A delegation of five Members of Parliament from the Republic of Sudan on Monday visited Uganda and handed to the Ugandan Deputy Speaker of parliament, Jacob Oulanyah, a letter of peace, calling on Uganda’s parliament to intervene and mediate to stop Sudan and South Sudan from going for an all-out-war.
Led by the Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Ahmed Abdulrahman Mohammed, who said he was sent by the Speaker of the Sudan parliament, the MPs said they were concerned that their two countries were on the brink of a war that could be resolved through peaceful means.
Oulanyah, who met and received the letter on behalf of Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, said that he would communicate the message immediately Kadaga returned.
He told the visiting legislators that the Ugandan parliament would work together with other regional parliaments to form a joint inter parliamentary committee to try and prevent the conflict from getting worse.
The two countries, until July last year one nation, are currently fighting each other over an oil-rich region in Heglig, along their common border.
Oulanyah said that it is very much in the interest of Uganda to use all available opportunities to forestall any planned wars between the two neighboring countries because any conflict would cause suffering to Uganda as well.
He said that the Ugandan parliament was going to take an immediate decision at organizing a joint committee of regional MPs to urgently intervene and help where it can, to prevent an all out war.
//Cue In: “In the meantime we think………”
Cue Out: “……..situation from getting worse.”//
The Sudan parliamentary delegation said they do not want their country to go to war with South Sudan, but to use peaceful means to solve their border disagreements. They appealed to their Ugandan counterparts to spread a message of hope and peace to their nationals.
The legislators welcomed the idea of a joint committee on peace to travel to their country and assess the situation with a view of intervening to mediate peace through talks.
They said their coming to Uganda’s parliament emanates from the belief that parliament is a representative of the people whose real common problems include peace, stability and development of the continent and not war.
They said that a number of political decisions in the past have been counterproductive to the betterment of the continent, a situation that should be reversed.
//Cue In: “We would like leadership….”
Cue Out: “….by the behavior of us politicians.”//
The Sudan delegation visited in the company of the Khartoum’s Ambassador to Kampala, Hussein Awad Ali.
Immediately after their statements, the delegation refused to take questions from curious journalists who wanted to know what kind of message they had and what preparations they expected from the regional MPs.
The meeting was also attended by Hood Katuramu, Chairperson of the parliamentary Foreign affairs committee here.
A delegation of five Members of Parliament from the Republic of Sudan on Monday visited Uganda and handed to the Ugandan Deputy Speaker of parliament, Jacob Oulanyah, a letter of peace, calling on Uganda’s parliament to intervene and mediate to stop Sudan and South Sudan from going for an all-out-war.
Led by the Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Ahmed Abdulrahman Mohammed, who said he was sent by the Speaker of the Sudan parliament, the MPs said they were concerned that their two countries were on the brink of a war that could be resolved through peaceful means.
Oulanyah, who met and received the letter on behalf of Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, said that he would communicate the message immediately Kadaga returned.
He told the visiting legislators that the Ugandan parliament would work together with other regional parliaments to form a joint inter parliamentary committee to try and prevent the conflict from getting worse.
The two countries, until July last year one nation, are currently fighting each other over an oil-rich region in Heglig, along their common border.
Oulanyah said that it is very much in the interest of Uganda to use all available opportunities to forestall any planned wars between the two neighboring countries because any conflict would cause suffering to Uganda as well.
He said that the Ugandan parliament was going to take an immediate decision at organizing a joint committee of regional MPs to urgently intervene and help where it can, to prevent an all out war.
//Cue In: “In the meantime we think………”
Cue Out: “……..situation from getting worse.”//
The Sudan parliamentary delegation said they do not want their country to go to war with South Sudan, but to use peaceful means to solve their border disagreements. They appealed to their Ugandan counterparts to spread a message of hope and peace to their nationals.
The legislators welcomed the idea of a joint committee on peace to travel to their country and assess the situation with a view of intervening to mediate peace through talks.
They said their coming to Uganda’s parliament emanates from the belief that parliament is a representative of the people whose real common problems include peace, stability and development of the continent and not war.
They said that a number of political decisions in the past have been counterproductive to the betterment of the continent, a situation that should be reversed.
//Cue In: “We would like leadership………..”
Cue Out: “……….by the behavior of us politicians.”//
The Sudan delegation visited in the company of the Khartoum’s Ambassador to Kampala, Hussein Awad Ali.
Immediately after their statements, the delegation refused to take questions from curious journalists who wanted to know what kind of message they had and what preparations they expected from the regional MPs.
The meeting was also attended by Hood Katuramu, Chairperson of the parliamentary Foreign affairs committee here.
Later, Ambassador Awad Ali pointed at the allegations that Uganda was arming insurgents in the Darfur region. Uganda, on the other hand, has accused the Sudan of re-arming the Lord’s Resistance Army Commander Joseph Kony.
Ambassador Awad Ali said the joint commission would establish the truth behind the allegations.
The visiting MPs branded South Sudan, which broke away to become a republic in July last year, as an aggressor whose 15,000 troops had forcefully occupied areas in Kafan Dadi, Kafia Kenji, Girba Kawda, Buhairat Abier Elfog, Olo and Heglig.
Mahdi Ibrahim said unlike the misinformation that the North was bombing the South, these areas where the Sudan government planes have been bombing are in the North according to the 1956 boundary agreed upon in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement as the common border.
