What about Sudan govt POWs

Editorial, The Khartoum Monitor

Oct 18, 2005 — The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) has reportedly handed over 176 pro-government fighters captured during the 21-year old south-north war to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Shalalub, Kassala.

This humane and civilized gesture that the SPLM continues to demonstrate reveals a very positive image. It shows that the SPLM’s primary objective was not just to fight and kill.

But what continues to bother everybody is the lack of reciprocal action on the part of the government.

Does it mean that this government never captured a single SPLA soldier at all? Is this believable?

After the SPLM released the first POWs, everybody was expecting the same from the government side. But nothing transpired to date. On the contrary, it is the SPLM again that has surprised the world.

It is interesting that a movement, which was considered and labelled as rebel, behaves according to internationally accepted ethics of war.

This single act alone speaks volumes about the calibre of late Dr John Garang as a national, regional and international leader. He has the rarest know-how to deal with complex issues. As a matter of fact, then you can understand why his death was marked with shock, and subsequent crisis. The loss is too huge to accept.

Even the credit for the preservation of the lives of the entire freed prisoners still goes to our hero of peace, the late Dr John Garang. These prisoners must be very grateful for the respect of their precious lives. If the SPLM were careless, they would have been elsewhere.

Good intention is not shown in words but in action. The SPLM continues to steal the show because it is pragmatic. It practices what it says. It is not over-ambitious. This is quite revolutionary.

If this spirit engulfs the entire country, we will be different. This is the revolution, the change that is most welcome in a country gripped by archaic mannerisms which take us centuries backward.