A Position Paper of The Free Citizens Red Flag League (FCRFL) on the IGAD's HLRF in Ethiopia
4 min readPress Release: A Position Paper of The Free Citizens Red Flag League (FCRFL) on the IGAD Revitalization Talks- Addis Ababa (May 17-21, 2018)
Saturday, May 19, 2018 (PW) — Since South Sudan’s civil war started in December 2013, those who have been made to pay a hefty price are the millions of citizens who have fled their homes, been raped and killed by known gunmen, succumbed to war related malnutrition and disease in swamps and villages across the country and in UN concentration camps known as Protection of Civilians Cites (PoCs), and trapped in insulting conditions in refugee camps across the region.
Many of the so called political leaders who willfully triggered this humanitarian tragedy have since enjoyed greater access to the country’s oil wealth than any time before the war, a privilege they are determined to maintain. Instead of using a portion of oil proceeds to recollect the pieces of a shattered economy, much of the money has been recycled in financing a brutal war machine which is being directed more against civilians than against armed combatants.
Having lived in such appalling conditions for five out of seven years of formal independence, it is regrettable to concede that the civilian populations in South Sudan were far much better-off under Khartoum’s brutality than under the inhumaneness of their own sons.
Inexplicably, since independence, the SPLM-led government (led by the incumbent head of state) has taken the mantle of power and used every trick in the book to destroy the people and country, instead of uniting the citizens and building a pro-people economy.
Having done what they have done, instead of heading to The Hague for accountability, multiple SPLM factions have now converged in Addis Ababa to negotiate a “peaceful settlement” of THEIR WAR against the people and, once more, re-divide among themselves political power and its concomitant economic privilege.
Strangely, this process is being facilitated by fellow Africans and a few friends of the people of South Sudan in the international community who continue to claim helplessness in the face of another genocidal act against innocent human beings.
The coexistence of the two conditions of crimes against citizens and proposed re-division of power and privilege among perpetrators of such war crimes is yet another clear example of failure of the international justice system; a failure to craft robust plans to save millions of innocent civilians which has been characteristic of international and regional civilian protection schemes in sub-Saharan Africa.
As delegates are gathered in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), it is incumbent upon the region and the world at large to force a negotiated settlement on the sparring SPLM factions. Only through forcing an agreement in which power redistribution does not depend on SPLM historical military and political hierarchy may South Sudan and its brutalized citizens be saved from the grips of tyranny and total destruction.
There is no reason whatsoever to justify an extension of another 36 months to the same failed leadership and expect the return of millions of refugees and freedom to PoC prisoners. Doing so (i.e. sanctioning that dangerous extension) and expecting a different result from a transitional government of the same kleptocrats would not only be a high level of unexpected naïvity, but uncaring complicity for which the mediators shall one day be shamed.
It is high time the international community, Eastern Africa in particular and Africa in general rose up to the challenge and sided with the people of South Sudan rather than with their tormentors.
An imminent threat and use of force should be brought to bear on the outcome of these protracted and never ending negotiations.
You can reach The Free Citizens Red Flag League via their email: freecitizensrfl@gmail.com
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