South Sudan blames NCP for failure to make unity attractive

By Ngor Arol Garang

December 16, 2010 (ABYEI) — Senior officials in the government of south Sudan and member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement on Thursday blamed National Congress Party of failure in making unity an attractive option during the last six years of interim period.

Barnaba Marial Benjamin, minister of information and broadcasting service categorically told Sudan Tribune that the National Congress Party had an intention of wanting the south Sudan to secede.

“A lot of people and particularly the uniformed northern community think South Sudanese have no reasons to secede from the north. They do not see what happened and who does it and why. The only thing they see as crime is referendum on self determination for the people of South Sudan,” said minister Marial.

He explained on 20th July 2003, parties to the conflict signed the Machakos Protocol, in which they reached specific agreement on a broad framework, setting out the principles of governance, the transitional process and the structures of the government as well as on the right to self-determination for the people of South Sudan, and on the state and religion.

“The Machakos protocol was very clear on self-determination. It allows South Sudanese to vote during an internationally monitored referendum to decide whether to remain part of united Sudan or secede. This is what the agreement says. It is not something the SPLM leadership invented from nowhere. It is from the agreement which we signed in the presence of international community with our partner, the National Congress Party,” he emphasized.

The minister, however, admitted that the CPA encourages giving unity option first priority.
“Yes, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement encourages the two parties to give unity option first priority but on the basis that it must be made attractive during the six years interim period.”

The conflict between the north and the south began in 1955 and continued for many years after independence of Sudan from Britain on the 1st January 1956. For over two decades, the NCP Khartoum based governments and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), the former main rebel movement predominantly members of southern tribes, have fought over resources, power, the role of religion in the state and self determination.

During the war, over two million people died while four million more mainly from the hotspot areas fled south to the north. Some 600,000 people from the south were also believed to have left the country and sought refuge in the neighboring countries of Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Congo to name but few.

Colonel Deng Thiep Akok, a former Aweil North county commissioner, Northern Bahr el Ghazal blamed Khartoum based government for failures to implement key issues in the comprehensive peace agreement.

“The north should blame nobody in case of secession of the south during the upcoming referendum. They should blame themselves and the national congress party. We have supported unity options since independence but have failed to show that we are one and the same people,” explained colonel Thiep.

The senior member of the southern ruling party, SPLM, said the north has always prepared unity of resources and disunity of the people by making them equal citizens before law and in power.

The pronouncements coincided with concession made by senior member of the National Congress Party in which is quoted as accepting that efforts to keep the country united had failed.

On Thursday, Presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie, a NCP leading figure viewed as strong supporter of unity said today it is “expected” that people from the oil-producing south would choose to declare independence in the Jan. 9 vote.

Citizens from the semi autonomous south are left with only just 24 days to go the poll scheduled to take place on the 9th January 2011, an exercise provided in the 2005 peace deal that ended decades of war with the north.

(ST)