President Kiir should use Dr. John Garang’s precedence to unite the Mother SPLM
4 min readThe only option available to us is to make our own peace among ourselves. The precedence set by Dr. John Garang de Mabior—the 1994 Chukudum Convention, the 2002 return of Riek Machar and Lam Akol, and the 2004 Rumbek Peace and Reconciliation Conference—could guide us to peaceful resolution of this foolhardy conflict in South Sudan by uniting the Mother SPLM of Government, SPLM-IO and the G-10.
By Aldo Ajou Deng Akuey, Juba, South Sudan
April 28, 2017 (SSB) — Violence destroys everything with devastating speed. Since December 2013, South Sudan has lost approximately close to 80,000 human lives; disabled hundreds of thousands young people; internally displaced over 1,000,000 citizens from their homes
Over three millions have emigrated to neighboring countries of Uganda, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia and those who have already migrated to Europe, USA, Canada or Australia are not coming back; many children are in the streets of our towns and no support and above all, over 5,000,000 humans are starving and sick to death.
On the ground, the country has shut down all essential services: lack of drinking water and food, insecurity, education and health are not functioning at all levels, towns or periphery. The common question, among many questions is: What can we do to save our lives and the country?
The disaster is at its climax. The man made war destructiveness, the natural absence of rains, continuous drought since 2005 and no harvest and therefore no food production anywhere. We are dying alone and the world is watching! Our people since 2013 cried out for peace to Africans and to the world, but they responded by giving us their “Agreement for Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan, ARCSS”.
This ARCSS gave birth to three children: the Transitional Government of National Unity, TGoNU, Join Evaluation and Monitoring Commission, JEMC and UNMISS, commanding huge UN force of 17,000 troops only for protection of civilians, who are these civilians? The starving to death? We must together do something!
The only option available to us is to make our own peace among ourselves. The precedence set by Dr. John Garang de Mabior could guide us to peaceful resolution of this foolhardy conflict.
Dr. John disagreed with some leaders in Anyanya two, but he reconciled the SPLM with Anyanya two and unified the forces against the main enemy, “the minority clique.” as he nicknamed the Khartoum regime. Dr. John, alone, without mediators, brought Drs Riek and Lam Akol back to the SPLM and reinstated them back to the top leadership in 2002.
When Dr. John and General Salva administratively disagreed in 2004, the whole SPLM/SPLA leaders brought them to Rumbek and were happily reconciled. That saved the Movement, the people South Sudan and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, CPA, which gave us our freedom and independence. We can do the same. Let’s not “beat around the bush!”
Similarly, we can bring General Salva Kiir Mayardit, General Wani Igga, General Daniel Awet Akot, General Kuol Manyang, General (Molana) Nhial Deng Nhial and their supporters in the Mother SPLM and on the other side, invite Dr. Riek Machar Teny, Taban Deng Gai. Pagan Amuom, Deng Alor, Mama Rebecca Nyandeeng and their SPLM IO and SPLM FDs.
Like Dr. John you ought to reconcile these groups and, I am sure, the war shall be over. This war, by its present form, is political not tribal by any standards.
The nonsense and empty noise against the Jieng Council of Elders is only a lesson learned from the Cold War (1917-1989) disinformation syndrome and, may be, only may be, those scholars who might have read the book: “The Animal Farm” by George Orwel 1984, could be aware of the vicious-fictitious stories of the twentieth century.
Aldo Ajou Deng was a former cabinet minister in the government of Said el-Mahdi before joining the SPLM/A in the 1990s, and currently a senior official and intellectual brain behind the Jieng Council of Elders (JCE) in South Sudan.
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