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Sudan Tribune

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South Sudan blames NCP for failure to make unity attractive

By Ngor Arol Garang

December 16, 2010 (ABYEI) — Senior officials in the government of south Sudan and member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement on Thursday blamed National Congress Party of failure in making unity an attractive option during the last six years of interim period.

Barnaba Marial Benjamin, minister of information and broadcasting service categorically told Sudan Tribune that the National Congress Party had an intention of wanting the south Sudan to secede.

“A lot of people and particularly the uniformed northern community think South Sudanese have no reasons to secede from the north. They do not see what happened and who does it and why. The only thing they see as crime is referendum on self determination for the people of South Sudan,” said minister Marial.

He explained on 20th July 2003, parties to the conflict signed the Machakos Protocol, in which they reached specific agreement on a broad framework, setting out the principles of governance, the transitional process and the structures of the government as well as on the right to self-determination for the people of South Sudan, and on the state and religion.

“The Machakos protocol was very clear on self-determination. It allows South Sudanese to vote during an internationally monitored referendum to decide whether to remain part of united Sudan or secede. This is what the agreement says. It is not something the SPLM leadership invented from nowhere. It is from the agreement which we signed in the presence of international community with our partner, the National Congress Party,” he emphasized.

The minister, however, admitted that the CPA encourages giving unity option first priority.
“Yes, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement encourages the two parties to give unity option first priority but on the basis that it must be made attractive during the six years interim period.”

The conflict between the north and the south began in 1955 and continued for many years after independence of Sudan from Britain on the 1st January 1956. For over two decades, the NCP Khartoum based governments and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), the former main rebel movement predominantly members of southern tribes, have fought over resources, power, the role of religion in the state and self determination.

During the war, over two million people died while four million more mainly from the hotspot areas fled south to the north. Some 600,000 people from the south were also believed to have left the country and sought refuge in the neighboring countries of Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Congo to name but few.

Colonel Deng Thiep Akok, a former Aweil North county commissioner, Northern Bahr el Ghazal blamed Khartoum based government for failures to implement key issues in the comprehensive peace agreement.

“The north should blame nobody in case of secession of the south during the upcoming referendum. They should blame themselves and the national congress party. We have supported unity options since independence but have failed to show that we are one and the same people,” explained colonel Thiep.

The senior member of the southern ruling party, SPLM, said the north has always prepared unity of resources and disunity of the people by making them equal citizens before law and in power.

The pronouncements coincided with concession made by senior member of the National Congress Party in which is quoted as accepting that efforts to keep the country united had failed.

On Thursday, Presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie, a NCP leading figure viewed as strong supporter of unity said today it is “expected” that people from the oil-producing south would choose to declare independence in the Jan. 9 vote.

Citizens from the semi autonomous south are left with only just 24 days to go the poll scheduled to take place on the 9th January 2011, an exercise provided in the 2005 peace deal that ended decades of war with the north.

(ST)

6 Comments

  • Omoni Atari
    Omoni Atari

    South Sudan blames NCP for failure to make unity attractive
    Yes,you got it right sir,
    ” Unity of resourceses” Not for the people,They love the girls and they hate their parents..
    We are landowners. Let so called Unity comes to an end.
    Bravo SPLM officials for tell the truth and facts.

    Reply
  • Sudan virus
    Sudan virus

    South Sudan blames NCP for failure to make unity attractive
    I like this quotation from coln.Thiep SPLM member That “the North NCP is after unity of resources and disunity of people”.

    You are 100% correct.This means separation is the only option for us southerns.The Arabs do not want us the people but they want our resources.

    Reply
  • Victory
    Victory

    South Sudan blames NCP for failure to make unity attractive
    SPLM,

    I appreciat you guys for your efforst towards the people of south sudan,& i so impressd by what the sinor leader of said”unity for the resource & not for the people” thank you sir for making such statement. clarification

    Reply
  • Young Nation
    Young Nation

    South Sudan blames NCP for failure to make unity attractive
    The forceful composition of Sudan as an Arab and Islamic State by the minority Arab population to the exclusion of the vast indigenous Sudanese population, plus the allocation of national jobs in all fields on Arab and Islamic lines, togather with the inbalance regional development in terms of buget allocation since independence in 1956 is authentically what has been complicating, threatening and therefore strangling Sudan as a viable and unitary sovereign political entity.

    Despite this enormous and an escapable error commited by the North, the people of the North still feel as if they are not responsible for Sudan’s crisis and instead point a blaming finger the South for various rebellions in Sudan. What a culture of un accaptancy? I have never seen any brave member of any ruling Nothern elites critizing the North and sympathezing with the South in relation to Sudan’s political tragedy. Well, the South is going and I beg Northerners to at least accept the accountability of South Sudan’s secession on various Northern political parties as admitted by one of the Arab states, Libya. The breaking away of the South from the rest of Sudan is not a crime at all nor is it the first phemeninon of the 21st Century. Kosovo is a good example.

    Young Nation is a BA (International Realtions) Student at The University Of Queensland, Australia

    Reply
  • Kolong
    Kolong

    South Sudan blames NCP for failure to make unity attractive
    Mr. Minister, Benjamin; you are right in your speech but you have used a soft language which is totally different from what NCP and their proxies would have used…in fact NCP and their proxies thinks that southern Sudanese should be permanent slaves in their own land, something a sane person should not think of. So, we southerners did not have any other option other than go our way (secede).

    Secession is not a new thinking amongst southern Sudanese, it has been there since the start of southern struggle from Anyanya I. Indeed South Sudan would have been a state since 1972 if Abel Alier was not to abrogate the Addis Ababa agreement which had provided for a referendum that time.

    Many southern Sudanese are aware that CPA would have been dead long ago just like any other agreements signed with the northerners if it were not for the security provision for a separate army (SPLA) for the semi-autonomous region; these are our surities of a referendum. Many thanks to our southern Sudanese leadership who made sure the provision was sloted in the CPA. Now the citizens are ready to fulfil that dream.

    Encouraging unity as priority should have been NCP’s priority because they are the goverment and holders of majority seats in the national assembly…they should have championed the cause of making unity attractive through issuing decrees and adopting the necessary legislations. It was never to be done to date.

    Given momories of abrogation of previous agreements, late boarder demarcation, Abyei issue, outright rejection of a secular state option presented by southern Sudanese, dragging of feet in adoption of referendum laws including conflicting figures in the sharing of oil revenues; southern Sudanese have all the reasons to secede, why not! We only have to be vigilant of the acts of saboteurs like the recent filing of a court case against the SSRC by NCP and their proxies; meaning we should be able to execute our plan B for the referendum in case of any hinderance.

    To Col. Deng; I think NCP do not have themselves to blame in case south secedes, it was and is still what NCP wanted as evidenced by their acts…we just have to mobilise our fellow southern citizens to turn up in numbers during the referendum voting period, not doubt the world is awaiting the birth of a new nation.

    Separation OYEEEEEEE
    New Nation OYEEEEEEE

    Kolong

    Reply
  • Ujil
    Ujil

    South Sudan blames NCP for failure to make unity attractive
    This is the quotation of the day.
    Unity for resources and disunity of the people.
    I’m very impressed,really I feel good by col remark. thank you col

    Reply
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