11th Anniversary of July 9th, Holy See Visitation, Dredging Nile Rivers and Potential Diplomatic Repercussions with Egypt
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As South Sudan marks its 11th year anniversary, let’s remember that we would have been the first nation in the world to host Pope Francis in the history of our independence.
By Dut Augustino Agei, Nairobi, Kenya
Saturday, 09 July 2022 (PW) — There are different tracks of mediation in diplomacy. One of them is tracking one-second track two and for the third track one point five. All these are the mediator’s attempts at the best alternative dispute resolution for any given conflict. Track one point five carries everyone’s admiration for its uniqueness, among several other reasons for being a mediator without a background in government.
As in the Rome-South Sudan peace agreement, negotiations by Holy Father Pope Francis fall into the category of track one point five. Literally, mediation has voluntarily been done without a track record but pacifism in the name of humanity and for the new independence of South Sudan. The Holy See or Vatican mediation is always for the consent of humanity and should be considered a liberal peace in the history of our republic.
Ideologically, peace connects humanity across different networks of life all over the world. Under the UN, two principles of the universal declaration of human rights are peace and liberty, which guarantee the peaceful habitat of the world to be free from conflict among racial and ethnic groups within any given nation. the similarity of Ubuntu among South Africans comes from the words “I am because you are.” In history, some mediations done by the Holy See of Rome are considered to be everlasting peace once and for all and are majorly respected and accepted by the people involved in the conflict.
In the Argentina and Chile case study, the Beagle Island wars between President Pinochet of Chile and his counterpart, President Raul Alfonsin of Argentina, which was negotiated by Pope John Paul II, ended the long-term conflict in 1987 among South American nations in wars supported regionally and internationally. Currently, South American nations are said to be more connected with the papacy than any other nation for the implementation of Rome’s peace agreement by Rome.
Similarly, South Sudan, as a Catholic state with mediation done by Pope Francis, carries a better position than any other peace agreement. From South American nations, the examples of catholic states of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia “probability”: if South Sudan takes the Rome peace agreement seriously without hesitation, chances are high for South Sudan to be in a better position to approach the Holy See “in the history of African nations” in the example of catholic blessings, peace building, forgiveness, and reconciliation as a country. As South Sudan observes the anniversary of the 11th year of independence, let us reflect that the only peace agreement that no one in the world violates is none other than the papacy, which signed the peace agreement.
There is interesting information about the Holy Land, Rome that as a nation we must better ourselves bilaterally in the implementation of the peace agreement. Rome, as it is known, is working in two capacities in the international system. The First Vatican was a head of Catholics around the world under the papacy, and the Second Holy See was a government of all the Catholic faithful around the world. Above all, veto power in the UN security council is respected and listened to by all the major worldly powers, and finally a member of the top UN security council with all the representation around the world.
The respect accorded to the Holy Father as the head of Catholics all over the world should enable South Sudan to commemorate Independence Day within the complementation that the kissing of the feet of leaders “is the highest call in the history of peace mediation to see South Sudan as a transformation place after the retreat in the Vatican. This day anniversary of the independence would have been a papal Mass Day in Juba was it not because of inconveniences. In Kenya, papal masses are followed by special blessings in prayers and a moment of happiness for all South Sudanese Catholics who have never had the opportunity to meet the pope since the liberation struggles of Sudan. During the pope’s visit to Kenya in 2015, there was an asymmetrical land and mass blessings from the mass that were well attended by leaders from all over Kenya in Nairobi.
After Mass, the visit of the Pope as head of State and Holy See creates some aura of a unified country simply by meeting different leaders from the different representations of the government and civil society, all the way up to the humble and eventually clergy leaders. As in South Sudan, the papal visit would have been a moment of experiencing peace negotiated by him and implemented by the South Sudanese. At least South Sudan would at least sense the lost days of independence in correcting the image of wars around the world. I too sense that different peace agreements signed under the system of diplomacy track one and two alternatively by the regional organizations and governments carry the history of giving up the South Sudan peace treaty in tiredness predictions one day.
In current affairs, South Sudan, if not the only African nation to have been in wars for security reasons, should be the first in a conflict. All these should record this republic as a security zone around the world, despite the fact that, for some reason or another, it is a place of conflict and eventually a place without future peace in the imagination of the community of nations. With all the forms of insecurity and instability and disunity and with all different avenues of lacking a fragile enabling environment to host the dignitary of the papacy and above all numerical sanctions from the veto powers of the Security Council, South Sudan stands a chance of missing what no state in the world can afford to miss regardless of whatever situation to host a mediator of the peace agreement on Independence Day. As future times are nearing about what South Sudan can do differently, I am one of the people who believe in giving a chance to try the lost glory and perhaps recovery might work better and for the best and finally extreme.
Permit me to conclude with the advisory opinion that dredging the Nile rivers in a situation of diplomatic repercussions with Egypt along the Nile rivers is a contemporary struggle witnessed in Israel, North Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. After all, the independence of the African Nations, the security of nations are environment and human habitat is supported by the UN sustainability. Can we imagine a situation of climate refugees after every part of our republic lacks rain and is hit by famine, conflict, and draught? Can we imagine the danger our biodiversity may encounter after the shortages of water and manpower all over South Sudan due to our own mistakes, even after the blessings of the Nile Rivers? Can we imagine a landlocked nation without electricity and power stations dredging waters followed by a series of migrations?
Unless something else, but if we were, to be honest, with something better than what we envisioned as a country, then we could not dredge South Sudan rivers into the Mediterranean flows without returns. After the long conflict of wars and instability, South Sudan the least African nation would have found different ways of solving national issues that, in my opinion, can unite people within the country other than waiting for tragedies of masses migrations outside South Sudan for the great dislikes of our motherland.
Finally, peace is the situation of national cohesion in which people accept each other. Regardless of prayers history recorded South Sudanese as people that cannot solve their problems without going to wars and may history be proven wrong. Happy Independence Day anniversary, South Sudan.
The author, Dut Augustino Agei Dut, is a member of the South Sudan civil society group in Kenya. a teacher at Comboni College, Khartoum and also in Juba, Sudan, a Vatican scholar at (DDIS) Institute of Diplomacy & International Studies, University of Nairobi, and a columnist at South Sudan local media groups, and can be contacted for comment via dutagostino@yahoo.com
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