The outstanding contentious issues: South Sudan’s Referendum Bill and NCP’s duplicity

BY: Peter Lokarlo Marsu, MELBOURNE, Australia

SEPT 7/2009, SSN; The success of the future of South Sudan hinges on how well SPLM represents the people of South Sudan at the Khartoum discussions. It is a plain fact that the National Congress Party’s stalwarts are bent on thwarting the Self-Determination referendum in South Sudan.

I must go straight to outline the concealed strategies of the sadistic NCP.

(a) The insistence of the NCP that Southern Sudanese living in the North, neighbouring countries and the Diaspora must be allowed to vote at the Referendum.

The SPLM’s previous position is quite logical and must prevail, in other words, South Sudanese living in the Ten States of the autonomous region must be the only lawful people to vote at the Referendum. The CPA stipulation is abundantly clear; the Referendum for Self-Determination must be conducted in South Sudan under international supervision. It is abundantly clear here.

Khartoum is determined to manipulate the votes of all South Sudanese living outside the Southern States in order to impose unity in Sudan. It would be quite easy for the North to secure all the votes of South Sudanese residing in the northern part of Sudan and likewise in the neighbouring countries as well as in the Diaspora, by bribing them to vote for the unity of Sudan. We must remember that beside the NCP, there are other interested parties in the Middle East who are hell bent to ensure that Sudan maintains its unpalatable unity. Any adjustment and shift by the SPLM from their stated position would result in an absolute failure of the secession of South Sudan.

(b) The 75% “Yes” votes required to qualify South Sudan for secession

The speaker of Sudan’s Parliament has already stated that the secession of South Sudan must be made difficult. Abdel Rahman Al Zouma, the head of the international media at the NCP, told Al Jazeera Arabic TV that the secession was a red line for his government.

Furthermore, the impish NCP had in the past maintained that they interpret the CPA as asking both the north and south to make the separation option more difficult. Finally,  Omar Hassan Al Bashir himself had stated that the secession of South Sudan would open the appetite of separatists in the north and in Africa.

These are ample and conclusive evidence that the NCP have decided to wreck the 2011 South Sudan Self-Determination Referendum. Hence SPLM must never be a party to an arrangement that would ruin the hopes and aspirations of South Sudanese.

The NCP may back down from the 75% altitude to a lower level, say 65% level in exchange for a concession from the SPLM, probably to make way for the South Sudanese living outside the country to be allowed to vote. SPLM’S position must remain firm, as any changes from their stated stance would seriously hamper and undermine South Sudanese collective effort to attain independence for the region.

As the intention of the NCP is clear to everyone, the remaining option is for the Government of South Sudan and all other patriotic parties to get ready for the dark day.

(c) The Demarcation of the border line between the North and the South.

It remains to be seen whether the elfin NCP would honor its word. The Northern governments have more often abrogated or dishonoured agreements concluded between Khartoum and South Sudanese representatives. There is hardly any room left for optimism. The NCP stalwarts would normally accede to commit themselves to an agreement but would never implement it. Given this gloomy scenario, there is only one choice left on the table and that is to defend ourselves, should the NCP attempt to enforce unity in Sudan in order to perpetuate the suffering of South Sudan. Any compromise on the contentious issues on the table on the side of SPLM would be a real disaster for all of us and the future generations.

(d) Apportioning Sudan’s foreign debts.

With a mountain of Sudan’s foreign debts, standing at more than 21 billion dollars, and exceeding the country’s annual GDP, Sudan will definitely need remarkable levels of program assistance and debt relief to manage such huge debts which was mainly incurred in sustaining Sudan’s destructive war. While South Sudan has certainly benefited nothing from Khartoum’s prodigal mindset, the NCP is now asking the Authorities of the autonomous region to discuss Sudan’s foreign debts fearing that the oil-rich South would break away leaving the North to repay those massive debts.

Let’s us examine some established traditional veneer of countries that have seceded after Referendum. Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, without inheriting Ethiopia’s huge foreign debts; the fact is that most of the loans secured by Addis Ababa before Eritrea’s independence were acquired to procure armaments for the Ethiopia’s military, especially from 1974 to 1990s. The socialist Republic of Yugoslavia which was a conglomeration of six regional republics and two autonomous provinces of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia (Kosovo and Vojvodina within Serbia), disintegrated in the1990s, Belgrade did not force those rebellious states to inherit part of the former Yugoslavia foreign debts. Similarly, Ukraine and the other 14 Republics of the former Soviet Union became independent, Moscow which had a debt burden at the time did not ask those states to share with Russia’s the pre-breakaway Moscow’s foreign debts.

Given these facts, the unruly NCP does not possess the mettle and moral fortitude to ask Juba share with them Sudan’s debts of more than $21 billion, should the South opt for independence. The SPLM should not accede to such irrational demand by the deceitful and false-hearted NCP, if any thing South Sudan must be compensated for the 2.5 million loss of innocent souls, perpetuated by Khartoum’s human butchers. The NCP must also pay reparation to the government of South Sudan for the collateral damage in South Sudan after the independence of the region.

Peter Lokarlo Marsu, Melbourne, Australia

COMMENTS, PLEASE CLICK HERE

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author(s) and do not represent those of the website.