Sudan and Chad agreed to end hostilities - official

December 27, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan and its neighboring Chad have agreed to end hostilities against each other, said spokesperson of the foreign ministry in Khartoum today.

The Chadian foreign minister Moussa Faki Mahamat, heading a high level security delegation, was this week in Khartoum where he met Sudanese Omer Al-Bashir on Thursday, and held talks with presidential adviser Ghazi Salah Al-Deen Attabani and intelligence chief Mohamed Atta Al-Moula.

Moussa said they had agreed to implement the already signed agreements which deal mainly with the control of joint border and presence of rebel groups in their respective territories.

"Chadian-Sudanese relations will witness a major breakthrough in the coming days," said Sunday Muawiya Osman Khalid Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who further said that the two countries had agreed to stop all forms of hostilities between the two countries at both the military and the media levels.

Khalid also said they agreed to increase the political engagement between the two countries through exchange visits at the different levels including the border towns.

He also indicated that a Sudanese military delegation would travel to Ndjamena within two weeks to discuss implementation of security and military issues as it is agreed in the signed agreement.

According to a non-aggression pact signed in the Senegalese capital, on the sidelined of the Islamic Conference summit on March 13, 2008, the two countries agreed to deploy a monitoring force to ensure stability on the joint border and to establish a contact group composed of Congo, Eritrea, Gabon, Libya and Senegal.

According to the deal, Chad will supply its own soldiers to patrol its own border, Sudan will supply its own soldiers to patrol its own border, and the peace and security force will become a mechanism for observing the two countries.

According to Dakar agreement, an aerial and satellite surveillance would be used to identify the troops movement across the border.

Speaking to Miraya FM on Sunday, the Chadian Consul in Khartoum Hussein Jeddah said his country would ban the activities of the Sudanese rebels inside its territories in implementation of the signed deals between the two countries.

The diplomat disclosed Sudan had evacuated the Chadian rebels at four hundreds kilometers from the joint border.

During the last four years, Sudan and Chad traded accusation of supporting rebel groups who attacked the two capitals and remain active along the border areas.

Khalid stressed that the recent move between the Chad and Sudan is not tactical or related to Darfur peace process in Doha but rather expresses a strategic issue for the two neighbors that have interdependent interests.

Source:sudantribune.com/

Sudan Parl't to vote on referendum law

The office of Sudan National Congress Party says the dispute between the ruling party and Sudan People's Liberation Movement about referendum on Southern independence, concerns the participation of the southern who live outside the region.

The head of the office, Ghazi Salah al-din, released on Monday the news in a statement, a copy of which was received by Al-Alam.

The statement said that the removal of the clause 3 of the article 27 on referendum law, created a lot of disagreements between the two parties.

According to this clause, those Sudanese citizens who belong to southern Sudan ethnic groups and have not had permanent residence since January 1956, do not have rights to participate in the referendum.

Sudan's parliament was due to vote again on Monday on the referendum law.

"We agreed on the fact that the law on the referendum will be resubmitted to parliament on Monday to be adopted with the article that had been removed," said Riek Mashar of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

On Tuesday, MPs from the SPLM and other southern parties walked out in protest at a new clause allowing diaspora southerners -- including those in the north who could be subject to northern influence -- to cast absentee ballots

Source:alalam.ir/

Gift sent to Abdelrazik while in Sudan returned because "unknown at embassy"

MONTREAL — Abousfian Abdelrazik's ordeal gained national attention last year, as supporters fought for the Sudanese-Canadian to return home to Canada after his six year ordeal trapped in Sudan.

But it seems that not everyone at the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum, where Abdelrazik stayed for a year, knew about their house guest, or they had simply forgot.

At least that's what the red scribble on a care package sent to Abdelrazik seemed to indicate.

A gift sent months ago to Abdelrazik by supporters in Montreal was returned to the group recently because the recipient was "unknown at embassy."

"We were all surprised," said Maria Forti, a member for Project Fly Home, which campaigned for Abdelrazik's return to Canada.

"He was probably the most surprised because he had known the people at the embassy, because he had been living there for about a year," she said, about the mysterious message written on the box.

"It was absurd, and I had a lot of frustration about that. For me, it's a big lack of respect towards Abousfian," Emilie Breton, also a member of Project Fly Home said, adding she felt enraged that a simple gift from friends could be refused.

The package was sent in April as a way of keeping Abdelrazik's spirits high, as he battled Canadian officials for his right to return home.

Abdelrazik was told a package arrived for him, but that he would not be able to receive it.

To top it off, Canada Post rubbed a little more salt in the wound.

"We ended up having to pay a $120 return to sender fee," said Forti, adding the group who sent the package had already dished out $130 to send the gift to Sudan in the first place.

"We had no idea that we would be required to pay the return to sender fee when actually the recipient was living where we said he was living," said Forti, giving an exasperated laugh.

Abdelrazik was arrested in Sudan in 2003 while visiting his sick mother and spent almost six years in prison because of alleged links to terrorist organizations.

He was released but due to passport problems he couldn't return home and was forced to stay at the embassy for 14 months before finally returning this past June.

At a meeting this week with Forti and others, Abdelrazik finally opened his gift, which finally made its way back to Canada in late November.

Forti described opening the package, like unsealing a time capsule, as letters, and photos from supporters were stuffed inside, as well as DVDs, a button down shirt, a pair of sandals and an Arab-French dictionary.

"He was really happy to get it back," said Forti "He loved it, he was glad he finally got all that stuff."

"I guess it reminded him of the long year he passed alone in the embassy, but also it was good for him to see there were people trying to help him," Breton said.

Foreign Affairs did not have an immediate answer as to why the note on the package suggested the embassy did not know Abdelrazik was there.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hMNWYKwxo33cSF--cu3Islj2pyXg