Veteran southern leader tells NCP to learn from failed 1972 peace

By Manyang Mayom

January 17, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – The former 2nd Vice President of Sudan and leader of the autonomous southern region from 1978 to 1982 said that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) should learn from the mistakes of the former president, Jaafar Mohamed Nimeiri.

Joseph Lagu, who led the former southern insurgency known as Anyanya until the 1972 Addis Ababa agreement, reminded journalists in Khartoum that Nimeiri had abrogated the 1972 Addis Ababa agreement between his regime and the former Southern Movement.

Anyanya is the vernacular for a type of poison, used to refer to southern guerrillas (Anyanya I) during the first Sudanese civil war (1955-1972) and also some armed groups (Anyanya II) during the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005).

Lagu said that the Addis Ababa agreement was not a Quran or Bible so the NCP should be very cautious not to repeat that mistake on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Lagu admitted that he had made a mistake by signing the Addis Ababa agreement without any guarantee because his movement was the first one in South and they had no people to consult with experience in signing such an agreement. By contrast, the SPLM/A have now benefited from learning the Anyanya’s mistakes, he noted.

He asserted that the Addis Ababa agreement was abrogated gradually. It had been softened and eroded systematically until 1983 when Nimeiri announced the division of the South into three regions, he said.

Nimeiri’s appointment of lawyer Abel Alier as the President of the Southern Council was the beginning of the violation of that agreement, he recounted, adding that President Nimeri also announced Abel Alier as the only candidate approved for the Southern Council elections and he was also the supervisor of the elections, so that agreement was eroded systematically.

Lagu posited that SPLM/A are stronger than the Anyanya I’s leadership, so NCP should be careful. He added “I would appeal to all partners–the NCP and SPLM–to be cooperative because the future of this country depends on the cooperation.” He asserted that the NCP should help SPLM unite the Southerners and SPLM should help the NCP make cohesion in the rest of the Sudan.

Lagu, who is concerned with Sudan’s unity, exclaimed that if the south separates then Darfur will go and the east will do the same; therefore the Sudanese people should formulate a united party called the Democratic Movement for Salvation of the Nation (DMSN).

He pointed out that the difference between Anyanya I and SPLM is that when he signed the Addis Ababa agreement he didn’t have political ambitions as the SPLM leadership does. He told how he had brought together the Southerners who were with the government and those in the bush, but said that the SPLM instead called those Southerners who did not go to the bush to fight as Jalabas, an Arabic word often used derogatorily in the south to refer to Northerners.

He stressed that he is against Bashir’s indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC), questioning why no president has been indicted by the ICC, so why should one start with Sudan?

Regarding the Doha conference for peace in Darfur, Lagu explained that whatever conference brings peace for Darfur is good because this will mean peace in all Sudan.

(ST)