SPLM’s Amum visits Jonglei to campaign for a peaceful vote for separation
January 3, 2011 (BOR) – South Sudan’s minister for peace and implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), Pagan Amum, has called upon the people of Jonglei state at New Year celebrations to peacefully prepare for the region’s January 9 vote on independence.
Speaking at a public rally organized by Jonglei state government, Amum described the 1983 Bor mutiny as the beginning of the sacrifice to liberate the South from what he calls a “Sudan not to stay in.”
Amum asked the crowd to remember the sons and daughters of Jonglei state during the south’s war with successive Khartoum governments.
The SPLM’s leader and founder the late John Garang de Mabior was from Bor and led the the 1983 rebellion to form the SPLM. After becoming the First Vice President of Sudan and Prsident of the newly autonomous region of Southern Sudan in 2005 he died shortly after in a helicopter crash.
Amum, who is also the SPLM’s Secretary General said that Garang’s death and those that had died in the conflict had not been in vain as the south now had the opportunity to separate from the north.
“This is our year. A year need peace and freedom,” he said to ululations of the large crowd in Bor town’s Freedom Square.
He said that the experience of sharing power with Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party had not made unity attractive to southern Sudanese. Amum said that “the Sudan I am seeing is not [safe] to stay in.”
Most observers predict that a vote for secession being the most likely outcome.
In his capacity as the minister for peace in the government of Southern Sudan, Amum said that should the south opt to secede the result should celebrated with restraint as South Sudan would only become a nation only after July 2011 as stipulated in the peace agreement. The north and south have yet to agree on post-referendum issues such as citizenship, oil, water, debt, currency and national assets.
Amum asked southern citizens, “after casting your vote, please go home and have peace with [your] neighbors.”
The SPLM Secretary General said the party is campaigning for separation in order to achieve freedom.
“If you go to cast your vote, vote for freedom.” On the ballots papers, unity is symbolized by two hands clasped together and separation by one unclenched hand, which some pro-separation groups say represents the south waving goodbye to the north..
On his part, the government of Jonglei state, Kuol Manyang Juuk, reaffirmed that the results of referendum; either unity or separation will be considered and protected.
“There is no return to war. If we vote for unity, that will be end of war. If we vote for separation, there will be long lasting peace in the Sudan,” said governor Manyang who also said that any unity enforced on southern Sudan is worse than war.
Amum who is also the minister for peace and implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement is touring the ten states of southern Sudan ahead of the polls to spread messages of peace and restraint during and after the polls.
SECURITY AGENTS SCUFFLE WITH THE MEDIA
The New Year celebrations and an address from the Secretary General of the southern Sudan’s ruling party, the SPLM were marred by fights between plain clothes security agents and local press on 1 January.
A number of cameras and recorders were taking from journalists and broadcasters at the rally in Bor towns Freedom Square, while the state governor Kuol Manyang Juuk and Amum watched the scuffles without calling for their security agents to show restraint.
A radio Jonglei 95.9 FM reporter’s camera was confiscated. Another security officer told the reporters who had assembled their video cameras in front of the guest of honor, Pagan Amum, to quit.
Head of protocol at the office of Jonglei state governor told the Jonglei pressmen that only press accompanying peace minister Pagan from Juba will be allowed to stand directly facing the guest of honor’s table and others should leave without delay.
At this point, Jonglei state based reporters protested and told protocol officer that they would not leave the stage. The argument caused stand-off for a couple of minutes before both sides agreed to use press ID for identifying non-press members.
Representatives of the Agency for Independent Media (AIM), a local organization that advocates for the rights of the press in Bor, said that the incident was detrimental in a build-up to the referendum.
“This is a negative development at this stage of referendum exercise where the media is expected to play a crucial role,” said AIM said in a statement.
When contacted for comment, the public security officers who chased away reporters and confiscated press equipment declined to speak on record citing their work ethics.
(ST)