Juba should settle 10 states constitutions issue
GOSS Legal Affair Ministry must recall Constitutions of ten (10) Southern States no more NCP responsibility in the Southern Sudan.
By Thabor Ding
October 18, 2006 — Since demarcation of the boundaries and exercise of referendum for the people of the South Sudan have been included in the Southern States Constitution, the Ministry of Justice in Khartoum repudiated to endorse and certified the constitution of ten southern States. The ministry has demanded that the above items should first be dropped before he acquiesce the endorsement. Thus, I am really wondering and disturbing by the status of the GOSS on how it established the Department of Justice for the Southern Sudan. It looks like the Ministry of Justice in Juba doesn’t have a full authority or mandate to carryout justices autonomously from the master in Khartoum. This is my understanding now as for as the standoff is concerned.
Obviously, the Southern States are lawless States, in which there are no constitutions to govern ten Southern States. The governors run the ten States in the darkness, whereby a rule of law is absolutely meaningless. Lack of rule of laws has created an enormous bewilderment by destabilizing the Southern Sudan. This deliberate act by the NCP will be tenured as a future recipe for the failure of the SPLM to conduct the very crucial item, the South Sudan Referendum in 2011. Failure of the SPM to conduct the referendum is what the NCP would call “unity attractiveness.” The followings are the factors that would contribute to the failure of the referendum: crime escalation, corruptions, and incapability to govern southern Sudan. To prevent all these from happening, the civil population in the South Sudan and the Diaspora should take appropriate measure or actions to pressure president Salva Kiir to act immediately so that lawlessness should desist.
The tricky question is, what is the matter with the Ministry of Justice in Juba not to endorse the constitutions of the Southern states instead of still depending on the evil master? Is the Ministry in Juba functioning or not? I think this needs a serious investigation or somebody can direct me with the article elaborated in the CPA that the GOSS is not allowed to have Ministry of Justic, which is independent to endorse laws in South Sudan.
Therefore, my article is basically contrary to the way the GOSS Ministry of Justice is handling the standoff with the Ministry of Justice in Khartoum. How long the ten Southern States should wait the ugly endorsement from the evil master? If we have qualified Judges within the Justice Ministry in Juba, and the CPA allows the GOSS to govern the South during the six years interim period, what’s the need for the evil master to certify the constitutions? By waiting for the orders from Khartoum, divulges the weakness and incapability of the GOSS to rule the South Sudan while the CPA grants a total autonomy.
Ultimately, to demonstrate that the SPLM is the ruling party in the South, the GOSS Ministry of Justice ought to urgently recall the constitutions to be endorsed and certified in Juba instead. The other option is that the president of the South Sudan H.E Salva Kiir Mayardit should unilaterally act to resolve the standoff either by recalling the constitutions or issue a declaration that Southern Sudan is a lawless State.
* Thabor Deng Ding, BS, Agronomy at Iowa State University. A Sudanese residing in USA, can be reached at [email protected]