Western Diplomats Condemn South Sudan’s Attack Against UN Mission: A Right of Reply
By Malith Alier, RSS
The sudantribune.com report of 29.03.14 that the western diplomats in the name of USA, UK, Norway, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Canada missions gathered to condemn the Government and Opposition forces on alleged attacks against UNMISS is not something new.
However, why the US and European nations diplomats? Are they the police of the world or do they speak for the UN? The US and those other nations are not the only UN member states in South sudan who should constantly bother us with UN defence each time there is a crisis involving the UNMISS and South sudan. Last year they carried out the same condemnation against the country and its people.
The 29 March 2014 news conference can only be compared to the December 6 news conference master minded by Riek Machar and his supporters to condemn and give ultimatum to the same government the diplomats are now after.
I do not want to speak for the government but I would like to reply as an ordinary citizen who do not admire the UNMISS and its backers. This is because the UN and its backers always want to push victims to weaker positions each time they faced with stark realities as is now the case in South Sudan.
The people of South Sudan are almost always willing victims of circumstances imposed up on them starting from the conspiracy of the 1947 conference in Juba. Not only that there was a slave trade conspiracy that depleted the whole of Africa of human beings, particularly in the front states to the Arab world like South.
The other conspiracy was the longest civil conflict starting from 1983 and ending in 2005. This long war cost the country human life, development and created an induced dependency on aid like what the UN is here for. This war would have been stopped within a few years had it been happening in one of the developed nations say in Europe. They UK and other European nations knew full well that it was the UK that conspired to hand over the Southern part of the country to new coloniser, the Arab north. This is what explains their silence over the 22 year war and lately over the 1956 borderline between the current two countries.
The present conspiracy is instigated by Hilde Johnson, Riek Machar and Nyandeng de Chol. UNMISS is here under UN Chapter VII but has done so little to the country over the past 9 years. UNMIS or UNMISS, they are the different faces of one coin. The UNMISS seems to take advantage of the situation where the government wants to stick to unproductive UNMISS because its white helicopters fly a few army officers from one town to another. That is the far the UNMISS goes in terms of responsibilities assigned to it by the UN Security Council (UNSC).
The outspoken western diplomats have perhaps read the sentiments of the South Sudanese through several demonstrations and hence are acting in defiance of those sentiments. They think that South Sudanese can be taken for granted. That is to say that any message that comes from South Sudanese themselves is less than what comes from Washington, New York, London, Madrid, and or Berlin. You can see they are big powers who have the audacity to police the world and calm down “unfounded fears” as the ones caused by the discovery of the weapons of mass destruction on the UNMISS trucks in Rumbek, Lakes State.
The presence of undisclosed landmines, RPGs, antitank, antiaircraft and other weapons capable of hurting masses tells us that there is something more sinister with the UNMISS disguised under Chapter 7 in the burgeoning Republic. This is where our problem with UNMISS and now the western diplomats start. We say they are guns but according to them they are “crowd control equipment” or “arms for the Ghanaian Contingent” or better still “weapons for peaceful service.” So there is a misunderstanding or lack communication between the South Sudanese Government and the UNMISS. The Norwegian foreign affair Minister one Mr. Brende was the first to weigh in and defend her country women, Ms. Johnson during the first days of weapons’ discovery. Next, the UNMISS force commander, Maj. Gen. Delali Johnson Saki said that the seized weapons were for “peaceful service” the Citizen Newspaper March 13 2014. What a coincidence, Hilde Johnson and Delali Johnson. Are they a brother and sister in arms?
The UN and the western diplomats continue to preach democracy but ignore on the other hand democratic expressions such as the demonstrations held in Juba, Rumbek, Wau and Aweil by South Sudanese demanding that Hilde Johnson leave the country. Sadly, they will not be there when aggrieved citizens react and get rid of someone who is imposed on them. What did the UN and western nations do when the SRSG to Iraq was killed in a bomb? The UN and western nations think that south Sudanese take their rights lightly. They are dead wrong. They should have heeded some valuable lessons in Iraq and stop imposing individuals in the world body on other nations who expressly say no to such characters.
The UNMISS chief has allowed the talking be done by others including the force commander in the hope that she will emerge stronger after the defeat of South Sudanese sentiments by those who talk on her behalf. They in this case portraying south Sudanese and their Government as wrong and the head of UNMISS as right. Having realised that UNMISS is constantly attack by the government and Opposition forces, should call for withdrawal of UNMISS in order to give a chance to other UN agencies who are trusted than UNMISS.
South Sudan is now alienated by the UN and its western backers as always being on the wrong due to trauma. Even the South Sudanese ambassador to the UN, Dr. Francis Deng blames “trauma” on South Sudanese action against UNMISS on the Citizen Newspaper of March 20 2014.
The south Sudanese ambassadors in Brussels, Washington, Addis Ababa and Moscow were recalled for reasons the Government knew better. Many of us would like Dr. Deng to be recalled. He is no longer our permanent representative because he has joined those who blame us. He does not seem to understand us and the situation we are in. Ambassador Deng was rejected by many South Sudanese during his appointment to the UN by the president. Among reasons for his rejection is the fact that he is out of touch with South Sudan realities. He was nowhere during the liberation war and is above all not helpful to the Abyei issue. Abyei is his very own motherland placed right there in jaws of Sudan and South Sudan.
Therefore, appointing Dr. Deng to represent South Sudan in the UN is like appointing a white man who has some knowledge about the country to represent South Sudan in the UN.
To confirm our earlier fears immediately after his appointment, Dr. Deng made a terrible mistake by voting for a Palestinian representation on the very UN and got away with it. Someone else got the blame despite the fact that he was the boss who oversees the direction South Sudan should take over world matters.
Inclusion, south Sudan is now more confused on the UN fundamental ideals of human rights. Clearly, the bringing in of concealed weapons is a human rights abuse that requires Hilde Johnson to leave the Country. There was no need for western diplomats to gang up in support of a mission that has lost credibility not only to the government but also as expressed by ordinary citizens in several states in the nation.
It may not be Hilde Johnson alone who deserves to leave the country. Our discredited overseas representative should follow suit if South Sudanese managed to rid the country of bad people in the UN Mission.
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Malith Alier; we love their money but hate their idea right? blaming others for our own problem is not a solution. either Amb.Dr. Deng or Johnson are not the root cause of the crisis in South Sudan. let deal with our own problems without looking for scapegoat and cheap excuses. voting for Palestinian representative has nothing to do with the crisis in South Sudan. 10,000 people dead in few weeks and amb. Dr. Deng or Johnson have nothing to do with it.
Let the two go and South Sudan will be a better place.