Malakal clashes could have been avoidable

By Eng. Charles Kisanga

Dec 7, 2006 — The past two weeks can be viewed as one of the darkest in the history of South Sudan since the signing of the Comprehensive peace Agreement (CPA) in Navaisha, Kenya on 9th January 2005.

The classes which erupted around the 23rd of November and continued to the 29th November 2006, with full battles between the SPLA, the South Sudan Defence (SSDF) and Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) bring back to memory the suffering of South Sudanese people for 22 years during which time almost 2 million lost their lives either because of South-South conflict, or South-North conflict or through disease, hunger and starvation as a result of the fighting from 1983 to 2005.

I would like first to convey my sincere condolences to all the families of the about 300 people mostly South Sudanese who lost their lives, both soldiers and civilians. May God Almighty give eternal rest to all the souls of these departed brothers and sisters of ours!

Now I would like to reiterate however that the fighting which erupted in Malakal was something avoidable and something that had been predicted for sometimes. When the CPA was signed the International Crises Groups (ICG) wrote a damning assessment which said that the CPA may unravel if the case of the SSDF and other militias are not handled properly because the CPA was an agreement between two parties, the SPLM and the National Congress and it did not consider these armed groups then. Also if the sponsors of the agreement were really serious about forging a comprehensive peace solution to the South Sudan problems they should also have done their level best to rein in the participants in the talks to involve other South Sudan groups so that their objections, demands and concerns are taken into consideration during the peace negations which dragged on for two years. But it seems the peace sponsors had other priorities while the two parties were only interested in themselves and relying on the fact that they will absorb others into their parties and armies respectively. Judging by the May 2006, Abuja agreement on Darfur which Sudan Government went ahead to sign with a faction of SLM while ignoring many other rebel groups it can be seen that such tricks are in order to get a better of the opponent and may not always be realistic because the agreement is based on the fact that other people will come in and accept your ways of doing things and your ideology. Why not get the backing of the other parties who were engaged then in the South Sudan conflict then? You cannot just write off an armed group and saying they can chose either to join any of your two armies without disusing why they had arms in the first place.

Further it is not just a simple thing, if based on true democratic values, to just absorb other people without due respect and consideration of their beliefs and ideology. We can easily deduce the complexity of this from visiting the reasons that led to the formation of SSDF itself. These reasons date back to the 1991 split in the SPLA which led to so much chaos and heavy fighting among South Sudanese. Most of those who went to form the SSDF were of the believe that the SPLM/A were dictatorial, corrupt, tribal discriminative and repressive. Till 1991 so many South Sudanese leaders and soldiers had lost their lives because of their political beliefs or ethnic orientation and these deaths had nothing to do with the North since it was SPLA itself butchering those it considered as political incorrect. Then after the split the fighting especially in Upper Nile resulted in really massacres as the fighting and split took tribal divides. Further the Nuer who forms the core of the SSDF were butchered all over other regions of South Sudan such as in Equatoria and Behr El Ghazal because all were considered enemies of the SPLA. Today the same International community who sponsored CPA are the very ones conducting war crime trials against former Yugoslavia war lords where only a few thousand people died yet South Sudan with over two million deaths are ignored because the International community wants our oil more than justice for us. There should have been war crimes tribunal to try the people who committed atrocities against South Sudanese people both from the North and South Sudan.

However after the split the other faction which went by many names before others formed the groupings as SSDF had little success in uniting South Sudan people because of their limited appeal to other South Sudanese tribes and the groupings inability to beat main stream SPLA in the bush because of lack of armaments and sponsors and the new grouping turned to Khartoum for help. Khartoum saw this as away of weakening the South Sudanese cause and jumped at the idea and went ahead to ally with the new South Sudan factions and declare them as the legitimate organisation fighting for the aspirations of South Sudanese people and thereby signing the Khartoum agreement with the now SSDF factions in 1997- the Khartoum agreement. Of course this ploy by Khartoum did not weaken the SPLA which found refuge in new territories in South Sudan such as the newly liberated Western Equatoria and more ever Western European Christian backers continued to recognise SPLM/A as the legitimate organisation fighting for the South Sudan Christians. Hence Khartoum had no other chose but to start new peace negotiations as Khartoum was now besieged by so many problems and they needed a way out as much as the its name was always being tainted in the international media. Also the liberation struggle it the South had reached stalemate as Khartoum was now using superior arms bout with oil money and there was growing dissent against SPLA repression and corruption and hence the SPLM/A leadership also wanted a away out.

Thus the concerted pressure plus the continued limited successes of SPLA forces eventually forced National Congress regime to go for the negotiations table with the SPLM/A and sign an agreement again without reference to the SSDF and other armed groups. Khartoum had the chance of inviting the SSDF and other armed groups to the talks. Khartoum could have said we will not talk until there are present as the three parties to the conflict, the SPLM, the SSDF and the NC government but neither Khartoum nor SPLM wanted this and none had the political will for that. Each wanted to take advantage of the other at the peace talks and deal a last finishing blow to their opponents. Is it not the same game being played in Darfur -mini peace deals leaving others out. Just as SSDF left out SPLM in 1997 the SPLM left out SSDF in 2005. Of course the NC was backing on the fact that things will fail like in 1997 for SPLM they also calculated that leaving SSDF out will kill their number one enemy for good. So the CPA is as good as the International community is shouting it because the International community wanted resources and oil from Sudan they wanted an agreement quick at all costs. If they really wanted a good peace for the people they will have focused more on democracy , equality and involvement of all political groupings but peace at all cost may not work even with all the money from the West. Has the imposed peace and security been working in Afghanistan and Iraq? We should learn from examples.

Another reason why SPLM did not want SSDF presence was that SPLA itself was weary of SSDF as in the SPLA the SSDF was assumed as an arch enemy even more than Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and all that SPLA wanted now was to get a better of the SSDF in the CPA by signing an agreement without reference to the SSDF and considering the grouping as illegitimate organisation which can either chose the SAF or SPLA. Although NC refused to allow the SPLA to be renamed Southern Sudan army this should have been taken seriously because SPLA itself is not a neutral force as it has its own ideology based on certain assumptions which may be contrary to the believes of other people and hence leaving others no option but to remain an independent armed group in the South or else join SAF . On the other hand also the Khartoum government wanted the SDDF as a future bulwark against the power of the SPLA. But not allowing SSDF to come in and air their problems at the peace talks so that their concerns are taken into consideration before signing the agreement meant that it would be impossible for all SSDF people to ever all be absorbed into SPLA or SAF because of the technicality surrounding the absorption of thousands of militias and also because of what the SPLA or SAF forces stand for and SSDF members may not stand for.

With the death of peace hero Dr. John Garang and the subsequent setting up of the Government of South Sudan in Juba, things first looked more optimistic for SSDF and other armed groups to join SPLAM/A in large number hoping that even though they were not included in the peace negotiations, they can easily make it in the new government of South Sudan and the SPLA army since the CPA talked so much on achieving equality and democracy and reiterating all the provisions for self government. But no sooner had GoSS in Juba started to settle in then things started to unravel especially that the CPA will be just be half words to GoSS and it is SPLMA old ideology which will control GoSS. Besides the ideology the very problems which led many South Sudanese to quit SPLA before and split from the SPLM movement resurfaced again: Corruption, Marginalisation, Nepotism, Tribalism, Bad Governance, Repressive Army and Intolerance of dissent. So now instead of people coming back in large numbers they began to realise that if they go back into SPLM/A they will have the same problems that led to the split and fighting among South Sudanese in the first place. This is where the crux of the problem lies now.

Can the dictatorial and corrupt Government in Juba then really deliver peace and security to the South Sudan masses? Well, Lt General Salva Kiir was a promising personality among other armed groups that initially they first believed under his leadership there might be a chance to unite all South Sudan factions as he used to talk like that when he was vice-chairman and head of SPLA. But now that talks can be summed as mere rhetoric because since finding himself unexpectedly on the thrones of power Lt Gen. Salva Kiir has become a very changed man from his Dr. Garang days talks and rampant corruption and marginalisation ethnic of others who dare speak is common practice in GoSS. Political and security failures like the Malakal incident are common place also as the major aspects of the CPA such as rule of law, equality and democracy, South Sudan boarders, share of Oil wealth and share of civil servants positions are no where to be seen since the cronies surrounding Lt Gen Kiir only want their crooked ways of doing things to prevail without taking time to take it serious with Khartoum to fulfil major promises of the CPA.

The GoSS cronies would like Lt Gen. Salva Kiir to use force against other armed groups in the South Sudan so as that the cronies will remain in power for ever and to them the CPA was a blessing which gives them power to destroy all other opinions and political groupings in the South Sudan and allow them the chance to rule corruptly as one party state. So instead of supporting peace rooted in democratic values, tolerance, reconciliation and dialogue the corrupt cronies surrounding Salva Kiir are advocating to him violence as away of sustaining themselves in power. They have no rooms for South-South dialogue which can result in better governance. The cronies have room for the barrel of the gun only. Any criticism and mention of the corrupt practises and tribal practices in Juba will turn you into being blacklisted and talked of as number one enemy of GoSS or SPLM or whom do they assume?

For me, this is not the best way to achieve peace and security in South Sudan. South Sudanese had been yawning for democracy, good governance and justice for over 50 years and there has never been better times to practice these then now when an agreement, even though not without flaws is guaranteed by the International Community even though for their own purposes we could still use it also for our own dream purposes instead of turning it as a dream purpose of one South Sudanese grouping only. South Sudan political elites who advocate for really democracy should have now been in a position of not being afraid to speak out because they are afraid of marginalisation and intolerance of dissident which is gaining ground as it used to be in the old days of the SPLM/A.

The problem of lack of embracing democratic principles and values can be seen also like in the case of Western Equatoria where a Governor who was named by all the Counties in a general consultation is now replaced by a unwanted Governor forced upon the people from Juba. The same undemocratic problem which is affecting Western Equatoria is the same sort of problem which led to Malakal incident because it also started with the leadership of the GoSS refusing to accept a nominated commissioner by the people and preferring to bring in their own defunct commissioner. The CPA was very clearer about embracing democratic values as a way of sustaining the peace process because if there was democracy in Sudan then fighting between the North and South should have not been the issue as the Khartoum Government should have just accepted the demands of the people of South Sudan.

South Sudan is multi-ethnic and very diverse country/region with so many tribes. If we can strive to live in harmony with each other and achieve the dream started by our fathers for a fully independent South Sudan, then we need to embrace all the people and engage in really dialogue, democracy and accountable government. Without this the talk of disarming the militia by force and arresting their leaders can only lead to more crises and eventual collapse of the CPA. Either Lt Gen. Salva Kiir moves quickly and courageously to dismiss and distance himself from the corrupt cronies who are undermining the CPA because of their corrupt nature or he will lose credibility and will stand to face more defections from the SPLM.//A like that of Brigadier Philip Machar who defected with 5000 soldiers to the SSDF just days after the Malakal fighting. Also the SPLM/A could split into two camps: One grouping supporting real democracy, justice and equality for all south Sudanese while remaining side will be of the old guide made of corrupt elements who will continue with their ways of marginalisation, corruption, injustice, insecurity, repression and arbitrary arrests and imprisonments.

* Eng Kisanga is former SPLM National Liberation Member council currently working as Consultant Software/Communication Systems engineer in the UK. He can be reached on: [email protected]