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STORY: UN / SOUTH SUDAN - HELGIG WITHDRAWAL
TRT: 3.32
SOURCE: UNTV / UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 20 APRIL 2012, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
20 APRIL 2012, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Ambassador Ali Osman of Sudan walks up to the stakeout position
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
3. Close up, reporter’s notepad
20 APRIL 2012, NEW YORK CITY
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, Permanent Representative of Sudan to the United Nations:
“Our heroic armed forces, Sudanese armed forces, have chased out the aggressors today from Heglig. As I have said from this podium before, when the Security Council and the Secretary-General sent strong calls and messages to the government of the south to withdraw, and withdraw immediately and unconditionally, I said, we will wait for some time and we will monitor the behaviour of the government of the south and the aggressors to see if they are going to heed to these calls. They didn’t. This is the 10th day and then we have exercised the right of self defence in consistence with article 51 of the Charter and we have chased them out.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
5. Med shot, cameras
20 APRIL 2012, NEW YORK CITY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, Permanent Representative of Sudan to the United Nations:
“It’s high time for the Security Council and the international community to send also a strong message for the government of the south to disassociate itself from the rebel factions and to stop destabilising not only Sudan, the whole region.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
7. Close up, reporter’s notepad
20 APRIL 2012, NEW YORK CITY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, Permanent Representative of Sudan to the United Nations:
“We are a peace loving state. We are not warmongers. We hope that the government of the south learned their lesson and then concentrate in building their state, for which we have all respect and we will cooperate with the people of the south of Sudan to build their new state, to live in peace, and I thank you very much.”
UNMISS – 20 APRIL 2012, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
9. Wide shot, briefing to diplomatic community and media
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Barnaba Marial Benjamin, South Sudan's Information Minister:
11. “The Republic of South Sudan announces that the Sudan People’s Liberation Army troops have been ordered to withdraw from Panthou Heglig. An orderly withdrawal will commence immediately and shall be completed within three days.”
12. Med shot, journalists
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Barnaba Marial Benjamin, South Sudan's Information Minister:
“The decision to pull out from Panthou Heglig is without prejudice to our stand that Panthou remains an integral part of the Republic of South Sudan. We therefore expect that the final status of Panthou Heglig and other disputed border areas will be referred for international arbitration on the final determination of their status.”
14. Med shot, briefing room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Barnaba Marial Benjamin, South Sudan's Information Minister:
“Our President said, I will not take again the people of the Republic of South Sudan into war. We have been maintaining a defensive position. This is not weakness, it is not cowardice, it is responsibility.”
12. Wide shot, end of briefing
Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman of Sudan announced today (20 April) that his country’s “heroic armed forces” had “chased out” South Sudanese forces from the town of Heglig.
Ali Osman noted that in recent days Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council had urged the government of the south to “withdraw immediately and unconditionally” from the town, which produces almost half of Sudan’s oil output.
The Ambassador said that Sudan had waited out for “the aggressors to see if they are going to heed to these calls” and added that after ten days, it had “exercised the right of self defence in consistence with article 51 of the Charter.”
Ali Osman insisted that Sudan is “a peace loving state” and not “warmongers.”
He expressed hope that the government of the south “learned their lesson” and pledged to “cooperate with the people of the south of Sudan to build their new state, to live in peace.”
Meanwhile in Juba, South Sudan announced it will pull its armed forces (SPLA) from the contested oil region on its own accord.
Speaking to members of the diplomatic community and journalists, the country’s Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said the President Salva Kiir had ordered the immediate withdrawal of the SPLA troops.
Benjamin said that “an orderly withdrawal will commence immediately and shall be completed within three days.”
The recent seizure and occupation of Heglig town and its oil fields by South Sudan's army, led world leaders and the Security Council to demand an immediate and unconditional end to SPLA’ s withdrawal and all fighting.
The Information Minister insisted that the decision to pull out “is without prejudice to our stand that Panthou Heglig remains an integral part of the Republic of South Sudan” and expects that the final status of the town and other disputed border areas “will be referred for international arbitration.”
This been his been the worst border violence between Sudan and South Sudan since secession last July.
Benjamin said that the decision to withdrawal “is not weakness, it is not cowardice, it is responsibility.”
In his statement the information minister said both Sudan and South Sudan needed to acquire a greater sense if impartiality in any negotiation process. He said the unresolved issues that are critical to the final resolutions of the outstanding issues needed to be brought into sharper focus.
South Sudan became independent from Sudan in July last year, six years after the signing of the peace agreement that ended decades of warfare between the north and the south. However, the peace between the two countries has been threatened recently by clashes along their common border and outstanding post-independence issues that have yet to be resolved.
