History has made it clear that, after the signing of the 1975 Addis Ababa Peace Agreement between the Southern Rebel Movement (Anya-Anya 1) and the Khartoum Government, Khartoum dishonored the agreement it signed, and resumed violating the rights of the black African Sudanese.
The Sudanese Khartoum Government asserted control over mineral and natural resources in the south and could not allow the Southerners to manage and control them. To make matters worse, all the mineral resources from the south were used for the development of the north, while leaving south in poverty, with no social services and infrastructure. The Khartoum regime, which was dominated by the Arabs/ Muslims, banned Southerners from national political leadership and from involvement in the national decision-making process.
As a result, the former Anya-Anya 1 fighters, who were integrated into Sudan’s Armed Forces, mutinied and deserted to Ethiopia under the Leadership of Karibino Kuanyin. They were later joined by other Southerners, leading to the formation of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/ The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLA/ SPLM) in 1983 in Ethiopia. However, Col Dr. John Garang, being a communist, also joined this movement some months later, and with help of his communist comrade, Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia, was able to hijack the movement from its visionary and democratic leader. He emerged as the chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLA/SPLM through bloodshed.
The statement of the late Garang was clear: the struggle was for the total liberation of the people of the south and Sudan at-large from the Khartoum regime, a regime which has its foundations on Islamic faith, and is marginalizing non-Arabs and non-Muslims tribes in the South and in Sudan at-large. This liberation struggle was meant to attain total freedom, peace and justice for the people of Sudan, and to restore joy, happiness, the respect for human rights and dignity, democracy and the rule of law. Of course, the Sudanese Government was had a history of human rights abuses and dictatorship. Thus, the SPLA/SPLM attracted great political, military, social, moral and material support from the international community, Southerners and the Sudanese at large.
Unfortunately, gross violations of individual and collective rights continued to be committed in the south, and this time not only by the so called Islamic Khartoum Government of Sudan, but also, greatly by the SPLA/SPLM. The violations of human and collective rights by SPLA/SPLM continue silently. Many remain unaware as great attention is focused on the Khartoum Government. The result is that millions of Southern Sudanese have been direct and indirect victims of these violations for the last two decades without international interventions to protect them.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Army/ The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLA/SPLM) in her guerilla movement and even now as a party of the Government of the South Sudan (GOSS), as well a ruling partner in the Government of National Unity (GONU) has violated almost all of the following:
1. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
2. The 1965 International Convention of Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination
3. The 1965 Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
4. The 1989 Convention of Rights of the Child
5. The 1966 Convention on Political Rights, and that on Economic, Social and cultural rights.
The silent violations of human and collective Rights in the south Sudan by The Sudan People’s Liberation Army/The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLA/SPLM) in the last two decades include:
1. The exploitation of mineral and natural resources
2. Indiscriminate attacks on civilians and particularly on civilians in populated Government Controlled Areas
3. The unnecessary summary execution of people without proper jurisdiction, and the disappearance of people from the SPLA detention Centers
4. The torture and abuse of people in the harsh conditions of SPLA detention centers for a long time without due process
5. The looting, stealing and destruction of civilians’ properties
6. The rape of women and underaged girls by the SPLA Forces
7. The kidnapping and forced marriage of married/ unmarried women and young girls to members of the SPLA.
8. The killing and murdering of civilians and indirect facilitation of starvation and disease by looting civilians’ only food, displacing them from their farms and destroying their available health facilities
9. Forceful recruitment of underage children into their (SPLA) forces
10. Injustice, inhumane treatment, torture, unlawful arrest and detention of people without hearings and denial of access to justice
11. The creation of conditions that make indecent living standards for the people
12. The creation of conditions that bring about lack of health and education services to the people
13. The creation of an environment where people live in fear, without security and protection
14. The creation of circumstances that lead to poverty, contributing to the suffering and death of many people, especially children
15. The denial of freedom of movement, speech, expression, political opinion, and association, peacefully assembly and privacy.
16. The perpetuation of slavery and servitude by forcefully taking civilians to work without pay
The Sudan People’s Liberation Army/The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLA/SPLM) has indeed destroyed human resources in Southern Sudan by forcefully recruiting under-age school children into combat under abusive living conditions. These forcefully recruited children have no basic rights; many of them die and some are still separated from their parents/ families. Some of those are the ones we refer to as Lost Boys or Lost Girls. When the SPLA/SPLM signed the CPA, most of these children, who are from non-Dinka tribes, were dumped, forgotten by the SPLA/SPLM and left un-rehabilitated. Many are now wandering in Eastern and Southern Africa, mostly in refugee camps, living without hope.
Supposing those children were not conscripted by the SPLA, they might have completed their studies, earning a comfortable life, and would have been instrumental in the socio-economic development of Southern Sudan and Sudan at-large in the post war era. In fact, this is the crux of what I believe to be the destruction of human resources by the SPLA/SPLM. Therefore, SPLA/SPLM must pay for it. Such crimes committed by the SPLA/SPLM against those it claims to have struggled to liberate are an indication that the SPLA/SPLM has no vision, objectives and goals for the Sudanese and therefore, is not a political organization that will serve and save the people of Southern Sudan and Sudan at-large.
To substantiate what I am saying, the SPLA/SPLM has diverted the Government of the South Sudan’s share of the oil Revenue (from the Government of the National Unity in Khartoum) to support individual SPLA/SPLM officers’ families living abroad and to support their political agendas. Sadly, they have forgotten to build Southern Sudan and provide social services needed by the poor Southerners.
As a matter of fact, there are still many south Sudanese in different states:
1. Dying from sickness due to lack of health facilities and medication
2. Surviving without clean water
3. Living without education, security.
Southern Sudan as a whole remains without sufficient infrastructure. Yet, that is what the Southern Sudanese fought for. Right now, there is a regional Government in Southern Sudan, well-structured with executive, legislative and judiciary wings. Unfortunately, this structure of the government of the south Sudan remains a big signpost and is nonfunctional.
The conflicts in Sudan between the North and the South, The West and the North, and the east and the North, are all centered on the poor policies of the Khartoum Government and its failure to recognize and respect the individual and collective rights of other groups of people in Sudan. That is why Sudan, and in particular Southern Sudan, was in civil war for forty nine years, struggling for liberation dignity, which are the foundation of human rights and democracy for mankind.
The hallmark of any good political regime is the realization of and respect for human dignity and freedom, which are the sole purpose of democracy. The SPLA/SPLM regime in Juba has never reflected this. Rather the SPLA/SPLM have demonstrated themselves to be a regime without conscience for its people and is still committing crimes against humanity in the south Sudan.
We all deserve justice as humans, and we need to demonstrate this by bringing justice to all mankind, especially those in other parts of the world, like Southern Sudan. They are victims of individuals who are misusing their power, positions and the resources of the Government of Southern Sudan to commit crimes against humanity. It is for this reason that we should say enough is enough and withdraw our social, political, moral and economic supports from the SPLA/SPLM and the Juba regime. We should take those responsible for these crimes to the Criminal Court of Justice.
We are all created equal in the image of God and with equal rights. Those who violate our individual and collective rights are to be considered criminal regardless of their political, educational, social and economic status. It is for this very cause that courts of justice are instituted in this universe: to bring justices to all mankind.
This is not simply a political matter, but also a matter of serving justice and fulfilling the reason for the existence of criminal courts of justice, the Human Rights Charter, other United Nations Conventions and the national and international constitutions and laws that govern mankind and the world that we live in. May the Almighty God Bless us all and give us the wisdom and courage to serve and save the world we live in. May the people in our neighborhoods be blameless before the law, and may He use us as instruments to bring hope, joy and happiness to those suffering as a result of the evil deeds of others.
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