The State and Self-determination: South Sudan
Case Study
By Beny Gideon Mabor,
University of Juba, Sudan
JUN 14/2010, SSN; 1. The background of Sudan Civil War and
Call for South Sudan Self-determination
The Republic of the Sudan has been at war within itself generally
for about four decades throughout her independent period just before
the end of colonial administration on January 1, 1956. Four months
later before complete departure of the last colonial masters the
Anglo-Egyptians, a group of Southern Sudanese headed by Catholic
priest turned rebel Rev. Fr. Saturnino Lohure and others instigated
a violent protest in the historical town of Torit, South Sudan on
August 18, 1955 against Arabs-Muslim as a rejection of forceful
annexation of South Sudan to the North in what they saw to be
another domestic colonialism.
The military uprising sparked all over parts of South Sudan and this
marked the beginning of first ever civil war in the Sudan with
military organized insurgency in the Southern provinces called Anyanya Revolutionary Movement, fighting the newly Khartoum
administration with principle objectives of liberation against all
forms of oppression and demanding their legitimate right for the
people of Southern Sudan to self-determination.
The predominately Christian rebel group in the South continued war
of liberation struggle for 17 years with several lost of lives and
massive displacement across the regions until a peaceful negotiation
was initiated between the two warring parties under the auspices of
the then Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and concluded the Addis
Ababa Peace Agreement on February 27, 1972 with Nimeri regime and
Anyanya freedom fighters that granted Southern Region autonomy with
only two organs of government namely the Higher Executive Council
and the People Regional Assembly with its capital in the present day
Juba, South Sudan. The Judiciary was centralized in the national
capital Khartoum with deliberate means to fail the regional
government in the rule of law and administration of justice.
However, the AAPA/1972 therein established the Law of
Self-government for Southern Provinces 1972 as the supreme law of
the land that constituted Southern Provinces to be Bhar el Ghazal
Region, Upper Nile and Equatoria respectively within Article 4 of
the Act and further empowered with independent Executive and
Legislative functions.
Nevertheless, the Addis Ababa Peace Agreement
offered a relative peace with cessation of hostilities and a
breathing space to the long civil strife in the Sudan for 11 years
despite the shrinking regional administration that has never
initiated any developmental projects in South Sudan.
As time went on, the Khartoum National Reconciliation
Conference 1977 which was closely similar to our previous All Sudan
Political Parties APPC 2009 was organized by the Northern political
forces which politically challenged the AAPA/1972 to nothing terming
the agreement as sell out of the South. With these opposition
parties influence and continued political delusion, immediately
convinced the then Head of State and government late Col. Jafar
Nimeri that the Addis Ababa peace accord is neither Quran nor Bible.
The President authoritatively concluded the agreement as man made
program that can be dishonor at any time and declared it null and
void.
This led to collapse of the AAPA/1972 and arbitral dissolution of the
High Executive Council and the People Regional Assembly from 1981
throughout 1983 as well as unsuccessful attempt to redefine the
geographical boundaries between the North and the South leaving rich
oil areas around Bentiu, the fertile land of Renk in Upper Nile
region together with nickel and uranium deposits all fall into
Northern territory, hence consequently caused another serious war
with once more armed rebels in the South.
This shortly gave birth to Anyanya two movement under military leaders namely Gordon Kong Chol,
Abdullah Chuol and Akuot Atem de Mayen respectively upon which they
were subsequently taken over by the populous Ayod mutiny ignited by
Major Kerbino Kuanyin Bol and others on May 16, 1983 as a mere
military operations without political wings.
As a coordinated rebellion with other senior officers in the Sudan
Army Force SAF deployed at Southern Command and in Khartoum, the
mutineers silently formed the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and
Movement under leadership of Dr. John Garang de Mabior with the over
all vision of achieving New Sudan based on free will of its citizens
with decentralized system of government regardless of color, sex,
race, creed and political affiliations.
The deadly war waged on for
21 years with death toll not exactly recorded but approximately more
than 2.5 million people and double the same got displaced to the
foreign countries and the homeless.
As the war became a win-win game with Khartoum administration
following many attempts to negotiate peace deal since 1990s and also
considering the negative impacts of rebel split within ranks and
files of SPLA/M a final round of peace talks was initiated in 2003
between the conflicting parties under auspices of the
Intergovernmental Authority on Development IGAD that brought the
world famous Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement CPA/2005 signed on
January 9, 2005 in Nairobi, Kenya between the ruling National
Congress Party NCP on behalf of Sudan Government and the Sudan
Peoples’ Liberation Movement on behalf of the Southern Sudanese
people.
The inauguration ceremony witnessed by the
international bodies such as United Nations, African Union, Arabs
League, the USA, UK, the Royal Kingdom of Norway and a number of
African countries Head of State and Government that described the
CPA/2005 as the lasting peace to end African longest
civil war in the Sudan.
2. Self-determination in International Law
After conclusion of the CPA/2005, the agreement therefore contained
the call for the right of self-determination for the people of
Southern Sudan in an internationally monitored referendum on January
9, 2011 which is now six months and two days way for the people of
Southern Sudan to determine their political destiny whether to
remain in a united Sudan or create an independent state. Before I
embark on this political issue, I am writing to seek legal
conditions in international legal frameworks on the aspect of right
to self determination in Southern Sudan. This would include the
CPA/2005 upon which South Sudan independence claims are primarily
based.
In addition, the following international legal instruments and
questions need to be discussed speaking on the right of
self-determination where applicable to the situation in South Sudan
such as the 1960 UN declaration on the granting of independence to
colonial countries and people; whether the population of Southern
Sudan should be able to a successful claim to self-determination if
any, for defense of people and territory against any external
aggression, control national economy, taxation and finally whether
South Sudan formed a separate geographic units with a shared history
unlike rest of the Sudan and if the answer is in affirmative then
there is genuine claim to self-determination for the people of
Southern Sudan. And if it is negation then the unity of the Country
is the option to avoid collapse of national integrity.
3. Conclusion
After careful notice of the different findings surrounding claim to
self-determination for the people of Southern as they have
exhaustively explained series of marginalization by the Arabs
dominant in the North from day one of our independence that they
have not since creation held a post of Head of State and Government
and that they have never been adequately represented in all forms of
institutional obligations, the above international legal
prerequisites must be fulfilled to achieve independence.
Finally, the possible and remedial action to the conflict in South
Sudan is to immediately call international community to step in the
due processes of South Sudan referendum on time without let or
hindrance, provided that it can be accomplished in a relatively safe
and fair manner unlike the April 2010 gubernatorial election where
electioneering malpractices occurred nation wide and went missing
unquestionably.
The people of Southern Sudan should be allowed to
freely determine their future destiny and if they vote for
separation then the two sisterly states will still maintain their
bilateral relations more than any other nations in the world.
Beny Gideon Mabor is an Independent Opinion Writer and can be
reached
at benygmabor@gmail.com