The German Foreign Ministry opened yesterday a trade conference with Sudan in Berlin just months after an attack on their embassy in Khartoum.

The conference had been scheduled for mid-October but was called off after the German embassy was severely damaged during a protest by about 5,000 people on September 14. Sudanese policemen that day stood by when rioters pushed their way into the embassy, hoisted an Islamic flag, and set fire to the building. German diplomats sought shelter at the nearby British mission, which was not overrun.

Dignitaries participating in the opening ceremony yesterday included Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and his Sudanese counterpart Ali Ahmed Karti.

In a statement released before the conference began, the German Foreign Ministry said “the conference is intended to support the African Union-mediated peace process between the Sudan and South Sudan.” The statement added that Sudanese and South Sudanese governmental delegations brought plans and ideas to the conference in the areas of building, infrastructure, transport, mining, energy, water, health, education, agriculture and the food industry.

“Without economic development, there is no security, and without security, there is no economic development,” Minister Westerwelle said, as quoted by the German foreign ministry in a statement released after the conference.

The ministry also disclosed that Westerwelle and Karti met before the conference. It said that Westerwelle urged Sudan to resume cross-border with South Sudan, while Karti for his part “assured” the German leader that Sudan will stick to the Addis Ababa agreement with its southern neighbor.

The leftist newspaper Neues Deutschland reported that a crowd of about 50 people from the Sudanese diaspora along with German activists protested in front of the Foreign Ministry. Some scuffled with police, resulting in the arrests of three.

Other activists had used the campaigning website Avaaz.org to petition the German foreign ministry not to hold the conference, arguing that any support to the Sudanese government will lead to more attacks and displacement of civilians in the Nuba Mountains and Darfur.

Tuesday’s programme was backed by the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Afrika-Verein der Deutschen Wirtschaft, represented by Dr. Thomas Bach and Dr. Stefan Liebing, respectively.

Photo: Foreign Ministers Guido Westerwelle and Ali Karti in discussion in Berlin, 29 January 2013 (http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de)