Urgent petition from Southern Sudanese to US and UN evoys
CC. Mr Jan Pronk UN Peace Envoy in Sudan, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, All Leaders OF IGGAD and Friends of IGGAD Countries, Leaders of TROIKA Countries, President of Canada and Australia, AU Countries, Arab League Nations and Lt. Gen. Lazaro K Sumbeiyo (Rtd) former Chairman of the Sudan Peace Talks.
CC. Chairman of SPLM, Sudan. Various MPs and Senators, Peace Organisations.
Dated 14th of September 2005
– Mr. Roger Winter
– US Envoy in Sudan
– State Department
– Washington DC
Dear Mr Winter
Subject: Violations of Sudan Peace Agreement Such As Article 2.5.3 of Power Sharing
We would like to draw the attention of the United States Administration through you to a serious dispute that has developed between Mr.Omar Bashir, the President of Sudan and Mr. Salva Kiir Mayardit, the First Vice President of Sudan. This dispute is created by the fact that President Omar Bashir would like his own party of Sudan National Congress to take both the top economic ministerial positions namely the Ministry of Energy and Mining and also the Ministry of Finance. He, Mr. Bashir does not want to allow Sudan People’s Liberation Movement under the leadership of Mr. Salva Kiir Mayardit to hold one of these two vital economic ministries. This crisis is unexpected and must be resolved swiftly and fairly for a number of reasons:
– OPPRESSION OF SOUTHERN SUDANESE: one of the reasons for the long war in Sudan has been the deliberate treatment of people of Southern Sudan as second class citizens who do not for example deserve to be offered certain key ministerial positions. Regretfully, almost all few ministries that have been promised to Southerners will have essential components subtracted to make them incomplete. Ministry of Foreign Affairs is offered minus Foreign Trade, Higher Education is without Science and Technology and Ministry of Transport with no Communication. In other words Southern Sudanese do not deserve full ministries. This is undoubtedly a continuation of the same mistreatment.
– VIOLATION OF PEACE AGREEMENT: Article 2.5.3 of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan (CPA) signed between the two parties brokered mainly by United States, Britain, Norway and IGAD countries and witnessed by the United Nations in January this year reads, “Cabinet posts and portfolios in all clusters, including the National Sovereignty Ministries shall be shared equitably and qualitatively by the two parties. The parties agree to cluster the National Ministries under the implementation modalities”. Among the clusters agreed on are economic ministries the most important of which are the two ministries of Energy & Mining and Finance. Therefore, equitable and qualitative share of economic ministries should be that each of the two parties take one and not both. For the National Congress Party to insist in taking both the top economic ministries of Energy and Mining and Finance is a total violation of the CPA. This would mean President Omar Bashir was not telling the truth when he was recently promising the whole World openly that he will honour the Agreement following the tragic death of Dr. John Garang De Mabior.
– ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS: We see no harm in allowing a Southern Sudanese to hold the ministry of energy and mining for example, especially when over 90% of the oil is after all located in Southern Sudan. The economic development of Southern Sudan during the six years of the interim period would be almost entirely dependant on the oil revenues as the budget of Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) will depend by 90% on Oil Revenue. The quest for exploitation of oil in the South has brought untold sufferings on the people of South Sudan in terms of forced displacement and killing. More over our Southernner’s share of employment and training in this oil sector is very poor and , hence, it can be reliably corrected when one of us is at the one holding the top management of the sector. Such injustices can be fairly redress by GOSS. These vital facts alone will motivate a Southern Sudanese to run that ministerial post even more effectively to the benefit of the whole Sudan. Hence depriving a Southern Sudanese from holding a top economic ministry is a de-motivating factor. Most importantly, money is power and to control it and its main source is to ensure that others like us in Southern Sudan continue to be deprived and oppressed for ever which is utterly unacceptable.
– PRESIDENTIAL ROLES: A President of any country is expected to exercise fairness in ministerial allocations and to maintain the overall unity of that country. It is clearly unfair for President Omar Bashir to insist that his own party is to take both top economic ministries we wonder how he will make unity of the whole Sudan attractive to Southern Sudanese by depriving them of key ministerial positions.
– DELAY OF GOSS FORMATION: As part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, a Government for South Sudan (GOSS) should have come into effect from July 2005. But so far that has not happened as a result of the current obstructive policies of the National Congress Government that has made any agreement with SPLM on how to share power as stipulated in CPA impossible. While playing these delaying tactics, the National Congress Government has been reluctant to release funds due to the Government of South Sudan under the pretext that such a government does not exist. And without funds, the SPLM cannot transform itself from a guerrilla movement to a government that is able to provide services to those who need them such as those who are returning to the South after the signing of peace agreement in January.
– DELAY OF PEACE COMMISIONS: The National Islamic Front (NIF) is playing tactics to delay the formation of committees/commissions to execute some of the immediate programs of the CPA such as the Cease Fire Commission, CPA Monitoring Commission, Resettlement Commissions etc. This is done by the NIF deliberately in order to create a vacuum in which to operate freely and continue to violate the CPA.
– NEGLIGENCE OF SPLA FORCES: In a further ruthless display of bad faith, the National Congress Government has refused to finance the maintenance of the SPLA forces deployed in Khartoum last week as part of Joined Command Forces that were to be formed as a nucleus of new Sudan army should Sudan remained a united country after six-year transition period. These forces, according to CPA, are the responsibility of the national government in all aspects including funding, training, and equipment provision. This negligence compounds the dispute on power sharing.
– OTHER SERIOUS IMPLICATIONS: Dear Mr Winter, if President Omar Bashir and his National Congress party have started to violate the CPA now at this early stage of the implementation, what is the guarantee that they will honour the result of the referendum later, if it should take place as scheduled at all? The signal they are sending is that they are not prepared to honour the agreement they have entered into with Sudan People Liberation Movement before the international community, and are planning to sabotage the referendum from taking place in six years time. This ought to be a cause for concern for all, including your administration pivotal in brokering a successful conclusion of the CPA. The dispute over ministerial positions and reluctance to release funds due to the government of South Sudan are merely symptoms of deep-seated intentions to completely dishonour the implementation of the agreement with the implication that the country will slide back to war.
– DISRESPECT TO THE DEAD: We feel that Omar Bashir should not have sparked this dispute so soon after the tragic death of Dr. John Garang De Mabior who was instrumental in bringing about this peace and who worked hard to ensure that such a conflict would not develop in the future as reflected by articles in the CPA of fair power sharing. It is as if the death of John Garang does not matter to President Omar Bashir and his party for them to allow a conflict like this to develop so soon after his death.
– WAR TRIGGERING FACTORS: Given the bitter hatred that has developed over more than fifty years of war in Sudan, all it needs is a little dispute, such as disagreements over Abyei Boundary or lack of proper power sharing, to trigger another war. The last war that lasted for 22 years was merely triggered by a simple attempt to forcibly transfer a battalion of Southern Sudanese Soldiers from the South to the North. Therefore any violation of the CPA must not be permitted as it can be a sufficient triggering factor for another war.
– FOUNDATION OF DISTRUST: Even if an early violation of the CPA like inequitable share of ministries does not lead to immediate return to war, it is a bad beginning which will have laid a foundation of distrust between the two major political parties and affect their future working relationships with direct negative bearings on the implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement in Sudan.
– LACK OF MUTUAL PARTNERSHIP: From the above actions, it appears that the National Congress Party is continuing to delude itself that it is still the sole master of Sudanese Politics and that SPLM, which is its principal partner in the CPA does not matter. This obviously contrary to a spirit of mutual respect expected to exist between two main political parties that are partners of any national government.
Given all the above-mentioned reasons, we would like to appeal to you Mr. Winter as the US Peace Envoy in Sudan and the other international observers to immediately intervene in order to fairly resolve the dispute over strategic ministerial positions as well as putting the pressure on the Presidency of Omar Bashir and his National Congress Party to honour all that has been stipulated in the CPA and to be seen to do so regarding all outstanding issues such as immediate release of the share of funds to GOSS. As this is an urgent matter, we would like you to act promptly so that the partners to January peace agreement can move to the next stage of implementing the agreement and making it a reality.
Dear Mr Winter, your experience in Sudan and your personal involvement to see that war stops and peace is achieved in Sudan have been apparent to us. With more than 25 years experience on Sudan, no one is better placed to successfully resolve even the most intractable problems. It is time you intervene and give the CPA’s implementation a push forward and overcome any possibility of its early derailment. Your help is badly needed especially now that the Commission which was planned to be formed in order to monitor our Comprehensive Peace Agreement is still sadly non-existent. We request this important Monitoring Commission to be instituted as soon as possible in order to stop all these early and any other subsequent CPA violations that maybe in the pipeline. By copy of this letter, we would also like to extent our request for urgent supportive intervention on this matter to the United Nations, all the other Leaders of the World and International Organisations stated above.
It is better to stop the fire when it is still a smoke than to later attempt to do so when it is fully burning.
Dr. Achier Deng Akol
Postal SPLA OYEE
Address 21 Francis Road
Harrow
HA1 2QY
United Kingdom
– Tel. 44 (0) 2084276804
– Fax. 44 (0) 2084276804
– Email. [email protected]
– Website: www.splaoyee.com
Signed by 1693 people worldwide, and 21 organisations