN headquarters. But the differing versions over the fate of the oil town — which the South’s troops entered 10 days ago — underscored the heightened antagonism between the two sides. Sudan’s UN Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman said the South’s troops had been hunted out. “They have been cornered, we fought against them and we chased them out. It is not a withdrawal, we ran them out,” the envoy told reporters. “An orderly withdrawal will be completed within the next three days or 72 hours,” South Sudan’s UN Ambassador Agnes Oswaha countered, reaffirming an announcement by President Salva Kiir. South Sudan broke away from the north following a referendum under a 2005 peace deal that ended a two-decade civil war in which more than two million people died. The South’s ambassador said Heglig, which the South calls Panthou, remains South Sudanese territory and the dispute must be decided by international arbitration along with “other contested areas along the shared border.” “Instability could reoccur” if international action for a full solution to territorial disputes is not carried out, she said. Salva Kiir was ready to go to a neutral location for a summit with the north’s President Omar al-Bashirm, the envoy said. The UN leader “takes note” of South Sudan’s announcement that it will pull out of Heglig, said UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey. Ban urged both governments “to resume negotiations immediately” under a mediation effort led by African Union envoy Thabo Mbeki, the former South African president.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1644251/Diplomatic-battle-over-S-Sudans-troop-exit
Newsline: Kenyan mission in South Sudan faces closure over rent
The Kenyan embassy in Juba is threatened with closure over a rent dispute, as other missions around the world face budget cuts of up to 40 percent following the steep depreciation of the Kenya shilling in the past month and a half. The landlady who owns the building that houses the Kenyan embassy in downtownJubahas issued a quit notice citing rent arrears of $66,000. The one-storey building costs the government $11,000 per month in rent and the landlady is demanding the money owed to her since May. But the Kenya ambassador to the Republic of South Sudan, Mr Cleland Leshore, said the amount is disputed because the embassy had paid up to August. According to Mr Leshore, the embassy only owes the landlady $33,000, for which a cheque has been issued. However, he added, she has refused to pick it up, and is instead demanding for more money. He said when the embassy took over the building in 2009, it incurred expenses for painting, installing a water tank, purchasing a generator and other work totalling $14,000. Mr Leshore maintained that the issue will be resolved soon, since lawyers representing the two sides are currently negotiating. After the signing of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the then Government of Southern Sudan offered Kenya a 2-acre plot in Thong Piny area near the airport to build an embassy, however the construction work had to wait until The South became independent. A request for $5 million to establish a fully fledged embassy inJubawas turned down during the 2011/2012 financial year. Meanwhile, with the continued weakening of the Kenya shilling against the dollar, there is growing anxiety at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the operations of its foreign missions could be seriously affected given that additional funding must be approved by parliament.
Newsline: UK appoints ambassador to Republic of South Sudan
TheUKgovernment appointed Alastair McPhail as ambassador to the newly independent Republic of South Sudan. On 9 July the Republic of South Sudanwas established, after the vote carried out in January 2011 in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed withNorth Sudanin 2005. McPhail has been working as Consul General toSouth Sudansince March 2011. During the 2004-2005 period he was UK Special Representative for Sudan and during 2002-2004 Head of Sudan Unit in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The British diplomat attended every round of the negotiations on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement from the first session at Machakos to the final session at Naivasha. He described the upgrading of the mission to an embassy as “a key step in strengthening the relationship between our two nations. I look forward to the years ahead”. The ambassador said theUK“will supportSouth Sudan’s membership of the Commonwealth and other international organisations.” Nicholas Kay, who previously responsible for South Sudan from theKhartoumembassy is now responsible for a significantly smaller country said on his blog that the UK is “ready for a new future inSudan,” and described McPhail as his “excellent colleague in Juba”. At the independence day celebrations the UK’s foreign secretary, William Hague, said the UK Government stands with the people of South Sudan “as they seek a future of stability and prosperity” and will use its “enhanced diplomatic presence” to work alongside the South Sudanese people and to meet their aspirations.
http://www.sudantribune.com/UK-appoints-ambassador-to-Republic,39491
