http://www.sudantribune.com/Sudan-s-bid-to-join-EAC-rejected,40873
Sudan’s bid to join EAC rejected as South Sudan’s deferred
November 30, 2011 (NAIROBI) – Sudan’s request to be admitted to the
East Africa Community (EAC) has been officially rejected, in a major
diplomatic blow to Khartoum’s ambitions of joining the regional bloc.
Meanwhile, Sudan’s president al-Bashir has reacted by hinting at a
conspiracy to turn his country into a pariah state.
Last June, Sudan requested to join the EAC which is a regional
intergovernmental organization comprised of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania,
Rwanda and Burundi with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The rejection of Sudan’s application was contained in a communiqué
issued on Wednesday at the conclusion of the EAC’s head-of-states
summit held in Bujumbura, Burundi.
The ill fate of Sudan’s application to join EAC came as no surprise in
view of the objections raised earlier in the week during the EAC’s
council of ministers by officials from two member states, Tanzania and
Uganda, over Khartoum’s request.
A Ugandan official quoted by the Kampala-based Daily Monitor newspaper
this week revealed that his country along with Tanzania had objected
to Khartoum’s lack of democracy and treatment of women.
“We rejected their application after looking at several issues like
their democracy, the way they treat women and their religious politics
and we feel they don’t qualify at all,” Eriya Kategaya, Uganda’s
minister for East African Affairs said.
Article 3 (3) of the EAC charter stipulates that membership is
contingent upon adherence to universally acceptable principles of good
governance, democracy, the rule of law, observance of human rights and
social justice.
Furthermore, having shared borders is a requirement for the EAC
membership which Sudan does not meet.
The fact that Uganda had objected to Sudan’s request is also of little
surprise given long-strained relations between Khartoum and Kampala.
Sudan accuses Kampala of providing a sanctuary to rebel group from
Darfur region while Uganda appears to be distrustful of Khartoum’s
claims that it has ceased support for the Lord Resistance Army (LRA).
In the meantime, Sudan’s president Omer al-Bashir on Wednesday accused
unnamed “foreign quarters” of seeking isolate Sudan from its African
milieu.
Addressing the 34th session of the Union of African Parliaments held
in Khartoum, Bashir said that Sudan had successfully defied attempts
to bring it down through economic sanctions.
“Now there are attempts by some foreign quarters to impose a state of
political isolation on Sudan and keep it away from its African
milieu,” he said.
South Sudan’s request to join EAC deferred
In a related context, the EAC’s head-of-states summit deferred
application of the newly-independent state of South Sudan to join the
regional bloc for further scrutiny.
According to the summit’s final communiqué, South Sudan’s application
is to be deferred to the EAC’s council of ministers to decide whether
it undergo further scrutiny to decide whether it met the benchmarks.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July this year after voting in a
referendum granted under the 2005 peace deal which ended more than two
decades of civil wars between the north and the south.
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Received on Thu Dec 01 2011 - 09:49:45 EST