JUBA – Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir said Friday he wanted peace and normal relations with South Sudan in his first visit there since it split off from his country in 2011 after decades of civil war. The neighbors agreed in March to resume pumping oil through pipelines from south to north and ease the tensions which had threatened to reignite the war between them that had killed more than two million people. Diplomats hope Bashir's visit will help the two sides overcome deep mistrust and solve their remaining disputes over the ownership of Abyei and other contested border regions. Bashir, who canceled a visit to Juba a year ago when border fighting almost flared into full-scale war, said in a speech in the southern capital that he had ordered Sudan's borders with South Sudan to be opened for traffic. “I have instructed Sudan's authorities and civil society to open up to their brothers in the Republic of South Sudan,” Bashir said, alongside South Sudan's President Salva Kiir. Kiir said he had agreed with Bashir to continue talks to solve all conflicts over disputed regions along their volatile 2,000 km (1,200 mile) frontier. “I and President Bashir agreed to implement all cooperation agreements,” Kiir said. After their meeting in the presidential office, Bashir, who invited Kiir to visit Khartoum, swapped his business suit for a traditional white robe to join Friday prayers in the Kuwaiti-built mosque in central Juba. “I came to Juba because we now have the biggest chance to make peace,” he told 400 Muslim worshippers from South Sudan and the Sudanese expatriate community. “We won't go back to war. President Kiir and I agreed that the war was too long,” said Bashir, who last visited Juba to attend South Sudan's independence ceremony on July 9, 2011. “We need to live in harmony. We need peace between Sudan and South Sudan,” said 22-year-old engineering student Robert Mori. – Reuters
