Bashir vows to overthrow South's "insect" SPLM Government
In what could be a step closer to a re-launch of the war between the former united Sudan’s north and south, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said his "main goal" was to free South Sudan's citizens from the ruling SPLM party. The declaration by Bashir follows a series of clashes along the border between the two countries.
“Our main goal is liberation of the southern citizens from the SPLM," he told members of Sudan's ruling National Congress Party, referring to the South's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
"The story began in Heglig, but it will end in Khartoum or Juba," he said, referring to a disputed oil-producing region, adding that there would be "good news" from the border region soon, Reuters reported.
Other reports have Bashir speaking much more harshly regarding the situation, with the Sudanese president threatening to overthrow the “insect” government of South Sudan. Bashir said it was Khartoum’s responsibility to its “brothers” in South Sudan.
Perhaps Bashir forgot that he spent the nearly the past 20 years trying to annihilate his “brothers” in the south.
The Sudanese president went on to say that the SPLM was not a government, but a movement. "We call it an insect ... trying to destroy Sudan, and our main target from today is to eliminate this insect completely. "There are two choices: Either we end up in Juba or they end up in Khartoum. The old borders cannot take us both," Bashir said speaking to a youth rally.
"In a few hours you are going to listen to good news from your brothers in Heglig."
"Heglig will not be the end. The end will be in Juba," the South's capital, said Bashir, as his audience sang songs of jihad.
Bashir’s speech follows a discussion by the UN Security Council on sanctions against both the north and south however, this saw backlash from Omar Dahab, head of the foreign ministry's crisis team who said that penalizing both the aggressor and the victim would be wrong, Khartoum of course is claiming to be the victim in this scenario, which in this case it could be as the Heglig fields are clearly on the northern side of the poorly defined border and troops from Juba have no place there.
While Bashir spouts threats in Khartoum, soldiers are dying on the border. Reports from AP have 22 soldiers dead in clashes that spread to a new area near the town of Meiram, along the border with Sudan's South Kordofan state and South Sudan's Northern Bahr el Ghazal state.
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