By, Thabor Ding
Opinion
June 23rd 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – Your Excellency, the security agreement which was signed between the SPLM-IO and the SPLM-JCE was a complete suicide on the side of our Freedom Movement. We, the ordinary SPLM-IO members voiced our concern but turned by your leadership. What had happened in J1 2016 was the tangible issue for our protest that the number of SPLM-IO soldiers approved to go to Juba was not equitable compared to the thousands of SPLM-JCE of Juba.
Your Excellency
Briefly, in December 2013, you narrowly escaped death in Juba but thousands of innocent Nuer civilians were massacred by the tribal militias recruited by Salvatore Kirr and Paul Malong Awan. In July 2016, God willing, you survived by luck but some of the young boys who went with you to Juba lost their precious lives. When the Ethiopian and Khartoum governments repudiated you to entered in their Capital Cities, Taban Deng Gai and Salvatore Kirr Mayardit tried their level best to convince the Ethiopian Ex-Prime Minister to take you to Juba. It was a terrible day for the SPLM-IO members worldwide. The pain was relieved from peoples’ heart after we learned that Juba failed to convince the region to take you to juba. The next problem became as detention but was better than the life threatening, the day the plane returned you back to South Africa.
Your Excellency
As per the subject of this letter, we are writing to Your Excellency, to pay attention to the next security agreement which will be negotiated at the High-Level Revitalization of the August 2015 peace agreement. To tell you the truth Your Excellency Dr. Riek Machar, people completely got tired of chasing out and being killed in Juba and elsewhere in the country. Therefore, the next security agreement must be a redline for your own safety, SPLM-IO soldiers and the South Sudanese civilians.
The followings three points must be our redlines even if the earth and the sky collide.
Note: If the three points are not accepted, the whole Juba must be demilitarized so that the UNIMSS will take over the security of Juba. The armed forces from both parties will be redeployed from Juba to be cantoned in other nine (9) States. Otherwise, the three points above not negotiable.
Governance:
The recently proposals by the IGAD council of Ministries is completely nonsense. The August 20 15 power sharing must be resuscitated for implementation. The 32 states decreed by one man must be cancelled so that peace will be implanted based on 10 states as agreed in 2015 peace agreement. We have expressed our rejection of 25% (percentages) allotted to SPLM/A-IO which is a national movement with present in every state in the country.
Finally, your Excellency, the security of our people and yourself is in the hand of the SPLM-IO not IGAD, Troika, AU and the UN. We are in charge for our own internal security and never ever rely on the international community. We would like to remind you that the assassination attempt on your life in J1 2016 is a good example for the SPLM-IO to not acknowledging the external security. We have no more appetite to sign a shaky peace which may results into chaos on our side again.
The author can be reached via: tding72@gmail.com
