Yes, peaceful demonstration must continue!!

By Luk Kuth Dak

December 16, 2009 — After months of tension between the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement, SPLM, and the so-called National Congress Party, NCP, of tyrant Omer al-Basher, over the implementation of the comprehensive Peace Agreement, CPA, the NCP and NIF have finally gave in to the legitimate demands of peace process in Sudan, but only after the unheard citizens decided to join hands in a peaceful demonstrations, which were viciously and mercilessly cracked down by thousands of armed policemen and the so-called National Security Agency.

By now, anyway, the CPA should have been implemented already, if the SPLM leaders were listening to our warnings, that the only way to deal with NIF/NCP is to give them the taste of their own medicine—which is confrontation, literally.

Unfortunately, Ustaz Pa’gan Amum, the SPLM Secretary General was quoted ( yesterday) as saying: “ We have gotten what we wanted it.” My reaction was that of a total shock! I have a tremendous respect for the man, both as a person and a leader. As a matter of fact, I came to his rescue when some of his colleagues were digging their heads in the sand, all the while he was being butchered alive by the regime’s hard-liners, in the aftermath of the comments he made that “ Sudan is a failed state.”

But of all the politicians in South Sudan, I though Ustaz Amum would be the last one to rush to conclusion, and to make that premature statement that all of the differences have now been settled, once and for all. However, when you go over the documents published by al-Sharq al-Awsat Arabic daily newspaper, issues of utmost importance, such as the border demarcation ( a time bomb) and the disarmament of the heavily equipped NIF Southern militias, were nowhere to be found.

Now, does Secretary General actually think that the dire and worsening security situation in South Sudan- under his watch- is not a priority? If so, then, how does he expect the referendum to be conducted in the first place, since those militias are now having control of some areas and will probably expand their operation into more territories?

He should have known better!

However, the people of South Sudan have the right to be apprehensive about the new settlement. It’s not always simple when you’re dealing with a regime that had never fulfilled a promise let alone a CPA that has a bitter taste in their mouths. Even more so, their culture of saying one and do the exact opposite, has to be first and foremost weighed very carefully, and should only be taken seriously if and when the agreement is signed into law.

Well, the first below to the new agreement was the formation of the panel which is to review the disputed laws before they are turned in to the Parliament. Both the chairperson, Ustaza Badria Suliman and the vice chairperson, Dr. Ishmael al- Haag Mussa are not only from the NCP, but they are from the extreme racist right wing of the NIF. Now, what everybody in the real world is saying out loud is, if the South Sudanese are the ones to be referendumed, then, it’s only logical either/or the chairmanship and the deputy goes southwards!

Beyond that, we believe that the peaceful demonstrations should continue, until the last item in the CPA is implemented, and peace finally comes to Darfur.

The author is a former anchorman/reporter with Juba Radio. He can be reached at: [email protected].