The ordinary South Sudanese are the victims of their own independence
6 min readBy Deng Akok Muoradid, Juba, South Sudan
February 16, 2018 (SSB) — The South Sudan’s journey to independence took almost half a century from Anya Anya One Movement 1955- February 1972 and from SPLA/M 1983- 2005. The ordinary people of then Southern Sudan region under the umbrella of Anya Anya one movement fought for 17 years until in February 1972 when they reached an agreement with the Islamic regime of President Jaffer Nimeri but the agreement was later dishonored by Nimeri himself.
The Anya Anya one guerilla war inflicted heavy losses on the ordinary people of South Sudan as thousands of innocent civilians were massacred by the Islamic government and millions of people were left destitute. Some remnants of Anya Anya one later joined SPLA/M in 1983. The Anya Anya one war survivors who managed to survive up to the date of independent in 2011 are currently still poor, homeless and many of them have already starved to death in the last two years.
Our people again took up arms in 1983 against the Islamic regime in Khartoum and their objective was to achieve justice, freedom, democracy, good welfare. The outcome of their struggle was the independent. You should note that independent was not the political ideology of SPLM as a party because SPLM is a socialist movement. The ordinary people under the umbrella of SPLM/A fought for 21 years and the war inflicted heavy losses. For example, 2.5 million people lost their lives, thousands remained destitute and many others fled to the neighboring countries as refugees.
You need to know that all the South Sudanese participated in the liberation struggle either directly or indirectly. For example, some people took up arms to participate in the operations, others remained in the Islamic government to protect the Southerners from being killed, other went to Diaspora to lobby for support and the pure civilians who remained inside the country were providing spiritual and logistic support to the movement. The cooperation and unity of the South Sudanese during the liberation struggle made it possible for the SPLA/M to achieve its objectives.
You should also know that those who took up arms against the Islamic government were having different reasons for joining SPLA/M during the liberation struggle. For instance, many people joined SPLA/M to liberate their marginalized people, some joined SPLA/M to escape justice and accountability of the different crimes they had committed and others joined SPLA/M to secure ways of looting civilian’s properties. Some of the people who joined SPLA/M for the interest later rose to the high ranks and they are still implementing their agenda up to date.
The war ended in 2005 after the signing of CPA which granted Southern Sudan local autonomy for 6 years. The referendum was organized in 2011 and all the South Sudanese including the writer of this article turned up to vote for separation miscalculating that independent would be a permanent end to wars, suffering, injustice, inequality etc the people of South Sudan voted for separation with a hope that poverty, diseases, injustice, corruption, and inequality would be things of the past. However what happened after the independent contradicted with our expectation.
After the independence, the political infighting in the SPLM party escalated into violence in mid-December 2013 and it finally led to the total disintegration of SPLM into many tribal factions. Many of the hopeful separation voters who managed to survived during the liberation struggle lost their lives in the post-independent conflict, many of them are homeless up to date, others have starved to death, many others died of treatable diseases like malaria and millions fled to the neighboring countries as refugees.
The above-unexpected outcome of separation compelled our people to feel nostalgia for the old Sudan and this reflects the behaviors of Israelites in the desert when they were liberated but later desired to go back to Egypt due to the conditions they encountered on the way. The first South Sudanese conflict of 2013 is worse than the liberation war because the survivors of the liberation struggle are now being victimized by their own brothers and sisters for the political reasons that are associated with leadership.
The ordinary citizens of South Sudan are the victims of their own independent struggle because the declaration of their country as an independent nation on 9th July 2011 was quickly mistaken by some elements as an independent of some individuals and this is the reason why some individuals are holding the citizens as hostages. When you compare the current living crisis with the pre-independent crisis, you may conclude that the pre-independent crisis is better.
This is because all the South Sudanese who died during the liberation struggle were classified under the group of martyrs. But what about our brothers and sisters who are currently dying of hunger, bullets, and diseases? Should we classify them under which group? I can’t see any logic behind the current ongoing conflict. What are the people fighting for? If almighty God resurrect all our 2.5 million martyrs back to life, I think they will regret and feel sorry to get us in this hopeless situation.
Did we take up arms against the Islamic government in Khartoum to fight for the freedom and good welfare of few individuals or for the survivors and future generations? Our citizens who were uprooted by the post-independent conflict of 2013 fled to different countries as refugees. For example, some of them returned to Khartoum on the footing and established a camp known as “Malesh ya Basher” meaning sorry President Omar Bashir for the separation of South from the North. Those people have right to go back to Khartoum because they were repatriated by SPLM in 2010 with a promise of stability and good welfare.
By the way, I was angered by the statement of senior government dignitary in his interview last week when he said “I heard that some of our people have returned back to Khartoum and set up a camp known as Malesh ya Basher, I don’t know whether those people were with us during the liberation struggle”
As I stated before that all the South Sudanese participated in the liberation struggle either directly or indirectly. So my response to his statement as a freedom fighter and at the same time as a victim of the current crisis is that he himself would have been among the refugees who established Malesh Ya Bashir camp if he is an ordinary citizen like us. His statement indicated that our leaders are not caring about our suffering.
Imagine, he was blaming the victims for setting up a camp instead of sympathizing with them. I don’t know whether the general judgment will come as it is promised in the bible in order to pave ways for equality in South Sudan.
The author is a student at the University of Juba. He can be reached via email: dengakokmuoradid@gmail.com or Mob +211954764508
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