Should GoSS talk to General George Athor?
By Zechariah Manyok Biar
May 14, 2010 — Even though I am known for writing about important events in our nation of Sudan, I have been very quiet about the rebellion of Lt. General George Athor against the State of Jonglei as well as against the government of South Sudan. I have also refused to sign on my name to the petition letter that South Sudanese intellectuals in the Diaspora wanted to send to the President of South Sudan and his deputy to urge them to talk to Gen. Athor.
Two days ago, my friend Akol Aguek Ngong of Vermont University and the contributor to New Sudan Vision caught up with me on facebook and asked me why I was very quiet. After I mumbled something about my need for relaxation, he asked me what my opinion was about the rebellion of Gen. Athor. I immediately told him that I was against what Gen. Athor is now doing. My answer was genuine and it is still genuine.
The pain that I struggled with in my silence was what to say about Gen. Athor’s rebellion. I strongly believe that Gen. Athor has missed the point of democracy, even though he wants us to believe that he is for democracy. If he was sure that he was cheated during elections, he would have taken his case to court.
Gen. Athor’s calling for the cancellation of election results for a fresh election does not make sense to me because he does not make his reason clear. It seems like the elections would be valid if he is the winner. Who would believe in such a reason?
What would I say about him and the fact that he is threatening his own brothers and sisters in the South with violence? I am not yet sure.
The other pain that I struggled with in my silence is the fact that some of our leaders are power hungry to the point that they want to buy their way into power with the blood of innocent Southerners. I even regard the soldiers innocent this time because they are being killed for no clear goal. Gen. Athor has already killed fifteen innocent soldiers that would have offered their lives to defend the South from the external enemy under the command of Gen. Athor. What wrong had they done to deserve death in the hand of the man they respected as their leader?
The soldiers who are now with Gen. Athor are innocent to die in the hand of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army because they are being misled by Gen. Athor. Unenlightened people may act out of ignorance, but I still regard them as innocent because of their ignorance about what they are doing.
Above all, I struggled with the pain of innocent civilians caught in the middle of this madness. I thought that the people in Ngok areas would now enjoy the dividend of peace in South Sudan since they have been neglected for long time. I was happy to hear during the campaign that Minister Gier Chuang was building roads for the first time in that area. The people of Ngok peacefully voted during the elections. But now they are going to be caught up in crossfire. What have they done to deserve this suffering for unjustified war?
One may asked, if the above were the pains that I struggled with in my silence, then why did I refuse to sign my name under the letter urging the government of South Sudan to talk to Gen. Athor and solve the problem peacefully? That is a good question. My problem is that I do not believe in negotiations for the sake of negotiations. I believe in goal-oriented negotiations. I have not yet seen a reasonable demand that Gen. Athor has come up with.
First, he demanded that the elected Governor of Jonglei State step down. But he did not convince us to support his demand. The elected Governor of Jonglei State got 3 quarters of the votes and Gen. Athor got 1 quarter. He has to explain clearly how such a margin would be the result of the cheating that went unnoticed by the independent observers. Second, he demanded that the government of South Sudan be abolished and the interim government, consisting of all parties, be sworn in and fresh elections be conducted in the South. If this is Gen. Athor’s position, then he will have to justify what his reasons are before telling us his estimates for financial costs of fresh elections and where the money will come from.
The talks that are reasonable always involve compromises between the parties involved in the talks. If I were to sign my name on to ask the government to talk to Gen. Athor, then I was saying that the government should accept at least one of the demands put forward by Gen. Athor. Which one of the above demands would I urge the government of South Sudan to consider?
So, do I rule out negotiations between the GoSS and Gen. Athor? No. I still encourage negotiations, but only when Gen. Athor understands what he really wants. His current demands still do not make sense to me for compromise.
One may still ask, is peace not more important than unreasonable demands of Gen. Athor? Is it not easy to let the Governor of Jonglei step down to appease Gen. Athor and his supporters? Well. Peace is important. No doubt about that. But what if the Governor of Jonglei welcomes Gen. Athor in Bor town and replaces him in the bush? Would that be peace? Peace would only come if the Governor of Jonglei is convinced that Gen. Athor’s anger about election results is justified. But would anybody smarter than Gen. Athor even justify Gen. Athor’s claims when we know that the margin between him and Governor Kuol is 100,000 voters out of the total of less than 250,000 voters?
Peace would be good if Gen. Athor is given what he wants now through negotiations without a reasonable ground for doing so. But what message are we communicating to the future politicians in the South? Are we telling them that it is okay for them to kill some innocent people to let their unreasonable demands considered when they lose elections in the future? If that is the case, then I would rather welcome back tyranny in Sudan instead of the disguised democracy.
Zechariah Manyok Biar is a graduate student at Abilene Christian University, Texas, USA. He graduated with a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry in December 2009, and he just graduated with a Master of Science in Social Work, specializing in Administration and Planning. He can be contacted at [email protected]
Gatwech
Should GoSS talk to General George Athor?
Hi Zechariah Manyok Biar,
I thought you could see the situation intellectually considering its unfolding consequences. Your article has a confused stance unless you are against “any” negotiations with Athor.
If your reason for refusing GOSS to negotiate with him is about lacking his clarification on his demands, then you are not in good mood for nothing.
Negotiations are a means during which Athor can tell the government the reasons for his demands. And he has said some of them unless you don’t just want to listen. Athor said Kuol Manyang stole the elections results and so he should be sacked. During the negotiations that is when he can explain how did Kuol Manyang steal the elections results.
What I sense in your pain, Mr. Manyok, is that you fear any negotiations with Athor could cost some position for your sectional man called Kuol Manyang as you are warning of him (Kuol) replacing Athor in the bush. You also care about money that can be wasted in the process of implementing some of Athor’s demands.
But do you consider human cost to be less than material cost?
Athor has now killed at least 87 SPLA soldiers since the fighting began according to news sources. Your 15 SPLA soldiers dead could come from the SPLA spokesman. And you know the army does not disclose the real figure. You kill 100 of them they say they are 10.
Mr. Manyok, do you see the situation getting worse? What if Athor attacks Bor town as he has been warning about, can you balance the destruction with the refusal to negotiate because of position or money involved?
Please think possitive otherwise this war of Athor may be regretted far and wide.
Lukudu
Should GoSS talk to General George Athor?
Mr Manyok
You have said your own views and these are indeed your own views. However, everyone else sees the problems in a different manner based on every aspects of analysis. Indeed there are so many reasons why people like Athor decided to run into the bush and turned his guns back against his own people. This man is not the first of this kind as you are aware of many others who have done the same in the past. And you know there are many reasons for this.
Well, we are said to be greedy and selfish on what we need for pride not for supporting the whole nation. General Athor knows what he wants and the government of Southern Sudan probably knows what the general wants. If there was any reason or feeling of being deprived of his right to hold the government top position of a governor, then it can be wise to negotiate with him and reach a solution. In todays world of democracy, negotiation can either take a form of win-win or win-lose. In my understanding, the win-win approach will yield better results and bring about peace, not between him and the government but peace for everybody as you are already aware that many innocent soldiers have already shed their blood.
The reason why I choose this approach is that we need peace not conflict, we need to shed our sweat not blood anymore. If you were to be among the top officials of the government of Southern Sudan I believe you would say brother Athor come let us sit and talk, but because you are far away and may be for some reasons that is why you said statements – why negotiate with general Athor. Considering yourself as a person and an intellectual or South Sudanese professional in diaspora, what is the best thing you like about living with tension with others? From what you have described about your credentials, I assumed that you know christianity more than anyone else who have not been to that level of education, if so, do you believe in the tit-for-tat actions?
You made some comments about innocent people (soldiers) who died from both sides, how many do you think will die after one month if Athor is still living in the bush and the government refuse to negotiate? To calculate the number that will die if Athor continues to attack or being attacked by the government soldiers, the number will triple the current figure. who do you think needs such a loss of innocent human beings for no reason?
This is not a critique of your views but facts of what everyone will say and these are also my personal views.
Lukudu
Master of Development practice
School of Political Science and International Studies
University of Queensland
Australia
James Okuk Solomon
Should GoSS talk to General George Athor?
So Mr. Zechariah Manyok thinks former General and Deputy SPLA Chief of Staff is stupid with what he has demanded as the basic points of his negociation tactics. What a pity!!!
Let’s see if Mr. George Athor will be crushed by the SPLA as wished by the Bor-Dinka writer. Does Mr. Manyok understand that the courts are useless in the Sudan, given the military power of SPLM in the South and that of the NCP in the North who don’t comply with what the judges could say but only what their politicized armies say?
If those of Dr. Lam Akol and other Southern political parties have been let down by the what we so-called courts in the Sudan; what can Athor be in such courts. Let him try his best the other way and if he succeeds others may follow the trend.
May be the SPLM fear the gun bullets only for them to respect others’ rights. May God protect and be with Goerge Athor in his demands for his denied rights by means of both bullets and talks.
Dinka Boy
Should GoSS talk to General George Athor?
Atungdiak , Chol Deng Chol,and the rest,
We both agree that the article written by Manyok Biar about the rebellion of Lt general Athor Deng against the SPLM is in place. I thought that the author has put brilliant sentiments on his argument. The negotiation at this point will not help us because Athor Deng claims stand alone without justifications. Apparently,his demand for the governorship and the rerun of April election is beyond his demand because such decisions can not happened since we are yearning for democratic system in the South, Win or lose matter. A democractic individual can not anticipate win without lose because the competition is all about win or lose. Even if a business person attempt to introduce aproduct to the market, the product sometime fail at the least stage,and that is a lose situation though he expects win. I mean that there is a win or a lose in any kind of competition. Athor might though of democracy in different way because he was expecting win win game,but i assure him that it’s not only that.
My brother Atundiak, we should supposed to correct the wrongdoers in our society ,so that we will be the future generation. I am glad that the whole of Apadaang are keen about this power greed of Athor Deng. This contender against SPLM has lose given the justifications that were always expose and read in the media, and the wide margin of their results detemine Kuol win. If you does not know, then Athor Deng has got some vote in the hand of Dinka Bor let alone Dinka Ngok in the State of Jonglei because people were voting on demorcacy not in tribal line. I wander how about if Athor Deng would win the election,does governor Kuol rebel? not at all.
I disagree with you when you said that Dr Garang de Mabior had demoted Dinka Ngok in SPLM. Why are you lying like this dear? I am not going to help you with your lie because i can not afford this kind of bias to the public. Do you mean that Lt general Athor is not Dinka Ngok, Gier Chuang, Deng Alor,Pieng Deng, Luka Buong, etc. What about some without even a single minister of leader in SPLM? This arguement of yours is flimsy and this should be disgarded. What do you expect from Dr Garang de Mabior to be done to A padaang Dinka during his adminstration? We have to provide lucidity justifications before jumping to expose unpleasant remark on the ground while not the case.
I also don,t buy your false argument when you said that Lt general Athor rescued the Bor Dinka from Nuer attack on their civilians. Are you really writing this for just the sake of Athor ,or do you really mean it? You said that Lt general Bior Ajang did little than governor Kuol Manyang because Kuol was in the hidding place. This is a false statement. The death of civilians in Bor has been focal point of narrative by you guys because the entire greater Bor generals were deployed in greater Equatoria and BG responding to the common enemy-Arab that make Bor leaders to ignored the war within. That is ablam to out late President,but that is how leader works. Leaders always die for greed, that is a fact.
Let me tell you because i was there in 1991 war that Athor was in upper Nile if you did not know my dear. The very people who must get credit about the 1991 war against Nuer are the following because the fought to the ground. Lt general Bior Ajang, Lt general Kuol Manyang, Late major general Paul Riing, and Gneral Majak A got of greater Bor retreated from Juba deployment and chase away Nuer within just 15 days. You even doesn,t know that Kuol was wounded during 1991 war. see how you can not understand the issue here. Yes, i know that tribalism is high in the South and that is why we are following the wrong doers,but that should not be the case in the democratic Country.
I want SPLM to not negotiation with Athor Deng because he claimed nothing against the governor or SPLM. Also, he prefer violence then negotiation at the first place.
Ajorbirgot
Should GoSS talk to General George Athor?
Brothers and sisters i am very disturbed and concerned of what is happening to our dear nation.the issue of athor is simple and clear,he should be treated as an enemy of the state and dealt with accordingly.
Who is one man to distabalize a whole nation,i urge GOSS to AVOID any talk and make him examplerary to those traitors still hiding behind.circle him up and give him a choice to surrender or meet his fate.
Democracy is a polite version of dictatorship dont late the western media intimidate us,the state has to protect itself by any means necessary.
Long live Goss Long Live New Sudan.
mayardit oyee.