SSUDA/SSDF- Press Release on South-South Dialogue
South Sudan United Democratic Alliance/South Sudan Defense Force (SSUDA/SSDF)
Based on our reliable sources from Nairobi, Kenya, within the SPLM/A, Asmara, Eritrea, including a statement released by the Mr. Yasser Arman, the so-called spokesman for the SPLM/A, SSUDA/SSDF has learned that South-South Dialogue has been scheduled to be convened in the Kenyan capitol Nairobi under the auspices and chairmanship of the former Kenya’s President H.E. Daniel Arop Moi.
The South Sudan United Democratic Alliance/South Sudan Defense Force (SSUDA/SSDF) would not participate or attend a South-South Dialogue organized by the corrupt SPLM leadership.
SSUDA/SSDF leadership would only participate in any dialogue if it were to be organized, arbitrated and mediated by a “neutral” party third mediator. SSUDA believes and as a prerequisite that, South-South Dialogue (SSD) is a plan of action and a fruitful way forward for meaningful reconciliation, unity of purpose and of equals, development of institutions for promoting democratic governance, human rights and to select a committee to draft would-be “federal democratic constitution” and the formation of the
Government of South Sudan (GOSS).
The SPLM is not the GOSS. The SSUDA/SSDF has the legitimate right to assert itself as the government since 1997 Khartoum Peace Agreement in the South. Thus, Rumbek is a de facto capitol of SPLM. Juba is now the de jure capitol of the South. Moreover, any future capitol should be through debates, viability of resources, attractive location to be determined by the legislature, congress or Parliament and The House of Nationalities in the South. The SPLM/A is a party or movement like any other movements in the South. The people of South Sudan would like to have a government that derives all its powers from the people and its governors shall be accountable to the governed or the people.
The convening of South-South Dialogue (SSD) would tantamount to genuine commitment to doing the right thing, averting a possible South-South war, equal power sharing between the SPLM/A, SSUDA/SSDF and other excluded political forces in the bilateral peace agreement signed by the SPLM/A and the GOS on January 9, 2005.
The SSUDA/SSDF believes that peace that there could be no peace without significant and meaningful commitment to South-South Dialogue through a neutral third party, equitable power and resources sharing, equitable development, education, health care, clean drinking waters, creation of institutions of governance, democracy and human rights protection.
The SSUDA/SSDF would like to reiterate that it objects to the
mediations and the IGAD or IPF countries with particular emphasis on Kenya because it is not impartial and has allied itself closely with the SPLM/A. We register this point loud and crystal clear in order to avert any conflict of interest.
We, further, urge and appeal to South Sudanese to facilitate the
convening of a meaningful South-South Dialogue (SSD) to be democratic, and to seek viable and vibrant debates face-to-face on the outstanding issues that divides South Sudanese. There are three outstanding issues that need to be addressed in order for the South to reunite since the split in 1991, vis-à-vis, the virtuous objective of the armed struggle, democratization, human rights abuses, including the mass killing of so many Lost Boys of South Sudan who have not been accounted for, systematic human rights violations, genocide, ethnic cleansing, raps, and other crimes against humanity in the movement prior to the split on August 28, 1991, and the rise of the so-called “New Sudan” agenda as a diversion and an alternative method for the liberation struggle.
It has confused the masses and swayed away Southerners from their dream objective. However, the Anya-Nya II that was in existence since 1975 Akobo rebellion, maintained its objective aimed at liberating the South as an independent and sovereign state. To many Southerners, outside and inside the SPLM/A has been the objective of the struggle since the Southern Corps mutinied in Torit on August 16, 1955.
The SPLM is a pro-unionist, but it is not a good unionist. It is also a
pro-separatist, but is not either good at it. However, one thing we
Southerners should recall for sure is that Mr. Garang in a Radio
address in 1983 stated it eloquently loud and clear that “the SPLM is not a separatist movement”, that “it will not fire its first bullets against the government troops, but against the separatist within the movement.”
As a result, Mr. Garang abated by his former mentor and associate the Ethiopian dictator colonel Mengistu Hale Miriam, systematically
murdered all highly qualified Southern patriots who advocated the exercise of the rightof self-determination as a legal and human right principle endowed to all peoples by their Creator, and as stipulated in the UN charter under Articles 1:2 and 55, including the people of South Sudan. The lack of objective was the prime cause of the split in 1983. No Generals or colonels would want to fight a war aimlessly without a concrete objective.
The SPLA had lost maximum ground with minimum gains. Therefore, through a South-South Dialogue, there will be a comprehensive agreement on the objective of the war. If the objective of the armed struggle is clear and coherent, it could produce a coherent peace plan. Up to now, Garang does not have a peace plan and how to end the war.
He (Mr. Garang) and his cronies have made the war in the South to be a “trade war” or business to accumulate wealth to build their dream financial empires at the expense of the dying and suffering people in South Sudan. We believe that the Minutes of Rumbek leadership Council convened on November 29 to December1, 2004, has revealed the internal contradictions within the SPLM/A.
We urge and appeal to southern patriots to support a meaningful
south-south Dialogue as the way forward and to avert any possible war and bloodshed, equal power sharing in the South, establishment of democratic institutions, and drafting of a federal constitution for the south, formation of a parliament, capital, laws and regulations, commerce, regional and states governments that shall be free from the federal government to write their constitution based on their own traditions and cultures.
We would also urge and appeal for the formation of an international
tribunal to indict, apprehend, try and punish commanders who have committed war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing, raps, and committed other heinous crimes against humanity and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRCC) similar to post apartheid South Africa.
Finally, we urge and appeal that the South-South Dialogue should be
transparent, comprehensive and inclusive, No parties or individuals
with different political ideology or beliefs to be excluded. Democracy
allows diversity of opinions regardless of whether they are right s or wrongs. This is the way is and it will. SSUDA/SSDF is committed to pioneering democracy in Sudan and South Sudan in particular.
The Khartoum Peace Agreement of 1997 and the recent bilateral peace agreement signed by the SPLM and the GOS should as equals. It was Mr. Garang his protégés who objected to the previous peace agreement. “United we stand and divided we fall.”
– Signed by David de Chand, Spokesman/ Director for External Affairs,(SSUDA/SSDF).