Stop pinching South Sudan resources

By Watts Roba Gibia Nyirigwa*

Oct 20, 2005 — Since the independence of Sudan on January 1, 1956 and under the centralized system of the government, South Sudan has been ruled and administered from Khartoum like the other regions in Sudan. All the governmental institutions in South had been occupied by Northerners, and all the projects such as Melut Sugar Factory, Renk Agricultural Scheme and Nzara Agro-Agricultural Scheme to mention few, all fall directly under the supervision of the central government in Khartoum. The generated revenues from various departments in south such as customs, forestry, post offices and taxation considered Sudan’s national revenue which has to be remitted to the central government treasury in Khartoum.

Basically, south has been regarded by all previous and current based Khartoum governments as not part of Sudan, as South Sudan has been always treated differently with inclusive disparity and injustice, and never considered Southerners as fellow Sudanese citizens who deserve the same equal opportunity of living in dignity and prosperity. The exploration and exploitation of the natural resources in South Sudan is being conducted by foreign companies and investors with an exclusively agreement with the Khartoum government and with absolute ignorance to the South Sudan Leadership.

Scared of south Sudanese growing awareness, Southerners were engulfed and barred from breeding any great number of intellectuals, expertise and professional cadres, by creating more complexity conditions of enrolment in high educational institutions in north, were made virtually very hard to Southerners to meet. Even the scholarship granted to Southerners to Egypt after Addis Ababa agreement in 1972 was swiftly terminated by Salvation (Inqaz) government when they came to power by coup in 1989. This highly strategically policy of deprivation and denial of South Sudanese rights, gave the Northerners golden opportunity to persistent governance and pinching of southern Sudan resources, to developing north, consolidating their position, building strong economic, social and educational institutions, army and security operatives from Southern Sudan resources. In other words, Northerners are viewing south Sudan as a treasury to fulfilling their aspirations.

This satanic attitude of Khartoum government towards Southerners is being exhibited beyond any doubt in various incidents and also in the exploitation of petroleum in southern regions, as the local innocent civilians around the petroleum areas have been massively eradicated to commencing the oil production. This is very tactical of Khartoum’s policy of denial to the southern Sudanese entity and integrity. It is also obvious that since the commencing of the oil production from southern wells in 1994, there is no oil refineries built in south Sudan and not even in the forecasted plans, and this raises lot of queries about the true intentions of the Khartoum government towards effective development in south Sudan. And also what northerners and Khartoum government used call “our southern brothers”, as the true brotherhood can not be merely articulated by words but by tangible actions and dignified treatment of every Sudanese citizen regardless of color, gender, religion and ethnicity. There are thousands of internally displaced Southerners living in slums in very poor and inhumane conditions at outskirts of Khartoum for more than two decades, and even after signing the peace agreement, they have been viciously forced into the hearts of desert without any basic needs of life. They were physically abused, tortured and humiliated and never considered as Sudanese citizens in their own country! The Khartoum government is adamantly not ready to display any kind of brotherhood or even to spare a penny from the revenues of oil extracted from south to uplift the situation of those poor IDP living in ghettos around Khartoum, and the entire South Sudanese community in general. It is ridiculous for Khartoum to utterly claim governing South Sudanese, if she is not fully complying with its primary duties of governance towards Southerners.

The past dark chapters in the history of South Sudan have been torn and new chapters have been written on January 9, 2005. And under the strong, wise and brilliant SPLM leadership and the government of South Sudan, the pinching of the south Sudan resources should be stopped once and for all. And all the contract awards for the exploration and exploitation of natural resources in southern Sudan have to be granted by SPLM and government of south Sudan. The wicked attitude of the Khartoum government towards Southerners has to be changed for the better realization of new Sudan vision. Southerners and southern intellectuals as well as southern politicians have rediscovered themselves, defined their course and started moving unanimously in the designated path and direction with ultimate confidence and trust. Southerners today are no longer Southerners of the yesterday and are capable of governing and handling their own affairs. Khartoum government must understand that, and has to release immediately funds to government of south Sudan, instead of holding the entire southern Sudanese community and its Leadership/southern government in the bound of moderated type of slavery, as after all the money and oil belong to Southerners and no one can deny that fact. The new glimmering era started diverging lights allover the parts of southern Sudan, and as the struggle continues, there will be no return to the era of darkness, gloominess, injustice, servitude and blackmailing.

* Watts Roba Gibia Nyirigwa, Cairo – Egypt. E-mail: [email protected]