No Conflict exists between the Dinka and the Shilluk in Upper Nile

The security breach in the Malakal Stadium on the morning of January 9th was a bad taste even for those who planned to disrupt the celebration of the fourth anniversary of the signing of the CPA.

The circulation of seditious material, the inability of the Upper Nile State Security Committee [made up members from one ethnic community] to act on those who called for the eviction [evidently criminal] of one ethnic group from their villages; the fallouts of the Malakal incident [the burning of Anakdiar and Abanimo] suggest that it must have been planned, coordinated and approved by some persons in positions of authority.

There has not been an incidence of fighting between the Dinka [Padang] and the Shilluk except in early eighties. But that conflict in the area of the Jonglei Canal mouth was instigated by the Nimeri's regime in its dying days when the abrogation of Addis Ababa Agreement to allow the dismantling of the Southern Region and the imposition of the Islamic Sharia Laws were the regime's last remaining political survival kits.

It will be recalled that Southern Sudan had many such localized conflicts and tribal feuds fomented by the regime for narrow political ends. The conflicts were later absorbed into the wider war of liberation spearheaded by the SPLM/A only that the SPLM/A failed to draw lessons which would have consigned to the dustbin of history these localized conflicts through a concerted and focused program of political enlightenment and organizational unity of the masses of our people.

The split within the ranks and file of the SPLM/A in 1991 and the internecine fighting and the tribal/sectional conflicts that followed exacerbated if not rekindled the localized conflicts now fuelled by competition among the local elite for power and access to resources mainly provided by the international humanitarian agencies. The Nuer-Dinka peace conference in Wunlit in February 1999 brought an end to these conflicts.

In retrospective I believe that without the Wunlit Nuer-Dinka Peace Covenant, it would not have been possible for the SPLM and the Government of Sudan to reach the CPA on December 31st, 2004. The Wunlit Peace Covenant created the conditions that reunited and strengthened the SPLM/A on the one hand, and the reconciliation and peace among the different feuding groups in Southern Sudan on the other hand.

The CPA has its enemies who doubled up as enemies to the SPLM and its departed leader Dr. John Garang de Mabior. They have been at work since the initialing of the CPA on January 9th, 2005 in Nairobi. Many of them refused to heed the call for unity of purpose through the process of South-South dialogue but continued to undermine the efforts of the Government of Southern Sudan and the leadership of General Salva Kiir Mayardit.

What we witness as tribal conflicts in Warrap, Lakes, Eastern Equatoria, Jonglei, Upper Nile and other places in Southern Kordofan/Nuba Mountains are in essence the machinations of the enemies of the CPA. The havoc with impunity brought on the people of Equatoria by the Lord Resistance Army is also part of a wider scheme to destabilize Southern Sudan. The NCP must be called to book for unleashing its ally on our people to prevent them from benefiting from the dividends of CPA.

In addition to fomenting ethnic and sectional conflicts as a means to create a state of anarchy and insecurity in Southern Sudan and make it impossible for the SPLM to govern, the enemies of CPA cultivated corruption in GOSS. The looting of the public coffers is not isolated. It is part of the scheme of concentrating wealth in the hands of a few chosen ones. It is the surest way to perpetuate poverty in Southern Sudan.

Corruption and tribalism are two sides of the same coin of perpetrating backwardness, ignorance and tribal conflicts in Southern Sudan which have mushroomed since the formation of its government in the dying days of 2005 to diverted their attention away from the wealth being looted.

There is a crying evidence of failure to stop corruption; to resolve the ethnic and sectional conflicts. The Press has been highlighting these incidences and yet there is no action.

I am a member of the government albeit at the national level and although I would subscribe to the principle of ‘collective responsibility' in government, I will not be part of what obviously is engineered to recreate the spirit of ‘kokora' of the eighties.

That brings me to the conclusion that there is no conflict between the Dinka and Shilluk in Upper Nile or anywhere on this planet. There is no fundamental contradiction between the Dinka and Shilluk men and women in their villages or between Bari, Mundari, Dinka, and others per se. They all share the same fate, languishing in poverty and neglect. It is the absence or rather lack of political awareness that has rendered them prone to ethnicized political divisions instigated by the elite.

What happened in Malakal and its hinterland must be attributed to the political and administrative leadership of Upper Nile State and by extension some elements in the Government of Southern Sudan and in the Government of National Unity in Khartoum. The explanation for what happened and how it occurred must be sought with them and not with the people who were only instigated to fight each other for food crumbs.

There must be a price for the failure to deliver social services and economic benefits to our people in the last three years notwithstanding the more than five billion US dollars spent by GOSS. And this price of course must be paid by the poor peasants in their villages ostensibly on the ground that the objects of their fury hinder quick access to power and wealth.

His Grace Cardinal Zubier Wako hit the nail on its head in his Christmas message that ‘our political leaders, our organs of communications, our organized forces become sources of division, hatred, suspicion, mistrust and violence.' These are prophetic words for many of them were involved in Malakal.

I feel sorry if not very angry being deviated from national issues back to where I left fifty years ago when my father took me to school. We have been shouting at the top of our voices against the machination by the Arab dominated northern political elite particularly the NCP and its ‘civilisation project'.

We went to the bush together to fight for social justice, equality, unity of purpose, democracy and economic prosperity. What a shame we jettisoned the liberation slogans and culture of comradeship to pick up the mantle of ethnicity and fanning ethnic animosity.

I know, as I said above, that some of our leaders have maintained adverse positions in respect to the unity of the people of Southern Sudan that would allow, ά priori, the implementation of the CPA and the exercise of the right to self-determination. How can the people of Southern Sudan exercise their right to self-determination in a referendum if they are feuding among themselves?

Put the other way: Dividing Southern Sudanese along hostile ethnic line means that there is NO Southern Sudan to speak about. This is what the oppressor would want to achieve that Southerner begin to detest, hate and despise each other. So as to make the idea of an independent Southern Sudan less attractive then promote ethnocentric leaders and elevate them to the helm at all levels.

Therefore, in my modest contribution, what we witness as ethnic conflicts and hatred throughout Southern Sudan is a reflection of a major failure of the political elite in Southern Sudan whether those in the SPLM or in other Southern-based political parties.

The failure to tell the people their programs as time is nearing for elections and the referendum. The failure to pay back what they have taken from the people in the twenty two years of the war of liberation.

They now have new friends in the guise of contractors and white stock dealers- the so-called Southern brothers, etc, those who have been betraying the cause, and drinking the blood of our people during the war.

The unprincipled alliance and relationship between these groups are the principal sources of the ethnic and sectional conflicts throughout Southern Sudan.

Again, there is no contradiction between our people. The contradiction is between them and their oppressors. (to be continued).