Al Beshir’s forces can occupy Abyei Now, but not Forever
Taban Abel Aguek
May 29, 2011 — President Salva Kiir Mayardit has shown again that big heart of true Southern leader when he reiterated in a press conference last Thursday 26th May, 2011 in Juba that ‘I will not lead my people to war’ after the fragile situation of the takeover of Abyei by the North Sudan forces, SAF. That is a strong symbol of a godly leadership that draws no comparison in the other part of Sudan. Of all the aggressions Southerners have experienced since the signing of the CPA there is nothing Southerners had taken more seriously than the control of Abyei by the Northern forces. Southerners would have obliged to go the hard way by choosing to have it with the North Sudan over Abyei just in the same manner of violence and war, but on the President’s call of no return to war South Sudan will again have to swallow it one more time.
From the statements issued by President al Beshir while addressing a meeting of Educational workers and vocational teachers in Khartoum early this week, it is clear that the occupation of Abyei was planned purposely to abrogate the CPA, but did not come as a result of provocation of the SPLA as claimed in the earlier reports. Affirming that he has no intention to withdraw his forces from Abyei, al Beshir said, “Abyei is Sudanese land, a northern land and we will not withdraw from it.” The manner with which Abyei was taken over by SAF and how quickly a pair of presidential decrees dissolving Abyei Administration and relieving the leadership in the area were issued without consulting the First Vice President of the Republic as stipulated in the CPA indicate that no one provoked the fight in Abyei as speculated in the first media reports but the Sudan Armed Forces were acting on the orders of the President to find all reasons possible to invade the contested area.
We have people in and around Abyei and we got all that first hand information. What really happened in the area is that a SAF soldier in the last truck of their UNMIS escorted convoy bombed a police post near Abyei with an RPG 7 killing four people. This led to the rounding up of the convoy and then fighting ensued. So, therefore all people who lost their lives in this confusion on both sides in what they chose to term as SPLA ambush had to die in an agenda arranged by few individuals of the NCP to enhance justification for the impending attack to take over Abyei. An army of about five thousand SAF soldiers and Popular Defense Forces aided by elements of Janjaweed militias and Mesiriya were used to capture Abyei. Civilians had to pay severely as killing was indiscriminate, looting was rampant, raping was all over and lastly – after they were sure nothing else could go to their mouths or pockets, the attackers set the town ablaze. These are some serious and ugly atrocities the world does not want to see in the 21st millennium. But here they easily happen every day in the Sudan, the country of President Beshir. Shamelessly, as if lives that was lost all over the years of wars in the country, the President continued to say, “…we are prepared for war and going back to the battles of the 40th Mile and Torit” just in the face of the world – and even more, at a time he is struggling with the ICC indictment over charges of war crimes and genocide.
Well, the Abyei case at the state of current South Sudan may take different forms altogether. It was so easy for President al Beshir to hint at going back to the battle of the 40th mile and Torit. But whether they are mind games or not, the Southern cause came a long way and cannot be halted by the threats of war. And for Abyei it is just the same. War is not something new for South Sudanese and it needs not to be sung in public meetings and rallies. A boosted confidence from meeting the Presidents of Chad and Central Africa Republic in Khartoum made Beshir so defiant that he forgot that with war you don’t count on one you have not yet won. What someone mockingly describes today as the battle of the 40th mile is something we know very well. That long attack by NIF through the desert is still clear in our memory, the way it is vivid in the mind of any Northerner who experienced the Bahr Naam battle, the Kurmuk battle, the Yei fall and so many more. For Abyei, if at the right time, Southerners could march bare hand into it despite all bombs and tanks.
A long list of plans to destabilize South Sudan has failed, much to the frustration of President al Beshir. The hope of a breaking SPLM, the South Sudan’s dominant political party, at the 2nd national convention in 2008 did not happen as was wished. And again the SPLM won elections in Southern Sudan. In actual fact, NCP had to beg SPLM to withdraw its candidate for presidency of the Sudan, Yassir Saed Arman, in order for Beshir to retain the post which he badly uses today.
South Sudan Referendum faced some difficult obstructions and ilful strategies either to disrupt the plebiscite or alter its outcome, but everything about it was achieved in the watchful eyes of the NCP. No one can simply drive his army in Abyei and own it. That cannot happen.
Even if the militias have failed to deliver al Beshir’s mission in South Sudan, the president should never attempt to take up the matter in his hands. Abyei’s occupation is not good under someone we still call ‘our president’. And even to remind the public those painful past battles is not in the correct order. To go the 40th mile battle was not an easy affair. The Torit battle was not easy. When it is war, I think no one will sit down and laugh. Even after the takeover of Abyei, the SAF and militias that fought the police and a small number of SPLA Joint Integrated Units did not enjoy it. If a President pits an army against other people or uses people against other people, then he has no government. Had it been Egypt or Tunisia, President al Beshir could have been removed by the public demonstrations. But unfortunately for reasons we very well understand; and because this is Sudan he still has the comfort and freedom to do what he wants with the people of Darfur, Beja, Funj, Nuba Mountains and now those of the Southern region of Abyei.
But for Abyei, which carries a lot of meaning for southerners it cannot be an easy ride. Abyei issue for all South Sudanese is not about oil. It is about a sincere ownership of a people, the Ngok Dinka of Abyei. The place is called Abyei in Dinka language, not in any word in a Messirya or Arabic. This right was given to us by God and it was again awarded to us by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. It is a right that we are suppose to claim in the South Sudan’s constitution and it is a right that we carry everyday in our hearts and it will not be obstructed by any amount of threats and intimidation.
South Sudanese have fought so hard for many centuries to be independent. The southern quest faced an unaccountable number of tests but it has arrived this far. As a result, Abyei which we rightly own can only be occupied for now but not forever.
The people fleeing the Abyei massacre have run towards the South and are now in many Southern towns of Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Wau and Warrap. It is an indication that they are true Southerners. If the Abyei people were from the North, then why did they not flee towards the north? Why did they not go to Khartoum? It is because they are not Northern Sudanese and their land is not Northern Sudanese land.
South Sudan struggled beyond battles of a 1000th mile footing with AK47 from Bonga in Ethiopia to attack Kassala in the East, Kurmuk in Blue Nile and all over the Nuba. South again would have gone even more miles in the cause of Abyei, but war is not a good idea and it does not present any better solutions. Truth and justice always take slower steps to be realized, but they can never be hidden forever. The right of the people of Abyei can only be delayed but can never be denied. I salute President Kiir’s reiteration of no return to war. That is the art of leadership the modern world aspires for and that requires to go beyond being only a manager of country’s affairs, but also to be a leader who is a mediator. That is to be a leader who looks at both sides, creates nothing between ‘us’ and ‘them’ – and above all avoids conflict.
We have listened to the two presidents and now we know who is not only a head of state but a real leader. I appeal to all Southerners and the South Sudan Army, the SPLA to calm down and obey the president’s call of no return to war.
Taban Abel Aguek is a South Sudanese based in Rumbek, he can be reached at [email protected].