Pagan Amum; we had been playing match for the past fifty-one years without scoring a goal

Pagan Amum; we had been playing match for the past fifty-one years without scoring a goal
During his three day visit to Cairo, Pagan Amum held talks with the Egyptian officials and visited Soura Parliament, the Leauge of Arab Nations and met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The visit comes as part of boosting bilateral relationship between the government of Southern Sudan and Egypt. The SPLM Secretary General also had a meeting with UN officials to stand at the latest developments of the Sudanese refugees in Egypt, and also visited Australian embassy in Cairo.
Pagan Amum also met with DUP leader, Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani in which the two discussed variety of issues pertaining to CPA implementation and the efforts being made to resolve Darfur crisis as well as unification of Darfur movement front.
On the other hand, the SPLM Secretary General visited GoSS Liaison Office for Arab Republic of Egypt – Middle East – Gulf States and the League of Arab Nations in Cairo, in which he discussed with Liaison staff the responsibility entrusted upon them, and said this office is a symbol of freedom struggle and a path forward in the right direction from the domination and mediation.
Before flying back to Khartoum on July 6, 2007, the SPLM Secretary General met with Sudanese community at Meridian Hotel in Cairo. He told Sudanese community that he is happy to be in Egypt at this juncture, and that this is his first time to come directly from Khartoum to Cairo, unlike the past twenty-two years or more where he used to come to Cairo from various directions such as Asmara, Nairobi and Triply and said that this is his second time to visit Egypt after Naivasha agreement. He started his speech by observing one minute silence in the memory of those who perished in the war and the martyrs, on top of them late Dr. John Garang de Mabior.
Pagan Amum started his speech by enlightening the Sudanese community about the previous efforts made to bring the peace about in Sudan, and the memorandum of understanding which was signed in 1988 between DUP and SPLM which was known as Mirghani-Garang agreement. The memorandum was aiming to look into Sudan’s problems and commencement of constitutional conference which will include all the Sudanese political parties, and to enable Sudanese define themselves and find a sustainable solution to the country’s predicament.
But unfortunately the June 30, 1989 coup by National Islamic Front made the constitutional conference impossible to convene. Thus, it changed entirely Sudan’s political direction.
Pagan Amum talked about the plight of the Sudanese people during the past fifty-one years, and said that the Sudan crisis was due to the failure and imposition of the government on the people.
He said for instance, Ibrahim Aboud thought the military rule was the solution to Sudan’s problems, but it failed miserably in solving the country’s predicament. He went on saying that even the so called democratic elected governments in Khartoum, was not really democratic but incomplete and yet it failed to solve crisis in Sudan.
Then Jaafar Mohamed Nimeri thought the socialism was the Sudan’s best solution, but failed too to resolve the chronic problem of Sudan because it was imposed socialism which doesn’t emerge from the Sudanese people. And Nimeri was toppled by the public uprising, and then came the so called elected democratic government.
But the National Islamic Front thought the “Islam was the solution” and came to power by coup in 1989 and imposed sharia law and declared jihad or holy war against south, which added more blaze and the entire situation intensified, and it failed to find a solution to Sudan’s problems.
The SPLM Secretary General went on explaining that, right after independence we Sudanese were supposed to ask ourselves very simple question “who are we?”, but this simple question was never asked and instead the government in the center mobilized and utilized country’s resources to terrorize, torture and kill its own citizens.
This excessive force used by Khartoum government against its citizens, affected all the political parties in Sudan from right to left. And the arrest and disappearance of politicians and political leaders made Sudan one of the compelling countries in the region i.e. if you are opposition, either you will be killed, jailed or obliged to flee the country, and that is evidential for the great number of Sudanese oppositions living in exile. Sudan was the only country in the region with high percentage of murder and the only country with excessive brutality which kills or imprisons its people, opponents and political leaders.
Thus, Sudan became centrifugal country to its own people as well as politicians. And that is obvious with your presence here today in Egypt, as even this hall is not enough to contain you all.
He said Sudan is the only country in the region with high percentage of internal displaced people, and Khartoum is the evidential example of that with more than two million IDPs. There was no country in the entire world with ghost houses like Sudan.
He said the war in south Sudan claimed more than 4 million lives and now it is happening in Darfur. The internal displaced people in Sudan are between 6 to 7 million and about 5 million lost their lives. And in every ten internal displaced person in the world, nine is from Sudan, and Sudanese are scattered everywhere in the world, and this was the evidence of political failure in Sudan. He went on saying that after closing the door of immigration for Sudanese to Australia, Canada and America, now they opened a new door of infiltrating into Israel which is really disgracing. He called on the Darfur people to go to south Sudan, Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains instead of Israel. They claimed that people killed in Darfur were only nine thousand! Five thousand is considered genocide, and more than three hundred villages were burned and people are chased out of their homes and depending entirely on foreign aids! Pagan said what is happening today in Darfur is ethnic cleansing and genocide in its really meaning, and it is a real challenge before us. And called on the Darfur movements to unite and benefit from the SPLM experience.
Pagan mocked at Khartoum’s refusal for foreign troops in Darfur, by saying that the foreign troops are already there on the ground, exclaiming, what about the Rwandan or Nigerian troops, are they not foreign troops or they are Sudanese forces!
Pagan Amum went on discussing Sudan’s crisis by saying that when they signed Naivasha agreement, it is called inclusive but it never solved entire problems of Sudan, as Darfur is till on fire and there will not be inclusive peace in Sudan unless Darfur crisis is solved. Darfur should be given its rights and be represented in the government according to its population. He said we want dispense power to the people because all Sudanese need power, they want to rule themselves by themselves. As the imposition of government on people will never solve the problems of Sudan and the decentralization is the best recipe for the country. He said from the previous experiences, we even do not want to impose New Sudan but we can’t accept Sudan in its old form. He called on the Sudanese people from south Sudan, Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains to go back home and participate in the process of peace building and the country, and wondered if you do not go back, then to whom government will be given! We in the SPLM party, look forward to establishing bright Sudan which will contain all Sudanese with equal rights and opportunities, and dispensation of power to the regions, states and to the every locality till to the village level.
The SPLM Secretary General continued saying that we had been playing match for the past fifty-one years without scoring a goal, and if at all there was a score, it was in our own goal. And said, now we are playing in the waste time, and the remaining four years is crucial. Yes, the peace is moving very slow, but in the desired direction, and as our President said talking as Chairperson of NCP that the elections will be conducted as scheduled in the first half of interim period. Thus, there is need for all political parties/powers in Sudan to sit down and formulate the election regulations to guarantee the fair and transparent elections. As in the year 2011, we will tell Southern Sudanese that now everything has been done and the unity of the country has been made attractive, and it is you now to say your final word, unity or secession, and whatever Southerners will say in 2012 will be respected. If Southerners choose unity, still they will rule themselves by themselves and if they choose secession, south and north will remain good neighbors and the tie between them will remain ever stronger. Because there is no problem between Southerners and Northerners, but with the government in the center which has to be changed, and if not, I am afraid that after south Sudan separation, Sudan will be disintegrated into countries.
Speaking on the resources, the SPLM Secretary General said, Sudan is expected to be one of the largest oil producers in the world including other minerals as well as about 45% of fertile agricultural land. Thus, it is time for Sudanese to cooperate and share their wealth. For instance, Gezira scheme wealth should be for Gezira people and they are the one to contribute to the federal or central government, and same thing applies to the revenue of Port Sudan and gold in east, date in northern Sudan and oil in southern Sudan and the pipe line carrying oil to Port Sudan, will add yet another income to the eastern Sudan. Thus, it is time for each region in Sudan to govern and control its resources, and no one will accept to be a hostage for the previous and old system. And that was evidential, when late Dr. John Garang de Mabior said “everyone from the different regions of Sudan, should come with its own plate and anyone coming without plate shouldn’t share from others dishes or plates”.
Roba Gibia