SPLM has to manage supporters before LRA
Editorial, Juba Post
May 25, 2006 — Juba citizens are bewildered these days. No citizen here would ever have thought that one group of Mundari Commandos (albeit certainly not all) would join the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). It was the commandos, after all, who blocked the SPLA from entering Juba town and made the southern capital a Khartoum military garrison town.
Nor would your regular Juba citizen, who either has, or knows of loved ones who are victims of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), ever expect the government of Southern Sudan to support them with money and food.
Both the commandos and the LRA were supported by the SPLA’s previous enemy, the Khartoum government, and both militias were a major obstacle to the movement’s struggle and now both opponents may receive support. Truly, Juba citizens must be scratching their heads.
Despite the public’s confusion, the support given by the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) follows their view: peace is not cheap. To end the age-old dispute between the Mundari commandos and the SPLA, moreover the ancient feud between the Mundari and Dinka cattle herders, is a priceless endeavour. Given that the GOSS budget allocates by far the most money to the SPLA, there should be sufficient funds to provide the commandos each with an appropriate salary.
And perhaps the only way to effectively stop the incessant LRA raids on villages and pursue peace negotiations with the Ugandan rebels is for GOSS to feed them. The Ugandan army claims the LRA are desperate and raid for food to survive, if food assistance is given, the need to raid poor innocent Southern Sudanese may cease.
But a strange maxim seems to be repeatedly practised by the GOSS: support your opponents, ignore your supporters. So far, all the previous enemies of the SPLM/A appear to be rewarded for their detrimental deeds. Meanwhile, many Dinka who remained loyal to the SPLM/A throughout the 22 years of war, are facing a serious hunger gap in Warrap and Northern Bahr-el Ghazal State.
Can the GOSS deliver so readily support to the enemies of peace while victims of the LRA atrocities are left to starve to death? This repeated maxim may even provide a false lesson to others who will cause havoc, knowing that their only fate shall be further rewards by the GOSS once they agree to desist their destructive acts.
In addition, the GOSS should be fully assured that the commandos and the LRA will accept their support. Many commando leaders have not been consulted as to whether they agree to join the SPLA and conflicts may arise between them.
Furthermore, given the past peace agreements with the LRA, there is no proof that these brutal rebels will even comply to the agreement they reached with the GOSS. They may well eat from the GOSS for dinner and then loot villages for desert.
Creating friends out of enemies is a commendable act, but one should also not ignore friends. Otherwise the GOSS will find its enemies have become its friends while long lost friends will become its enemies.