South Sudan must be wary of the West Military Cooperation

By Isaiah Abraham

August 26, 2011 — The newly born country in the world, South Sudan has a real and serious friend in the person of the United States of America (USA). Westerners generally have played an important part in many ways. The USA particularly has played significance role both on humanitarian and political fronts since the second war broke out in 1983. To many Southerners the USA is the Good Samaritan in the true sense of the word, when others ‘passed us by’, including people who could have helped most. The Americans support in kind goes to billions of dollars since that time, and that country (USA) still much ahead today after independence of South Sudan in an effort to lift this country (South Sudan) from its inherent socio-economic and stability challenges.

But lessons elsewhere have shown over and again that somewhere the West interest override ordinary interest of the host country and this in a way makes any cooperation (especially military) with the West a very tall decision for everyone to jump into. Not because Westerners are bad guys, the thing is that they bully throughout and that make other countries uncomfortable with military or whatever cooperation with the Westerners. Take for instance, the USA, its foreign policy becomes that there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies. We have seen that in Iran in earlier seventies and then again in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Africa, Westerners played a dangerous game everywhere and Somali is a testimony of that ugly practice. They left Somali in the lurch when they should have shown others that it is important to separate a Somali hungry woman from terrorists. When one looks at Somali, you can’t help but pity them and start questioning big world institutions.

I deeply fight the sense of an unprecedented indignation, say about injustice unleash by Uncle Sam against humans like them. I have again and again cried when I see our brothers/sisters Somalis mistreated and left to vultures and wild animals for reason beyond their control. To me it is not about Al Shabab or terrorism war anymore but about wiping out Somali on the face of the earth. I salute the latest Kampala Submit by the true Africans leaders of Uganda and Eritrea on Somali, especially their recollection about the present for the future of that country. I believed they have asked themselves thus: ‘hey, where does the West taking Somali, and for how long will that country remains ungovernable and shaky’. The Turkey Prime Minister on the other hand made a tremendous gesture by moving his entire Office and families to a gunned ridden city called Mogadishu. Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogant is my role model and will remain respected and blessed! Bear with me as we go round.

In Zimbabwe the invisible hands of the world big brother was too heavy on the economy and the people there. The people of Zimbabwe remember well how it feels to have a super power spoils for import and export sabotage. The market dried up, and big notes were chasing few commodities. The sin of President Gabriel Mugabe was the redistribution of land to the blacks from the whites. True, the land was for them all (black and whites Zimbabweans), but how could a small percentage of whites owned 60% of national economy through farming, while over 90% of Zimbabweans were wallowing in abject poverty, neglect and misery. President Mugabe made a right move to stop exploitation by a few. After all, it was the same whites that delayed and harmed many Zimbabweans during the struggle for freedom in the 60s and 70s.

To Westerners, Mr. Mugabe has been (still anyway) a dictator and undemocratic, a clever ruse used by so-called democrats to keep up imperialistic tendencies among poor and developing nations. Look, is there any country so repressive and undemocratic than North Korea, Syria, China, Burma and Gambia? Why didn’t the Americans or NATO go there and ‘protect civilians’? Who lies that the Africans have no values, unless a pretender source them from elsewhere. Whenever the West becomes nosy into African affairs, the situation of Africa worsen . The reason being that the West uses a wrong prescription to solve right diagnose. This is where the African values come in.

We can talk and talk about examples from the West of Africa to the East, North of it to the South, about places/countries that have been put to ruin by the West involvement or presence. Ivory Coast and Liberia were beautiful destinations for food, recreation and whole living, but today, these countries are reeling from one problem after another. In the East, we had then a stable country called Somali with a blue beaches and good people living peacefully among themselves and with their neighbors, but after someone from outside disguised as a food provider during famine disaster there entered, the retrospective of that plan botched everything against the Somali people. Eritrea is slowly going the Zimbabwe way economically (say in few years to come), unless President Isaias changes tact.

In the North of Africa, we have seen leaders coming down like nothing in a more dramatic fashion, but in the end, after the euphoric waters died down, the North of Africa will not find peace! In Libya for instance, the West twisted United Nations Resolution 1730 to advance its dirty agenda against the Libyan people. Gaddafi could be on his way out from power, but differences and bitterness caused by the NATO airstrikes will not make that country stable again. Any patched arrangement can be ephemeral ; tough times for Libyans are ahead!

In the South of Africa, the Swaziland King in few years time, if not months, will not parade bare chest ladies for selection of a wife, and subsequently , the trouble will spill down to the people on the remote peaceful areas of Mhlambanyatsi or Thaba Tseka.

In the South Sudan to bring you closer to our topic, we are hearing the Americans touching down proudly with a message of military cooperation between Washington and Juba. President Kiir went public to demand from General Carter Ham, the African Command Chief the training of his men (he called for capacity building). But General Ham has made his appearance more overbearing even his hand shake and eye contact to a shy Kiir, something Mr. Kiir couldn’t stand. In the end though we are reading a theory that perhaps the General has come for more than just a training of ill trained SPLA forces (South Sudan Armed Forces) but to seek assurance for opening up US Military Bases around the country. Boma is one that target in Jonglei State

No one could confirm this proposition, but the idea was mooted somewhere in 2009, and we in the media made it clear that it is too bad an idea. The American bases are conspiracy ones; they are there for an imposed agenda and sometime hard to remove them. They meddle in the affairs of host countries and are a burden. But more importantly, the Western bases are usually used to intimidate a sovereign state on what to do and how to do it. Enough is enough with any colonizer, Khartoum/Arabs were our big headache to our people, and people should rise up and say no to military presence of the West/Americans on our soil. Training of men yes, but not military bases, please!

Isaiah Abraham lives in Juba. He is reachable at [email protected]