Bor community rejects SPLM’s Call for unity
Press Statement
March, 15, 2007 — The Bor community has condemned the SPLM party for selling out the struggle of the people of the South for money in Khartoum. The statement made by Sudan’s Energy and Mining Minister Angelina Teny that SPLM will work towards unity rather than separation is a betrayal of the three million Southerners who died fighting for complete freedom from Islamic North. The people of the South did not take up arms for Riek Machar and his wife to get rich, but to liberate themselves and enjoy freedom like other human beings on earth.
The Bor Group is deeply concerned with the ongoing political developments that have plagued every aspect of our system of governance and the acceleration of rebuilding efforts. There are issues that require decisive leadership, which our nation South Sudan is lacking at this time. These issues include corruption, both political and financial, lack of efficiency in the government operation, insecurity, and SPLM internal fighting, and much has been written about all these issues with no action from the leadership in-charge.
Our people deserve an honest leadership and an organization that is capable of defending their interest so that they can finally enjoy the peace they have yearned for with the confidence that our people shall finally enjoy peace after those years of devastation and total destruction. Enough is enough and the looting of our public resources shall not be used as a reason by Salva Kiir and Riek Machar to work for unity as a means to escape punishment for corruption and looting of public funds.
Now people in Juba and other major cities in the South (Malakal, Bor, Yambio, and Wau) have taken the law into their own hands. Last week the citizens in Malakal went to the streets demanding the government to pay their salaries after three months working free. The question that every conscientious southerner asks is: Where are we heading and what future is SPLM taking us?
We have heard many arguments coming out of SPLM that they have liberated us and fought hard to bring about the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). It is true and we salute their courage and bravery to fight for our cause “voluntarily”. Although the argument is legitimate, it should not be used as a ticket to loot and vandalize South Sudan. If Kiir and Machar thought that getting rich was the primary reason of taking up arms against successive Northern regimes, we advise both men to take their wives to Khartoum without blackmailing the South into a unity project which failed to work for fifty years. Our people took up arms for separation, not unity as corrupt SPLM party would want the World to believe.
We urge all South Sudanese in Juba, Wau, Malakal and other cities to go out in demonstrations against the call for unity. It is time for people to take the future of the South a way from corrupt SPLM party. There is no way that Southern Sudanese should entrust their future to failed leaders like Riek Machar and Salva Kiir. These two men are working for the interest of Arabs against the future of South Sudan.
We urge all Jonglei State citizens to join their Southern brothers to chase SPLM out of South Sudan so that the people work towards separation rather than being sold in black market in Khartoum. The three million Southerners did not die in vain, but for the future of coming generation. The time of Riek Machar and Salva Kiir is over and the South needs new breed of leaders that would attain separation.
For Contact
Bor Group for Separation