By Gatluak Khot,
Nov 1, 2016(Nyamilepedia) —— To begin with, I must say rest in peace the 1972, 1993 and 2015 Addis Ababa Agreements.
History has it that any agreement signed in the Ethiopian Capital, Addis Ababa, do not prosper. It has absolutely come to my observation and it stands a fact that no one can dispute provided that evident of the observation prevail.
A few instances to bring to your remembrance and understanding about the article are the Sudan’s 1972, Somalia’s 1993 and South Sudan’s 2015 Accords. The first two agreements may be agreed on by almost everyone that they failed, but the last one will definitely polarize the same readers given the complexity and the nature of ethnic division of the readers. In my own point of view, I have considered all the above agreements failed.
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Take a good look here, a few accounts stand:
In 1972, an agreement which seemed to end the first Sudanese Civil War between 1955 and 1972 in the Sudan was inked in Addis Ababa. The accord was reached by the then President of the Sudan Jaffer Nimeiry and the leader of the Southern Sudan region Joseph Lagu. That signed document which granted autonomy to the Southern Sudan region was indeed incorporated in the Constitution of the Sudan. Although there were abrogation of the major provisions in the agreement, the implementation was partially done. It was at the time President Nimeiry declared all Sudan an Islamic state under Shari’a law in 1983 and the subsequent abolishment of the Southern Sudan Autonomy that the agreement was lain to complete rest. Consequently, the spelt second Sudanese Civil War between 1983 and 2005 ensued.
Analogous to the failed Sudanese accord, another agreement was signed in Addis Ababa in 1993 by 15 different warring factions of Somalia. Those factions all agreed on the principles of National Reconciliation and Disarmament. The signing was preceded by the Informal Preparatory Meeting on National Reconciliation. Such an attempt was made in Addis Ababa to end the Somali Civil War which began in 1986. Nevertheless, pact did not see any light of the day as violent continued to rage in Somalia.
The most living example of the dead agreements is the 2015 Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS) whose signing was based on compromise in Addiss Ababa. The worst agreement of all where three-quarter of the signatories unreservedly and unconditionally signed and a quarter whose reservation withheld later signed after a mounting pressure by the peace guarantors. In what seemed similar to the 1972 agreement, ARCSS established the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU). In spite of efforts exerted to ensure that a political solution to the South Sudan crisis is attained, ARCSS was made to entirely collapse. And regretfully, the guarantors started bargaining that they would not have rushed the agreement; had they known.
In view of the brief account of the above failed agreements, one would ask several questions like: Is the problem Addis Ababa or is it the mediators or is it the sponsors or is it the negotiators of the warring parties that the agreements failed? Apparently, we cannot blame it on the city in which the agreements are hosted. The problem could be probably the mediators, sponsors and negotiators. For instance, the death of ARCSS is wholly blamed on the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) – Plus. The IGAD – Plus honestly knew what was going to happen once the two warring parties converged in Juba, but they could not put in place any mitigation measures – they only sat and stood with their arms akimbo and watched things flaring up. Who cares? The only question they could ask themselves.
Having discerned the cause of failure or death of every agreement, I am openly made to accede to the statement of Dr. Peter Adwok Nyaba that better war than a bad peace. There is no essence of mediating and sponsoring any agreement which only inculcates into regrets.
Wholeheartedly, I commend the infallible role Kenya played in facilitating the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the second Sudanese Civil War. That agreement plainly earned us full independence and sovereignty. It did not come from blue, people with humanity felt the need to bring a lasting peace to the troubled Sudanese of the time. And for that matter our iconic and heroic Chairman and Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the SPLM/A Dr. John Garang teamed up by his ideal and visionary comrade Dr. Riek Machar and the National Congress Party (NCP) leader Field Marshal Omer al Bashir assisted by Ustaz Ali Osman Taha deserved a great deal of profound honor.
Taking into account that no one helps the helpless, the citizens of the Republic of South Sudan need to refrain from the ethnic divisions and face the realities. We cannot let ourselves suffers in the hands of elitists when we have the power to unseat and throw them aside. Let us abandon the culture of turning a blind eye to the known facts at the expense of our ethnicities.
Our country needs straight forward nationalists and patriots to reshape it. In other nations, citizens unitedly fight against the government that fails to deliver to them fundamental services. A case in point which goes contrary to the situation in South Sudan where our diverse ethnicities are meant for counter insurgency. We need to wake up and open our eyes wide to see beyond our noses if nationalism must be founded on socio-economic and national prosperity. Let us give reform a chance. And we can achieve it when all of us put aside tribal ideologies and put forth the national ideology which can garner us the desired changed.
To bring you back to the subject matter, I am convinced as my conscience has informed me that any agreement reached under the auspice of any Ethiopian Prime Minister does not reign. In any future negotiation, Addis Ababa should not be the best city to host peace talks because we have seen no sustainability anywhere.
Forever more shall reign Justice, Liberty and Prosperity.
The author is a concern South Sudanese, reacheble ay gluakkhot@gmail.com
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