By James Nguen,
July 9th, 2017(Nyamilepedia) —— Today is 9th of July 2017. It marks the 6th years of South Sudan independence. South Sudanese at home or aboard should be celebrating for the birth of this hard fought and won Independence Day. However they don’t. No Independence Day celebration because South Sudanese generally are angry and have little reason to celebrate for nation’s birth.
Instead, at this hour, most South Sudanese generally are mourning for their loved ones who are getting kill in all parts of the country. Besides, South Sudanese generally are sad because 2 million of their fellow beings are internally displaced and living as refugees in their own Country. Over six million are food insecure facing starvation. The United Nations had to intervene and hand fed the six million South Sudanese. Another two million fled to the neighboring countries for their safety. Thus, South Sudanese see no apparent reason to celebrate the Independence Day in the face of great calamities and tremendous emotional pains.
In my own right, I took to the pen to petition my brothers and sisters – the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan. I call on them for an immediate action to help rescue the bleeding and starving nation. Thus, I am delighted that I gathered my courage in this troubling times and write to the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan particularly those in the United States, Australia and in Canada to appeals to them for an immediate action.
I am aware that our social fabrics have been severed in this genocidal war; a war led by our disgruntled elders in pursuit of their selfish interest. As a result, some of us have lost loved ones and are still bitter, which I totally I understand.
However, I urged the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan to rise above this petty politics of greed and tribalism, their group have much more to lose than to gain. For this reason and others below, I am petitioning you out of good conscience and rational standpoint for the following reasons:
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Failure in leadership
South Sudan has been at war by itself for the last 4 years due to failure in leadership in the country. This failure in leadership reached its climax – nation’s disintegration in 2016. Thus, our nation has lost its ways to reconcile our people based on our mutual respect and promotion of our rich and diverse cultures. This led to drastic failure in leadership in the country and President Salva is not there to revive or prevent nation’s collapse.
Therefore, it’s time for the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan in the United States, Australia and Canada to convene a meeting. They should meet to chart a way forward to help prevent total disintegrations of South Sudan. Duly, the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan are cognizant of their rich diversity and that of the nation, therefore this is fitting to call for their action.
2. The Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan are the beacon of hope and true definition of envisioned united South Sudan
In a nutshell, the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan have gone through horrific sufferings together during tender years. For example, they have lost their childhood to war for the sake of a better, peaceful and prosperous South Sudan. During this ordeal, the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan forged a special bond which allowed them to survive in the most difficult terrains. This unity of purpose is well needed in South Sudan to uproot tribal hatred meant to take Gatluak Dang and Chol Thon as foes then brothers. The Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan were from young age trained to embrace one another to enhance group growth, therefore, this makes them perfect leaders and ambassadors for South Sudan in this difficult times.
3. President Salva Kiir fitted our tribes against each other
In 2013, President Salva Kiir murdered 20, 000 innocent Nuer civilians based on their ethnicity. This mass killing of civilians caused rapture and revenge in the country; and as a result, it led to the current genocidal civil war. Under this banner of ethnicity, President Salva Kiir and others are still presiding over a deep seated tribal agenda which has destroyed and continues to destroy South Sudan.
Remember, this is the nation you, the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan suffered for irrespective of tribes. A nation with which your colleagues died for in search for better future and rights to be a free human with dignity. A nation that the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan sweated, starved, thirst and bleed for since1987 or beyond. Our inaction in this difficult times would serves as a betrayal to ourselves, all we stands for and our fallen comrades.
4. The Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan have endured and invested much for South Sudan
In this context, I write to remind you that South Sudan is the nation you were reminded for by late Dr. John Garang De Mabior in 2005 to invest for and tasked to protect. After the signature of Navasha Peace Agreement, John Garang reminded the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan to invest in their future and that of the nation.
As you might recall, Garang was repeating himself. He made the same comment in 1989 and 1990 in Punyido refugee camp, Ethiopia. As such what the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan’s former commander in chief was doing in 2005 was another reminder. A reminder that the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan have a role to play and a chief national duties in the times which lies ahead.
One of these roles and national duties which laid ahead is to stands guard of South Sudan after independence. As I write, South Sudan is a failed State and rapidly disintegrating into tribal enclaves. Therefore, the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan need just to be reminded that time has come to stand guard for the nation in order to preserve her dignity and its citizenry rights.
5. The Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan have borne the brunt of the civil war in the Sudan
Again, in 2005, Garang say this: “I greet and salute our youth who have borne the brunt of the 21 years of this war, and to whom the future belongs, and urge them to invest in their future and that of the nation”.
Truly speaking, the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan were the most affected cohort in the Sudan’s long civil war than any other population in the Sudan. For example, the 26, 000 resilient souls who were jam packed in Punyido refugee camp and thousands of those who were also jam packed in Itang and Dima refugee camps respectively, have borne the brunt and crude suffering of the civil war.
For this reason, the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan have a huge stake and vested interest in South Sudan’s affairs. So, the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan should never allowed the balkanization of South Sudan into tribal enclaves. They must stand against somalization of South Sudan comes rain or sunshine, because this nation owe them. For one, they were force conscripted in their villages in 1980s by the SPLM/A in the name of uncalculated futuristic education, which ended with mixture emotions – tears and delights.
With tears, because the forced conscription of the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan made them orphans. As a result, this robbed their childhood and denied them motherly love and nurture.
With delights, because this untold sad stories inspired and gave them profound reason to reach out for each other without hesitation at the time of need. Also, their suffering cemented their oneness whether they are from the Shilluk, Dinka and the Nuer community or Nubians for that matter. Above all else, they know they are one. This is a special bond that the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan must never betrayed.
In those sad days for example, a group of six Lost Boys ate together using one tin hand-made spoon to ensure that each one of them had a scoop. They cared for each other when they were sick, dying and buried their own dead. This is a task that can never be perform by a child in the South Sudanese’s culture. However, the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan shouldered these responsibilities with pride, because they were on their own and fending for each other.
6. The Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan were tormented and traumatized by war at young age
The Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan were tormented and traumatized by war experience at young age. However, they chose to remains resilient trusting that those who would survived at the end will one day lead a better life in a free South Sudan. A free South Sudan where they would memorialize their fallen brothers and sisters in unison without remorse and fear of lynch based on their ethnicities.
In contrast, after independence, as South Sudan is rapidly degenerating into tribal ghettos, there are attempts meant to re-indoctrinate the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan to embrace tribal ghettoeism. However, this is in conflict with what the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan have done and how they envisioned South Sudan.
7. The Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan’s contributions.
The Lost Boys of Sudan contributed with their blood and diplomatically to ensure freedom and independence agenda for South Sudan prevails. In this regard, a true testament is that before the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan move to the United States, Australia and Canada, the case of Sudan was remote and unknown. When the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan arrived in these places, they took it upon themselves advocating for the people of South Sudan and that of the nation’s independence. Therefore, it would be an irreconcilable mistake to let the nation which you fought and advocated for wholeheartedly vanish.
8. South Sudan is hijacked by Khartoum trained conmen
From the word get go, South Sudan as a nation was hijacked by the Khartoum trained conmen. Now, they consider themselves the freedom fighters and the liberators yet they were dinning with an enemy during the war. This group is also promoting unwelcomed tribal agenda leading to the balkanizations of the nation.
I pity this group, but with caution. Simply because in the true sense of the word, indeed they hijacked South Sudan’s national wealth, central command bank, central command & intelligent, judiciary, foreign services and the presidency and they did so because our Four Stars Generals, who came with us from the bush failed the nation. Evidently, they slept in their jobs and were engaged looting the nation’s wealth with callous disregard of the nation. They left the country to lay waste and to the vultures who got nothing lose.
For instance, our Generals started infighting and this pathetic unpatriotic move caused hijacking of the nation by goons and failure in the system. Sadly as I write, all the SPLM/A Generals who fought bravely during the war are either in exile in disgrace or have been sent home for early retirement with no pay. Few Generals who are still warming seats with Salva Kiir are dejectedly redundant. Some have died with heart attacks and others are still dying in their death beds with shame, because they have been rejected by the country they liberated.
A resounding prime example is Gen. Majur Nhial Makol. Uncle Makol was one of the first fine high ranking educated officers and a civil servant who defected from the Sudan Government with Dr. Garang in 1983. After independence, Mr. Makol, like others was send home for early retirement. On his interviewed with the SBC-Dinka radio based in Australia, Mr. Makol was on his death bed, confused and dying. He admitted with shame that South Sudan was hijacked. This is a sadistic fact and shouldn’t be confuse with an opportunistic politic in South Sudan. Something is fundamentally wrong in South Sudan ought to be fix.
Thus, I warned the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan not to repeat the same mistake made by our Generals. For once, the conmen who hijacked South Sudan are determined and currently grooming their children to take over the failing nation. Therefore make no mistake.
9. Lack of territorial integrity, refugee and neighboring countries
In a nutshell, South Sudan has no demarcated borders and running government. However, form 1956 and beyond, South Sudan has borders but this is no longer the case. As I write, huge parts of our nation’s borders have been illegally annexed by Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia respectively because there is no running government to protect her.
With respect to refugees, our civil populations are internally displaced and living as refugees in their own country. Four –six million are food insecure and hand fed by the United Nations. Two million of our civilians fled to the neighboring countries seeking protections from their own failed government.
Sadly so, in the Republic of Sudan, our civil population are now living in a refugee camp named “Maliec Bashir”. A name loosely translated as sorry to President Hassan El Bashir for breaking out from the Sudan.
These few examples will make anyone heart bleed. Precisely so, it must be stated that President Salva Kiir’s owned the blame. Kiir failed our country and killed our people in their thousands if not millions. He also promoted tribal agenda which benefited no one but few cuddling conmen and hovering vultures around him. This and other missteps like it must be challenge and change.
10. Disgruntled and Heartless elders
Salva Kiir owned the blame for leading an onslaught project of our civilians. However, the onslaughts which led to current senseless civil war was devised and waged by none other than a group of old Dinka men (Jieng Council of Elders) who happened to be of Khartoum background.
These conmen hijacked South Sudan when our Generals were asleep and looting the nation. Their aim in this sickening scheme is simply to enrich themselves and their families in the name of the Dinka community.
Besides, the Nuer Council of elders (NCE) of the same background in this respect are the JCE’s sheering crowd. The NCE are nothing but down-right stooges and belly politicians who falsely gives the JCE false hope and wrong impression of winning the war they help created.
When the JCE successfully hijacked South Sudan’s governance structures and they continued to destroy our social fabrics through derogatory comments on other tribes while the NCE play along by deploying surrendering card which wrongly gives the JCE false sense of victory. As such, a clear evident of this false sense of victory was revealed by Uncle Daniel Awet Akot’s speech in Syracuse, NY, United States to a group of Lost Boys of Sudan on June 9th, 2017.
As Mr. Akot was about to speak, it was reported that the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan sung revolutionary songs in memory of their fallen comrades. This allegedly reminded Mr. Akot of the sad old days in the bush since he himself was one of the Four Stars Generals in the SPLA who were turned converts of the Khartoum trained conmen.
In that forum, it was allegedly reported that Mr. Akot went nut and used tribal card to the best of his ability. As he dived into the speech and he talked for an hour talking ills against other tribes with an exception of the Dinka Community but liberal Dinka personalities. This revelation was made possible by a genuine soul; a patriotic Lost Boy or Girl who attended Awet’s briefing.
However, this is not the first time an elder from the Dinka community has spoken ills against other South Sudanese and liberal Dinka(s). For example, Uncle Bona Malual Akuei and Dr. Anei Madut have done the same in the past. The theme Mr. Madut focused on was “image cleansing” of Dinka Community as if the Dinka Community was a party of elders’ evil plan of fitting Dinka against other tribes.
Although this “engineered consent” strategy is not new, I was taken aback by Mr. Akot’s callous disregard and abuse of reality. I was saddened but not surprised by the fact that Akot was inciting violence openly and appreciative about the sickening killings of innocent civilians in South Sudan. For example, it was reported that Akot say that “the situation in South Sudan is now calm, not that there is no sound of guns but our country is calm because of the sound of guns’. This is just sad and satanic!
Furthermore, with respect to continued onslaught of civilians, Mr. Akot was reported to have stated that we are near{ing} to “finish because we have taken a hard road … a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye.” In many respect, this is one of the clear devious path our elders have taken, which the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan must never condone.
I am aware that the JCE has engineered and manufactured lies to fool the Dinka Community so the elders continue to enrich themselves and their families in the name of Dinka Community. Yet in reality, the current civil war has nothing to do with the Dinka community and majority of them are not party or benefiting from it. So much so, it’s a direct profound insult and destruction to the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan’s philosophy and nation’s interest.
In this regard, the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan cannot afford to be a pathetic spectators as South Sudan disintegrates before their eyes. They have a stake and responsibility to stand guard for the nation.
11. IGAD-Plus who broker peace accord has failed
The IGAD –plus who broker the peace accord for South Sudan has failed. The African Union, the IGAD, the United Nations, the Troika and the International community or what have you cannot help rescue South Sudan in their states of affairs. Our nation’s survival rest squarely on the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan taking bold action and with strong supports from the international partners and who spent billions of dollars on South Sudan and its people.
For example, there is a political stalemate in South Sudan’s peace. The IGAD’s nation States turned parasitic crooks in the process and are promoting their own interests. This is based on the fact that they are the official beneficiaries of South Sudan conflict.
Precisely, the Ugandan government has just raised billions of dollars in the name of fleeing South Sudanese civil population to Uganda. These monies for the most part will benefit the Uganda Government. Sadly, the civilians who are fleeing South Sudan in the first place did so because the Ugandan Government is helping South Sudan Government with foot soldiers, armories and logistics to burn villages, loot properties, displace and kill civilians.
The Egyptian government on the other hand is supplying South Sudan Government with armed logistics in order to continue benefiting from the Nile’s Water. Our northern neighbor, the Republic of Sudan is on the other hand in full controlled of South Sudan’s natural resources and assets.
Similarly, Kenya runs South Sudan’s banking systems and while the Ethiopian government controlled South Sudan’s water supply, hotels, restaurants and tourism. Strategically speaking, there is no possible reason that these neighboring countries would let South Sudan free and solve her problem politically.
Besides, the recent marriage between Salva Kiir and Gen. Taban Deng Gai shouldn’t be mistakenly consider as serious in solving our problem. It’s flaw and meant to help in the somalization of South Sudan further. For once, Taban is a lonely wolf and does not have any national interest at heart but self-indulgent. For example, since Gen. Taban joined Salva Kiir’s onslaught project, fighting across trifold and this indeed marks the balkanization of South Sudan.
Gen. Taban as many of us know him, will fight to ensure that the August 2015 Peace Agreement is dead and must not be revitalize. A clear example is the rejection of the Peace Revitalization Roadmap and timetable put forward by IGAD –Plus, by the government of South Sudan. The Government of South Sudan utterly rejected the timetable because it meant to bring peace to South Sudan but would put Gen. Taban out of business.
The Troika, the UN and the International Community on the hand thinks that they have no genuine and credible partner committed to bringing lasting peace to South Sudan. For example, they sees the oppositions splintered and some in the state of confusion. For some oppositions, instead of joining ranks with the fighting forces on the ground, some took the high road and formed briefcase Movements which stand no chance of success.
For the above reasons and contradicting political discourse in South Sudan, the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan stand a chance, and are the only possible hope for peaceful and better South Sudan.
Moving forward, I proposed the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan should soon call an international conference. In doing so, I suggest the former U.S President, George W. Bush and his library be approach and ask to serve as a principal guiding patron.
Nguen is a former President of the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan Association, political commentator, analyst and advocate living in Canada. He can be reached at jamesnguen@gmail.com.
