South Sudan will never be put under UN trusteeship, a response to Princeton Lyman
6 min readA response to Mr. Princeton Lyman, who proposed that South Sudan be put on a life support and AU-IGAD-UN plan for an intervention force in South Sudan
By Mariak Chol Majok, Kampala, Uganda
July 27, 2016 (SSB) — First and foremost, let me take this golden opportunity to salute the mighty SPLA for repulsing the enemies of peace that tried to take us back to the dark days of 2013 and for maintaining the law and order, around Juba and its suburbs and ensuring that life comes to normalcy. I also thank the South Sudanese from all walks of life-both at home and Diaspora and on the social media for coming out in large numbers to demonstrate against the proposed plan to deploy the regional force to act as a buffer zone-something ambiguous in nature and in its entirety, isn’t it?
On the other hand, I convey my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families of those killed in the recent Juba fighting. May their souls rest in perfect and eternal peace. As you have seen that article has been trending on the social media for the past few days and it was being protested by majority of our compatriots, I hereby also add my voice as a concerned citizen of South Sudan.
First of all, Mr. Lyman should first weigh and analyze the repercussions that emanated from this so-called UN Trusteeship in the countries this rule was used. This was impromptu in nature and it doesn’t add up to any drastic measure and serendipity meant to abate the ongoing crisis that has devastatingly crippled country’s hopes for a prosperous nation. Perhaps the article was meant to fulfill the western malicious interests in African countries and South Sudan in this particular case.
It has to be recalled that the UN intervention in some countries like Syria, D.R Congo, Iraq, Darfur and Libya has not solved that political turmoil there but rather, it was just an addition of pains to the exiting wounds. Instead, the UN forces in those countries sexually molested the natives of those countries, disorganizing people’s cultures and social ways of lives and plundered their national resources. One of the reports recently released by the Human Rights Watchdog revealed that the U. S-Allies backed rebels in Syria have committed the most heinous crimes in Syria more than the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
So what is the benefit of placing South Sudan under the UN Trusteeship here, to plunder our natural resources, to make our cultural diversity erode, to make the people suffer again like when we fought for this country for decades? Isn’t it neocolonialism in disguise? It is always wise to start fixing your internal problems before correcting others. Who has not heard of the ongoing crack down on the black race in the U.S by the law enforcement agencies and the government isn’t doing anything to rescue this situation? Or has any African country ever proposed to send African Intervention force to act as a buffer zone in the U.S or any western country going through political unrest?
Truth be told, if there was no foreign interference, because of their malicious interest and hidden agenda in this crisis then South Sudanese themselves, would have found a lasting peace now but because of the games involved in the peace agreement, that is why the peace process always remains fragile and changing from bad to worse-African problems should be solved by Africans themselves as put forward by President Mugabe sometimes back. The problem with Western countries and their experts is the way of approach when dealing African problems.
For the case of South Sudan crisis, one needs to comprehensively understand the complexities involved here. The dynamic nature of its ethnicities and social backgrounds ought to be studied first before trying any approach to solve this crisis but that is not the case with western experts on our country. Some of these experts have never set foot in South Sudan and all they do is collecting hypothetical information from some sources like Sudan tribune, Nyamile Pedia, Radio Tamazuj, African Press and other propagandized media outlets.
Any logical approach from the friends of South Sudan and which is not based on flawed and doctored information is highly welcomed. But the problem with the majority of these foreign experts is that, one just sits in his comfortable hotel room abroad and collects wrong information and concludes that it holds water. Our foreign friends should know that South Sudan issue s not for every Tom and Jerry-pathetic!
To our friends in the region, it is said that a neighbor who laughs at you when you are going through tough times is the worst enemy. The endorsement of the regional force was spearheaded by Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan which came to many of the South Sudanese as a shock because it was not expected out of them. Yes, it was the collective effort of our regional friends and international community that brought us this nation but that does not give any of these actors any audacity to interfere in everything in our internal affairs; our sovereignty should not be compromised and sold out in the name of regional/international friendship and intervention force which is an invasion.
This country was bought with 2.5 million lives of our people who perished during the course of our struggle for independence and therefore, our friends should know their limit of when and where to have a say in our country’s affairs because South Sudan is not a research field or a scientific experiment centre where every naive comes, brags his mind and hypothetically comes with a bogus research/finding which does not portray that of our country and its diversities.
Currently, there is a serious crack down and targeted killings of protesters (with 400 people confirmed dead, with many injured) in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, has the IGAD or AU said anything in condemnation or proposed any intervention force to be deployed in Ethiopia?
To South Sudanese in Diaspora, please stop fuelling the current situation back home because it is not as fluid as you always post on the social media. The J1 incident was orchestrated and ignited by James Gatdet Dak, the Spokesperson of the Former First Vice President-Dr. Riek Machar, who posted on his Facebook Page that there was a fighting that had broken out at the Presidential palace and that made the war erupted.
It is only us, the South Sudanese that can shape and sell the good image of our beloved country to the outsiders because South Sudan shall and will remain a country we all proudly call our own however much the tough times we are going through now; no condition is permanent and our country is not a donation from UN as once said by the Deputy Governor of Jonglei State.
In nutshell, we need to find a lasting peace ourselves so as we enjoy the fruit of independence as we focus on building our beloved nation through fostering development and discouraging tribalism through education; it is only education that we can vehemently fight tribalism which is the cause of all these crises.
No to regional intervention force! No to equation of UNMISS mandate from a protection force to a fighting force!!
The writer is a student of St. Lawrence University-Uganda and can be reached via mariakchol20@gmail.com or +211956777484
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