14 October 2007
editorial
THE Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) has suspended its participation in the national unity government in Khartoum over unnecessary delays in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
The most contentious issues include the protocol on the oil-rich Abyei area, demarcation of the north-south border and withdrawal of northern forces from the south. But there are other issues. For instance, President Omar Bashir's regime in Khartoum makes serious national decisions without consulting the SPLM leadership.
On top of that President Salva Kiir of South Sudan cannot even shuffle his ministers in the unity government. Things are that bad. Hence the SPLM's action announced on Thursday. All of which raises the very critical reason: must Sudan remain one united country?
A united, de-recialised and equitable Sudan is what the late John Garang, a founding member of the SPLM, hoped he would achieve when he signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Kenya in January 2005. Now with no real action to implement provisions of the document he painstakingly negotiated and signed, his heirs are justified in having second thoughts.
It is difficult to see how the Arab-dominated and Islamist-inclined north will ever live side by side with the black people of the South who are also largely Christian and believers in traditional African religions. History says it is difficult for these peoples to co-exist.
And so does Darfur today. It is unlikely that tomorrow will be better than today for the black people of Sudan. That being the case, the South may want to start, if it has not already, planning to vote to secede from the rest of Sudan in four years.
It is not God-ordained that Sudan must forever remain the territory that colonialism patched together. The CPA provides for a referendum for the people of the South to choose whether to remain part of the Sudan as we know it today or go their own way. If the Khartoum regime will not honour any part of the CPA, at least it must honour the referendum clause.
East Africa must continue to support the aspirations of the people of South Sudan. And not just for reasons of racial and ideological affinity. Despite cases of insecurity, Ugandans and Kenyans are making a financial killing trading with the South Sudanese.
We need to deepen that interaction by actively encouraging the formation of a new country in South Sudan that looks south rather than north. It is for the long-term benefit of us all.
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