NCP raps SPLM over pro-secession remarks
September 21, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The National Congress Party (NCP) in north Sudan has castigated its ruling counterpart in the semi-autonomous region of south Sudan, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), for recent statements by its senior leadership on the inevitability of the region’s secession in a vote scheduled to take place in January 2011.
The plebiscite is the terminus of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the name given to the floundering peace deal which in 2005 ended decades of north-south civil war. Under the CPA, the north is governed under Islamic Shariah law and the south is exempt from Shariah laws and enjoys greater autonomy.
Echoing the predictions of many analysts, senior southern officials recently made remarks suggesting that the secession of the south is a fait accompli.
On September 18, the SPLM’s chairman and president of south Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, told an audience at the Washington Convention Center in the U.S capital that the independence of south Sudan is currently all but certain.
“At the moment all signs point to the fact that on January 9, 2011 Southern Sudanese people will vote overwhelmingly for their own independence,” Kiir said.
One day before on September 17, south Sudan’s Vice-President Reck Machar told the Chinese consul in Juba, Ambassador Zhang Qingyang, that China should prepare for possible independence of the region so that it would not come as a shock.
For the NCP though, these statements have fallen foul of the CPA and shown the SPLM’s lack of concern for the welfare of the south and the entire country.
A press release issued yesterday by the NCP’s media secretary Fathi Shilah cited some CPA’s articles which state that the signatories of the CPA should work together to promote Sudan’s unity.
The party was keen to remind SPLM’s officials that calls for secession were not confined by the SPLM and that some parties in the north took the same position, in reference to the Just Peace Forum party and the daily newspaper Al-Intibaha which was recently shuttered by the government in the north as part of its efforts to display pro-unity position.
The NCP further claimed that the secular Sudan sought by the SPLM contravenes the CPA which, according to the NCP, is built on the basis of making unity attractive under a de-centralized system of governance and applying Islamic Shariah law only in the north while giving southern states the freedom to create their own legislations.
SPLM officials have repeatedly complained that the NCP’s persistence in entrenching a theocratic state and applying Shariah law in the north has thwarted the model of unity envisioned by the SPLM’s leadership.
The NCP also challenged the SPLM to have the courage to publicly declare its pro-secession position.
“If the SPLM did not manage to achieve a secular state in Sudan through war and constitutional political work, it should summon the courage to declare to the Sudanese people that it is restoring to the choice of secession”, said the NCP’s press release.
The NCP finally reiterated its commitment to working for unity and regretted the SPLM resorting to the choice of secession in a way that “does not serve the short or long run interests of the south or Sudan as a whole.”
(ST)
Baggaran
NCP makes Unity attractive ….
Yes, the NCP has been working tirelessly to promote unity in the years since the CPA was signed.
It has made a few misses on the way. The continual obstruction over the borders, security laws, sharia law, oil revenue, electoral commissions, the complete destruction of Abyei town in 2008.
But these are small matters. Why would you not vote for unity when the NCP is taking so much care to make it attractive?
Ahmed Chol
NCP raps SPLM over pro-secession remarks
If there are people who preach unity in public without telling us why it is good for us to have unity, then why is it wrong for anybody to talk about secession.
Kiir is one of those people who has been threatened not mention a word about secession while Bashir is preaching unity without telling us why it will be good to have a united sudan. What most of these illiterate NCP thugs don’t know is what will prevent Sudan from going back to war in the next 15 years or so when the tendrils of Islam itch every non Muslim everywhere in Sudan. In a united Sudan, and especially after the SPLA forces have integrated into the SAF according to the CPA, I can just see Anya-nya III coming in 10 years after the referendum. Most its leaders will be the Jech-Amer, a fearless generation that grew up during the firestorm and baptized by blood.
Garang has already said “There will always be fighting in your own house so as long as you are not fair to every member in the household”. Such a family is doomed to collapse he addedwatch on the youtube. The largest country in Africa is collapsing in a broad daylight so as long as put religion and Arabism first. Sudan is doomed to collapse in years to come if not in 2011.
Ahmed Chol, the future commander of Anya-nya III
Bol Bol
NCP raps SPLM over pro-secession remarks
There were debates that were recently held in Khartoum on the issues of separation vs unity and guest what, the unionists couldn’t offer any concrete reason why the united Sudan is better than separated Sudan. The pro-separation groups were able to point out many mistakes the past and present Northerner rulers made and continue to make. I know the truth hurts, but the separation is a reality, not an ideal.
Gatwech
NCP raps SPLM over pro-secession remarks
Dear readers,
NCP should stop trying to blackmail the SPLM by misinterpreting the CPA.
The CPA was talking of “making unity attractive” and “giving it a priority during the interim period of six years” and not of banning the parties from choosing between the two options in the last days to referendum.
Now the questions is have the two parties made unity attractive enough in the process of prioritizing during the six years of interim period? The answer is a big NO!
So what is next? We have come to the end of the interim period at a time when unity is even made more ugly.
It is time for making a choice between unity and secession and not to continue to try to make it attractive or prioritize it when we are left only with 90 days to vote. It doesn’t make sense at all.
Well, the NCP is mocking the SPLM leaders by telling them to have courage and declare secession as their choice. Well NCP is not keen in statements made by the SPLM Chairman, Gen. Kiir and Vice Chairman, Dr. Machar. Their statements are very clear and tell alot to smart readers and listenerners about the obvious direction the party is heading to. So, I guess time will soon come when an official SPLM position will be declared on secession.
We know the NCP has abandoned the task of making unity attractive and instead unreasonbly resorted to declaring the choice of unity hoping to take the SPLM for a ride. That is itself a misinterpretation of the CPA if not a violation. There is a big difference between ’making unity attractive’ and ’choosing unity option.’
Their unattractive hooks will only catch those who lack nationalism for South Sudan nationhood such as the likes of oil minister Dr. Lual Achuek and his followers. When the vote comes, let them vote for unity and we the rest of South Sudanese will vote for separation and win. We will be proud for being the creators of the independent South and they will be ashamed as people who have to live in a nation they refused to create.
NCP should wisely accept the reality that Sudan will atleast split into two in just 90 days. Or if they play it ugly it will break into more than two independent states. Watch out!!!
Marial Mangar Akol
NCP raps SPLM over pro-secession remarks
Arab (Northerners) cool down please! we will make you our best neighbouring country. so to make matter the best we are forming the world newest nation that sound better, then why are arguing? It could be better if our neighbouring Countries would make celebration for having new nation. “SEPERATION OYEE” Bashir we are not the beginners of seperation, it has taken place since Coria, Etiraia and many others. so please follow the law of REFEREDUM that fall under the consitution of UNPO.
Self-determination in International Law
The principle of self-determination is prominently embodied in Article I of the Charter of the United Nations. Earlier it was explicitly embraced by US President Woodrow Wilson, by Lenin and others, and became the guiding principle for the reconstruction of Europe following World War I. The principle was incorporated into the 1941 Atlantic Charter and the Dumbarton Oaks proposals which evolved into the United Nations Charter. Its inclusion in the UN Charter marks the universal recognition of the principle as fundamental to the maintenance of friendly relations and peace among states. It is recognized as a right of all peoples in the first article common to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which both entered into force in 1976. 1 Paragraph 1 of this Article provides:
All peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
This is Marial Mangar Akol