An Insult to the Intelligence of South Sudanese BY: Malith Kur, LONDON, CANADA
APR. 17/2011, SSN; It is one of the most heart breaking things to see that ignorance, greed, and possibly stupidity are likely to drive Sudan into another cycle of violence. One cannot imagine the wisdom of some South Sudanese army officers returning to Khartoum and calling for the overthrow of the government of South Sudan, in order to serve the interests of our enemies in exchange for financial and political gains. The people of South Sudan elected both the government and the National Assembly, and any call to overthrow an elected government is an insult to our freedom and independence. Hence, George Athor, Peter Gatdet, Abdel Bagi Ayii, and their allies must know that the people of South Sudan will not entertain any takeover of their government by Islamist militias. It will never happen. However, before I go any further, it is worthwhile to mention briefly the backgrounds of the individuals involved in this evil conspiracy against South Sudan. Let us start with Major General Peter Gatdet. Peter Gatdet is a former Sudanese army officer. He fought in the Iran-Iraq war. The former President of Sudan Jaafar Numeri sent him and others to Iraq to help Saddam Hussein in the fight against the Iranian state. When he returned from Iraq in mid 1980s, he joined the SPLM/A. However, he went to Khartoum with Riek Machar and Lam Akol in 1991. While in Khartoum, the NIF government assigned him a position under the command of Paulino Matip to lead the Bul Nuer forces, pro-NIF militias, which guarded the block 5A oil fields in Western Upper Nile. (You can read more on this site: http://www.crimesofwar.org/sudan-mag/sudan-overview.html) The responsibilities of Mr. Gatdet under the command of Paulino Matip were to remove civil population in the areas that contain the oil fields. He was also responsible for attacking any group or individuals deemed dangerous to the oil fields, mostly in Western Upper Nile. In those deadly duties, Gatdet was the most dangerous Nuer’s warlord, who displaced and killed many of his own people to open the way for the Arabs to explore and extract oil in South Sudan. Nonetheless, in 1999, for some reasons, he rebelled against Matip and his Arab bosses in Khartoum and fought alongside the SPLA for at least three years. However, in 2002, he rebelled again against the SPLM/A and returned to Khartoum claiming that he was going to work for maintaining the unity of Sudan. After the SPLM/A signed the CPA in 2005, Gatdet came back with Matip’s militias and joined the SPLA as a major general. In this little sketch of Mr. Peter Gatdet’s history, we can see that Gatdet is someone who has done more harm to South Sudan than good. Furthermore, he is someone without stable stand. He changes sides whenever things are not working well for him. His commitment to the freedom of South Sudan is second to his personal benefits. During the war, he helped the Islamist regime in Khartoum to extract oil in South Sudan in exchange for his financial gains. He left Khartoum only when those financial gains dried up after the signing of the CPA. However, Gatdet has now gone back to Khartoum for he has received fresh promises from the Islamists in Khartoum. I will explain later, what the Islamist regime has promised to Gatdet and other generals residing in Khartoum. It is therefore an insult to our intelligence for Gatdet and his criminal elements to call for an overthrow of GOSS. On the other hand, George Athor Deng was a veteran SPLA fighter, who fought the long civil war against the Islamist regime in Khartoum. He rose in rank in SPLA and became the deputy chief of Staff of the SPLA after the signing of the CPA. Having risen in military rank, he began to build deadly political ambitions. In 2010, he aspired to run for the Jonglei State’s governorship. Friends, community elders, and colleagues advised him not to leave his military position because political positions are always risky to maintain. However, he stubbornly refused and resigned as a deputy chief of Staff of the SPLA to run in the election. In fact, he lost the election of the Jonglei governorship. The subsequent event at Doliep Hill near Malakal showed that George Athor was having a secret plans to start war against the people of south Sudan should he lose the election. He ordered some trained individuals from his village to attack the SPLA position at Dolep Hill, which they did. Despite his atrocities against his own people, the government of South Sudan gave him and his gang an amnesty as a gesture of reconciliation to avoid bloodshed among the people of South Sudan, who have endured bitter long years of war with the Islamist regime in Khartoum. Instead of taking the amnesty, George Athor used the lull the amnesty provided him to acquire arms from Khartoum. With the weapons he brought from Khartoum, his gang carried out deadly attacks on civilians in Fangak County in Jonglei State, but the SPLA repulsed his forces. He fled to Khartoum after losing his base to the SPLA in Khorfulus. He now resides in Khartoum planning to overthrow South Sudan State under the instruction of the NCP. The people of South Sudan are now the judge to see if there is anything good Mr. George Athor will bring to them from Khartoum. Another mad militia leader aspiring to overthrow the State of South Sudan is a jihadist known as Abdel Bagi Ayii from Northern Bhar-el-Ghazal. He is a former advisor to Kiir. He lost this position after the reshuffle of government of South Sudan following the April’s elections in 2010. After losing his position as an advisor, he accused the Government of South Sudan of corruption and preferential treatment of individuals. As a result, he declared war on the SPLA and South Sudan State. Abdel Bagi resides in Khartoum and has declared jihad against the people of South Sudan if Muslims do not get 30% representation in the government of South Sudan. Again, you, as a citizen of South Sudan, are the judge. You can judge for yourself if this is the direction; we want our country to take. (Read more about some of these rebel generals here: http://www.hrw.org/en/node/12243/section/6). What you have seen above is the list of some individuals based in Khartoum who are aspiring to overthrow not only the government, but also the new state of South Sudan. A casual analysis of the backgrounds of those men, who want to overthrow the government of South Sudan, does not require an expert to point out the facts behind their rebellion. In fact, there are two different dimensions to the current rebellion involving Peter Gatdet, George Athor, Abdel Bagi, and the likes. They have a secret agreement with government in Khartoum. The government in Khartoum wants to use those generals and their militias to fight a proxy war. First, the Islamist regime in Khartoum is working hard to create a Somalia-like situation in South Sudan. When South Sudan descends into chaos through tribal wars, the Northern forces will enter the South and re-annex it to the North. The second plan is that if the Northern forces cannot re-annex the whole territory of South Sudan for some reasons, the last option is to occupy Abyei, oil fields in Western Upper Nile and Upper states. This is the plan that all those rebels including Lam Akol want to achieve before the declaration of South Sudan’s independence. This is the secret agreement those people have with Khartoum. If you support their rebellion as a citizen of South Sudan, then do not say later that you did not receive any warning. If those rebel generals have real grievances against their own people, why do they have to go to Khartoum? Why they do not declare their rebellions in Nairobi, Kampala, Addis Ababa, or any other African capital? Therefore, the secret agreement between the govern of Northern Sudan and those traitors is to re-annex our country or some part of it in exchange for financial or political gains those generals may get from Khartoum. This fact of re-annexing of South Sudan to North is in line with the SPLM-DC policy. Lam Akol last time campaigned rigorously against the referendum saying that South Sudan was not ready to be an independent country. That policy failed and now the government in Khartoum and its allies are pursuing this objective through those rebels. Hence, the people of South Sudan will never forgive people who have gone to Khartoum with the intention of overthrowing the government and the state of South Sudan. However, it is our hope that those soldiers who might have followed those mad individuals should come to their senses and return home. They should know that there is no future going after those crazy generals. The people of South Sudan will not allow anyone to take power through force. There is one way for any legitimate South Sudanese to assume power in South Sudan. That is through the ballot box, and nothing contrary to democratic process is acceptable. Nonetheless, one cannot fail to give a piece of advice to the government of South Sudan as the country moves towards new beginning. The people of South Sudan believe in democracy and freedom, but for the real democracy to take root in South Sudan, the government must move quickly to root out corruption in the system of running the country. We know that corruption is taking place in the government of South Sudan at a massive scale. However, no one seems to pay attention to this problem except verbal warnings that do not produce results. When the anti-corruption commission came into existence, we thought that the government was genuine in fighting corruption, but this turned out to be a mere tactic of diverting public attention away from this issue. The people of South Sudan are aware that corruption is taking place at all levels of government in South Sudan. If the government of South Sudan really cares about the stability of the country, corruption must stop now. Malith Kur London, Canada He can be reached @[email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
