Politics
South Sudan to Sudan: Free our citizens
South Sudan has called on the United Nations to push Sudan to free dozens of its citizens that the later was holding in slavery.
Chief negotiator Pagan Amum said Sudan declined Tuesday, during talks in Addis Ababa to discuss the fate of “more than 35,000 South Sudanese citizens, who were abducted during the war and who were today languishing and existing as slaves in Sudan”.
“We have made all the documentations of their whereabouts; with whom they are; which chiefs, villages where they are,” Mr Amum told reporters.
The talks, which were scheduled to focus on oil, citizenship and borders, collapsed after South Sudan claimed that Sudan tabled an unacceptable version of the proposed oil deal.
Arbitration
The Khartoum (Sudan) delegation said transit fees varied depending on market forces.
On borders, South Sudan said it would go for an international arbitration.
The next round of talks was scheduled for February 23, according to Mr Amum.
He said the Sudanese delegation evaded the issue of slaves.
“The Government of Sudan is refusing the freedom of those citizens who are languishing under slavery. This is making the Sudanese state condoning slavery. This is against the international law,” Mr Amum said.
He said: “The freedom of South Sudanese will not be complete if there is one single South Sudanese in slavery anywhere,” adding that: “We are raising it to the African Union and we are taking this to United Nations.”
President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, in August last year abolished a committee formed by the two sides to seek avenues through which the slaves could be freed.
Some members of the committee protested against the decision, to no avail.