The US government policies towards South Sudan need to change

By: Dr. Justin Ambago Ramba, M.D.

June 20, 2008; No doubt that the people of south Sudan remain grateful and appreciative to the role played by the US government under president George W. Bush,  Jr.,  in bringing  peace to the war torn south Sudan by exerting pressure on the warring parties to sign what is today known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Arabs/ Muslims of the north and the Christians/ Animists/ Black Africans of the south, thus bringing to a halt what seemed to be a never-ending civil war and the longest in the African continent.

Obviously, the US government though it acted humanitarianly in the first place, no one can doubt that its involvement in the settlement was largely motivated by its own national interest. The post 09/11 US moves all over the world was aimed at paralyzing the Al Qaeda and their allies world wide of which the Khartoum government of the National Islamic Front (NIF) /National Congress Party (NCP) is an inclusive target. But as US policy makers have chosen a softer deal with the Khartoum Islamists who are no less lethal than Bin Laden himself in their anti–west Jihad, the approaches towards the two have become of one getting the stick and the other getting a mixture of sticks and carrots.

The US government expected the Sudanese CPA to weaken the Islamist government of Khartoum as the hope was that the late SPLM/A leader, the charismatic Dr. John Garang would succeed to continue to mobilize the marginalized people of the Sudan and thus form a wider base of political contentious nationwide that's enough to bring the Islamists down and put in place a democratic secular united Sudanese government.

This dream government would have saved the US interest in dealing a knock out blow on the Al Qaeda sympathizers in Khartoum and their continental dream of the exporting radical Islam to all the corners of Africa and beyond.

With the emergency of a strong opposition to Khartoum from the predominantly Muslim region of Darfur as opposed to the Christian /Animist of the south, US government immediately shifted its entire attention towards this new war, and even though it did invest much in the realization of the Naivasha Agreement of 2005, the US interest has for the time being changed towards Darfur.

No surprise, US being the major player in these areas, no doubt that the other Western powers have followed in the US foot steps and the CPA now virtually neglected, the agreement is beginning to show signs of what could literally amount to what is similar to malnutrition or Kwashiorkor, a condition existing widely in African when another child is born soon after the first one and the mother could no longer breast feed the first baby who is left to survive on poor foods which largely lack the nutrients necessary early childhood survival.

The chances of this agreement which is widely believed to have been midwifered by the US government, to end up like all the neglected children in the poverty stricken nation is very high.  CPA needs a US nutritional package as well as a proper immunization program throughout its milestones development; otherwise it is doomed to die in its infancy or early childhood.

Even if US government would want to bet on the assumption that a change in power could be achieved in Khartoum, the truth and nothing but the truth, this power change will never ever be accomplished with a Christian leader on the top of the ladder given the fact that the majority of the Sudanese population are Muslims.

The other part of the equation is that the bulk of the die hard Islamist leaders and grass root supports come from the majority marginalized people of Darfur, Kordufan, Nubians of the  extreme north, the Blue Nile Africans and the Beja of the Eastern Sudan. This in itself shouts out that there is a gross incompatibility in the artificially or rather compulsive maintenance of a state which frankly speaking is congenitally illegitimate.

Let us be realistic and down-to-earth as it is only being so that we can address important issues equally importantly. As none of us is against Islam, sadly enough Islam in its so-called friendly version (Sufi) before the present political Islam of the  NIF/ NCP/ PCP/ Umma, Takfir Wa el Hijira, Ansar Al Suna, ……name it, all had already done their intensive homework on how to eradicate the non Islamic believers from the country.

This was the basis which encouraged the grand fox, Dr. Hassan El Turabi, (who would want to identify himself now as a Darfuri) in the broad daylight, to declare an all offensive Jihad, Holy War against the Christian / Animist people of south Sudan, for resisting the Islamic spread beyond their borders.

A change may come one day in Khartoum, but the people of south Sudan should not be wrongly made to accept this false hypothesis of the new Sudan. You are delusional sometimes if you have been away from your enemy for a long time or the other way round if you have become too close to him for too long a time.  

In the former situation, gaps may lead you to believe in dreams of your own making, while in the latter scenario you might have actually fallen into the enemy's trap. The truth remains that in the country we call the Sudan, unfortunately the political development has so much been directed by the religious families of Al Mahdi and Al Mirghani which has no doubt created a deeply rooted Islamic sentiment in the entire what is politically known as the Northern Sudan.

In this very issue, neither the Black Africans of Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, the Blue Nile, nor the Beja of the Eastern Sudan are exceptions. It is only a shallow-minded person who has not been to these places and underwent the bitter experience of living amongst these very people.  They are indeed hospitable people beyond any imagination, but their look towards a non-Muslim south Sudanese remains an issue which neither Bush nor Condoleesa Rice can bring a change to.

What I would suggest at this stage, would be for the US government to seek a more realistic policy in the Sudan. These fruitless attempts to maintain the forcible unity between the northern and southern parts of the Sudan should be ruled out as unacceptable and an utter failure.  

It’s a gross injustice to force a non-Muslim leader on a majority Muslim people; otherwise instability is what you are up to. As this is true, the people of south Sudan clearly should be helped in having an independent nation of their own as a way towards a long-lasting peace.

We, the new generation of south Sudanese ,who lived among the Arabs in the various parts of the north can no longer be taken for a ride, we have a first hand experience of what our northern counterparts are. 21 years of humiliation in the towns of northern Sudan can only breed a separatist type of non-compromising southerner, unless otherwise he/she has been stamped by the NIF/ NCP.

South Sudan, after its half century experience in blocking the dirty Islamist terrorist policies in Africa, is qualified beyond any doubt to be congratulated for its stand. It should not be the other way round where other people who have not been through the same bitter experience would want these gallant people to be kept as hostages within this hostile nation known as the united Sudan.

The US government and the entire free world have yet another opportunity to deprive the Islamic fundamentalists of the abundant riches of this African country. Whatsoever is economically promising in the Sudan, more than three quarters of it is found in south Sudan. But if the south is to remain with the north in a united country where the Muslims and the Arabs make the overall majority of the population, then the fundamentalist using the simple population Muslim majority will still have the upper hand in using the south Sudanese resources to promote their devilish agendas, thus subjecting the weak continent of Africa yet to another vicious regional wars. The Lords Resistance Army is a living example, leave alone what is now happening in Chad and Central African Republic.

Though the current president Omer Beshir has inevitably become the last of the Arab leaders in the Sudan, worse Islamists like Dr. Ibrahim Khalil of the rebel Justice, Equality Movement (JEM), a frank enemy of south Sudan, who spent his youthful years fighting a Jihad (Islamic Holy War) in south Sudan, still has the American ticket to rule in Khartoum, more than a Christian south Sudanese.  

In any case, if the US government thinks that the fanatic Muslims of the north Sudan, Darfur, or Eastern Sudan are qualified enough to bring a regime change, we in the South think that our destiny lies in our total separation from this mess. OUR wealth should never be continued to be used in enslaving us any more, nor should we want it to be used to sponsor any terrorism any where in the world. END

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