Juba Must Accept Peace Instead of Blaming IGAD or Accept Isolation and Punitive Actions

By Moses Khamis Abdullatif,

July 31, 2015(Nyamilepedia) — The government in Juba lead by Kiir Mayardit is putting blames on the IGAD plus countries and America forgetting the fact that it’s an illegitimate government which is in constitutional crisis.

Juba’s former foreign affairs minister, Dr.Barnaba Marial Benjamin, on 28^th of July seriously put many blames on the IGAD and AU for not inviting the former President, Salva Kiir, whose term has ended as of the date when Dr. Machar, the chairman of (SPLA/M) in opposition and the commander in-chief of (SPLM/A IO), declared President Kiir illegitimate.

Dr. Machar declared that Salva Kiir’s term ends at the midnight of Wednesday 8th, July 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya and indeed the world has listened. Dr. Machar has met with many regional and world leaders after this day but Salva Kiir has been facing isolation in Juba, South Sudan.

Juba has also rejected the IGAD plus proposal as said by the Deputy Minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Peter Bashir Gbandi. He said the new proposal undermined national unity and social cohesion as it put the oil-rich greater Upper Nile region under the control of the opposition faction of the former Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar.

This IGAD proposal is not the right approach to resolving the conflict. It does not represent the interest of the people of South Sudan. It encourages awarding rebellion and division of our people.

The regime in Juba has easily forgotten that the whole world has confirmed that it’s not a legitimate body any more but they still think that they can attend the regional meetings with other organize and recognize democratic countries in Africa who attended the meeting with his Excellency, the president of the United States of America,  Barak H. Obama.

The illegitimate government in juba has never stop blaming America and IGAD mediation for their failures in not reaching peace agreement or being referred to as equal or worse than a rebel group when the (SPLA/M IO) is even much better than the defunct (SPLA/M ) in Juba because the IO has a very strong document on bringing changes as the whole world knows unlike Juba.

Juba, which claim to be a government, has not shown any sense of leadership and responsibility to end the war in South Sudan after they created it to cover their failures in their respective offices to serve the people of South Sudan for the last 10 years.

Juba regime reject this proposal because of the 53% in Upper Nile region proposed by IGAD-Plus and AU. They want the power in Upper Nile State to be shared  equally, 50% to SPLM/SPLA and 50% to SPLM/A-Juba but refused to share the power in other regions such as Equatoria and Bahar al Gazal, claiming that there’s no war in those areas but truly speaking we have troops of SPLM/SPLA-IO controlling areas in the two regions.

I think this in-capable regime in Juba are refusing to have the right thinking from IGAD and AU including USA nor working for peace in South Sudan rejecting and blaming the world for their failure not to accept any proposal given to them by IGAD mediation from the beginning of the negotiations till the legitimacy of president Kiir gets over.

They want this IGAD-Plus to fail hoping for the Arusha agreement to replace it not knowing that the Arusha goes together hand and hand with IGAD-Plus agreement and the fact that G10 agree to go to Juba is because they do not have any army and so the chairman Dr. Machar and commander in- chief of (SPLM/A IO) cannot just go to juba to enforce Arusha agreement which reinstated him as a first deputy chairman of the party while his army is engaging in serious fighting knowing juba never respected cessation of hostilities agreement.

The regime in juba do not only lack capability in comprehending complex issues like these peace proposals but also lacking the capacity to comprehend principles of good governance, respect to rule of law and also on how to agree among themselves on how to share power with the new group known as G10 in juba.

They do not know that even if they form the so call government it will still be an empty one and would never be recognized in the world. In fact the government is less organize than the opposition under the leadership of Dr. Riek Machar Teny. Juba has its own Jajaweed Malitia, Sudanese rebels, Ugandan and Congolese rebels who are all benefiting from the war. If Peace is achieved all these militias will threaten Salva Kiir to pay their service money and some may even cause chaos or obstruct peace in the country.

But in ignoring the details of all the mess in Juba, in order to have a sustainable peace that will allow reforms, equitable power sharing and federalism, the proposal of two armies among others must be implemented in order to avoid the same violent in future and to maintain a lasting peace in the country.

For those in Juba who do not understand the significant of this proposal and peace agreement such as deputy foreign affairs minister, Peter Bashir and the likes in the negotiating team, the agreement of IGAD-Plus has to be compromise to the two warring parties. So the claim of “no country has two armies in the world” and other unreasonable claims in order to dictate peace are all failures on your side that should be condemn by the International Community and AU, otherwise the “baby nation” will be isolated and punished for these reckless behaviors.

My question is do you, Mr. Bashir, still think or consider yourselves as an organized government or a country that deserves any respect from other sovereign nations? Of course no!!! You have succeeded in bringing a shame to our country and the citizens of South Sudan have no trust in your bloody army. You have no secrets and the world has known your lies!

Truly speaking, if we were organized, South Sudan could now be of African nations that are leading the initiatives of solving problems in Africa and the whole world. Having one of the bravest army South Sudan can now send troops to Syria, Iraq, Somalia and other war-torn nations but under incompetence Salva Kiir our brave SPLA is now killing one another, children, raping women and stealing cattle.

It’s a big shame that people like  Dr. Barnaba Marial, foreign Minister, claim to be unhappy for not being invited or considered in the continental or global affairs as a legitimate and a democratic minister of a democratic South Sudan. But the secret is, if you do not sign this peace agreement, it will not be in Africa that the illegitimate president is not invited but in the worldwide. Juba or its president is not invited due to their self-service ideologies which do not put the country first. The regional bloc, America and the International Community are not in any way responsible for the failures in Juba and therefore Juba should not continue putting blames on them. To be invited to attend the regional or inter-continental meetings, instead the regime in Juba should learn to clean their messes and hold their reckless politicians, elders and armies responsible first.

Their corrupt thinking is the very reason as to why peace is dictated and difficult to be achieved. It is completely wrong to believe that their corrupt reasoning will lead to a lasting peace when there is a right way of resolving the problems in South Sudan that now Juba do not want.

The only power that will put us above all these circumstances is the power of God to be able to forgive each other and hold those perpetrators of war accountable. And to be serious about a lasting peace in our country we must compensation the victims, otherwise, the life of our people is going to remain the way it is or even worse death and hunger, high level of crimes in major towns, human right abuse in the war regions, sanctions and isolation of the expired regime will get even worst. So the blind politicians in Juba may loose everything if they want everything to sign a peace agreement.

The war which has displaced thousands of citizens to UNMISS camps and generated devastation in all states of South Sudan will lead to greater disasters than today in the near future if peace fails again. Knowing that rebellion in South Sudan is in every state, if Juba miss this opportunity to sign an agreement then the rebels in all the ten states will have no options but to fight for their freedom.

The government has decided to continue to kill those heroes who are dying but continue to defending the right of the innocent citizens from what claim to be their government.  May God bless Dr. Machar who is fighting to correct the root causes of the conflict such that it never transpire again and also to bring fundamental changes such as general reforms, justice for those massacred in juba by Kiir’s regime in December15. 2013 in the allegedly failed coupe, federalism and other constitutional reforms.

We thanks all the countries which have refused to see Salva Kiir killing his own citizens to impose himself as another dictator in Africa. Kiir’s regime is killing innocent citizens but Marial Benjamin goes around barking “democratically elected legitimate government” when Kiir is busy imposing himself to lead the people of South Sudan instead of accepting his incapability and illegitimacy which is a big threat to Africa and the whole world. The world is sensitive to any one group of people whose aim is to undermine the constitution or violating the democratic system. Salva Kiir regime must wake up, and realize that the world is changing.

Juba also needs to accept that the world has realized that the SPLA/M IO is fighting in self-defense and to restore democratic system South Sudan. How can you go hunting one ethnic group door to door and goes to burn down their villages and castrate their sons and rape their women but still want the region and Obama to stand behind you? Unless God is crazy!

While majority are still asking today if things will go back to normal again. Yes, we believe they will but only after the evil is taken out of the system and the rest of the politicians will start acting constitutionally under a democratic system, not like rotten systems of Salva Kiir. If such is done, our people can come to eat together again.

I also call upon the church leaders and all faith groups in the nation and the world at large to pray either to remove the wicked regime in juba that are still imposing themselves on South Sudanese or to bring lasting peace which I believe God can do for us.

To have a conducive environment for gospel and development, which I believe goes together hand and hand with democracy, and as you well know that this violent introduced by Kiir is devastating everything, including the churches, congregations and citizens the religious groups must work hard and pray for an enabling environment for all our people. None of us can escape the violence in our country because if we are not praying for our country and the leaders, including the wicked ones, then definitely death will get to everybody’s door in South Sudan.

Ladies and gentlemen without God we can do nothing but also without us God can do nothing for us in our nation.

So let us change the way we think and the way we treat each other in order to survive as a country and look at it as a collective responsibility. South Sudan as a younger nation in Africa is suppose to fight a war on Poverty, Equality and democracy so to speak instead of this endless political and tribal war impose on us by Kiir’s regime.

Democracy in my opinion is not just about a fair elections or process but much more, it’s about building institutions including service delivery to the people by the government and having a media that is supposed to act as a watch dog to insure democracy in the country unlike SSTV in Juba run by government and not making the citizens to be one of the important body as a part of decision making of the country, and building civil society but not process or elections.

In any case South Sudan is in its last moment to remain in war like Somalia, and this will lead to a total collapse that we will not be able to reverse or restore stability, peace and prosperity.

Obama has disclosed that he agreed with the IGAD and AU leaders that the warring parties must sign a peace agreement by 17 August and warned, saying “because if they do not, I believe the international community must raise the costs of intransigence”.

This entails that the whole world will only wait the report of the AU Commission of Inquiry to impose punitive actions if any party refuse to sign an agreement.

My last point is for all friends of South Sudan to help peace initiatives be achieved instead of losing the country due to Juba regime even though (SPLA/M IO) and the citizens of South Sudan have nothing to lose because we have already lost almost everything: properties, families, and much more cost imposed on us by this juba regime. However, we are still fighting for the dream of democratic South Sudan and this is our collective responsibility to bring changes and we will never give up till this bloody and shameful regime in Juba is brought to book.

I salute all heroes and heroines, beginning from Dr. John Garang de Mabior, who is a great lost to South Sudan and will be remembered for ever and on every Martyr’s and heroes day.

SPLA/M IO will continue to stand up for the heroes and continue leading the journey to establish a democratic, federal, happy and prosperous nation; not forgetting the visions to take towns to the people and building a competitive nation that will compete regionally and internationally, unlike Salva Kiir nation which only rewards clan and friends of the president and corrupt officials that are enriching themselves in the expense of majority. I believe that this blood thirty regime in Juba should not even celebrate Martyr’s day whatsoever.

Finally, Chairman and commander in-chief of (SPLA/M IO), Dr. Riek Machar: thank you sir for taking this responsibility and all heroes in the movement.

Thank you your Excellency, Chairman for fighting for democracy with Khartoum to accomplish self-determination and your great struggle of total reforms, justice and change in our country so that we can have a secure system of governance where people rights are not violated in future and thanks to all the leadership, army generals in the field.

Till we all prevail above Juba regime.

God bless the movement and South Sudan,

SPLA/M IO Oyee.

The author of this article is, Moses Khamis Abdullatif, can be reach for comments on moseskhamis.mk.@gmail.com