By:
The New Sudan Vision (NSV), www.newsudanvision.com
August 27, 2008 (Juba NSV) - The President of the Republic of Sudan, Omar Hassan El Bashir was scheduled to arrive in South Sudan capital of Juba Wednesday morning just half-an-hour after NSV went online.
“He is coming to sign some contracts or agreements [that have] to do with the dams,” a minister in GOSS who declined to be named told The New Sudan Vision. “After the issue of Ocampo [the ICC prosecutor], it appears to me he is coming to rally the Sudanese people behind his case,” added the official, after he was asked if he thought there were any sinister reasons behind Mr. Bashir’s visit, aside from his pledge to assist with south Sudan development.
The President, who is not a regular visitor to Juba is being received at a government level with scarcely any public support, according to the source. “It’s normal, everybody is doing his daily work. There is no popular welcome [of Bashir].” However, few supporters of the National Congress Party, admits an informant, were expected at the airport to greet Bashir.
The low-key reception of Mr. Bashir is a testimony to the paling relationship between the southern Sudan populace and the Khartoum led government. The unpopular tour of southern Sudan by President Bashir is a stark comparison to his triumphant arrival in Darfur, where he was greeted by the thousands, just a few days after the ICC indictment.
He had gone there to shore up support to roll back the ICC‘s omens.
On July 14, 2008, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) presented evidence accusing Bashir of “committing crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.” This indictment of Bashir by the ICC, says one official, is a “blessing in disguise.” He argued that “Now he [President Bashir] is beginning to move. He says he is going to construct lots of dams on the Nile.”
In a partnership characterized by disagreements and mistrust, even this President Bashir’s rare trip is being greeted with skepticism.
There are already charges of unilateralism labeled against Bashir as far as the contracts are concerned. “These are contracts in which the government of southern Sudan was not even consulted. I really doubt that we will have a role to play,” said the minister
