Apology to our DDR’s International Partners
Apology to South Sudan DDR’s International Partners
David Mayen Ayarbior, Juba, South Sudan
July 4, 2015 (SSB) —- I was approached by some quarters to apologize to our international partners for an article I wrote last week about their failure to effectively help South Sudan in undertaking a successful DDR (Demobilization, Disarmament, and Re-Integration) program. Obviously, our partners did not appreciate my hypothesis that “whatever constraints were there on their part must only be in theory because these international (multi-state) organizations are more than capable if they have the will. It was more of a case of lack of will, massive corruption, and lack of a plan on their part.”
Since our international partners speak ill about South Sudan in terms of unsubstantiated claims, I expected them to be not so sensitive when an inconsequential man like me accused them of failure. Having lived for a few years in their part of the world, I came across such phrases as freedom of conscience, and I might have believed in them. However, since this ‘westerners’ might be hypersensitive when in Africa, and since they provide funds, let them receive my apologies on a silver platter.
I do apologize for including “massive corruption” in my article, yet in hypothesis testing researchers start by using assertive statements in the present and future tenses (is, was, and will) to create propositions demonstrating relationships between dependent and independent variables. A cause and effect relationship which they end up substantiating or refuting through null hypotheses within their main research areas or theses/dissertations.
Since my PhD research interest has now landed on this interesting topic: “The Role of DDR in South Sudan”, that proposition, for which I have apologized, may sneak back into my academic hypothesis, using present and future tenses, with no intention to defame our valuable international partners, assuming that I will be ‘permitted’ to develop a research about DDR and international partnership in South Sudan.
And if I found it (concluded) successful, I will surely be among those who will substantiate and demonstrate their success. I am not out to demonize the international community, since I know many success stories from their DDR interventions in countries such as Sierra Leon and Liberia.
Having developed my noble intention to contribute to peace building in South Sudan, as best I could and in my small way, through researching important issues like DDR, I will approach all partners, international and local (if allowed). But if they decided that there are security reasons for concealing the results and impact of DDR in South Sudan, then I will just quit; who am I to argue further? I will then just research about DDR as an academic topic that applies to post-conflict peace building and human security in Africa. I am sure lessons could still be drawn from those case studies I will include.
To give you a taste, the introduction to my DDR research, which might exclude South Sudan, will sound as follows:
The concept and practice of post-conflict security building is at the heart of post-conflict consolidation of political power and post-conflict nation building with all its socioeconomic dimensions. It is indeed what determines whether the various elements (theoretical) and projects (implementation of those elements) of statecraft in post-conflict contexts were/are feasible or not. It determines the distance between the propensity of recurrences of armed conflicts and arriving at the shore, so to speak.
DDR has taken its premium place as an instrument of nation building in the immediate period following protracted warfare involving multiple paramilitary organizations. Revolutionary wars across the world in general, and Africa in particular, have often created massive armies of young men and women whose usefulness quickly faded away when conflict aims have been attained. These armed young men and women find themselves less equipped in terms of technical skills for contributing to nation building, hence become the main stocks for recruitments by warlords who stand to benefit from warfare.
Considering the dilemma in which such relatively young men and women find themselves, they collectively become societal time bombs. They quickly start developing a grudge towards their societies for what they perceive as lack of appreciation…..
I will also examine DDR’s successful case studies in Liberia and Sierra Leon, which might include something like the following:
In a case study by Christiana Solomon and Jeremy Ginifer July 2008 on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration in Sierra Leone commissioned by the Center for International Cooperation and Security, the due stated after their field survey that “Sierra Leone’s DDR process is widely regarded as a success story, and elements of the Sierra Leone ‘model’ are being replicated in neighboring Liberia, in Burundi, and now as far away as Haiti.
A total of 72,490 combatants were disarmed and 71,043 demobilized, and 63,545 former combatants participated in the reintegration segment, including 6,845 child soldiers. Participation rates in the DDR programme were high and peace has been maintained in the six years since the war came to an end.”
I hope that my proposed research will sound logical and get approval from the UN Security Council, given the sensitivity of the area and international partners involved. I also hope that when I get approval, from the UN Security Council and AU Peace and Security Council, may be also, to be on the safe side, from institutions like UNMISS, the World Bank, and DDRC in South Sudan, many South Sudanese citizens who would want to pray for peace in our country, even without examining any root causes, will teach me how to pray.
I don’t know whether it is logical to propose that a comprehensive DDR program should be at the heart of negotiations in Ethiopia. May be I didn’t have any point there. But as a holder of a Master’s Degree in International Security from one of the best schools of International Security in the world, I might be well equipped with the tools necessary to examine (at least theoretically) the success of DDR in the African context.
I hope to put this tools to the service of my country. And as a former SPLA NCO and loyal citizen of my country, I sincerely wish our international partners all the best with DDR in South Sudan.
May God almighty help South Sudan, the land of Kush; the land of great men (and women). Amen.
Mayen D.M.A Ayarbior, Press Secretary in the Office of H.E. the Vice President, James Wani Igga (dmayend@yahoo.com)
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