Al Beshir’s forces can occupy Abyei Now, but not Forever
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Taban Abel Aguek
May 29, 2011 — President Salva Kiir Mayardit has shown again that big
heart of true Southern leader when he reiterated in a press conference
last Thursday 26th May, 2011 in Juba that ‘I will not lead my people
to war’ after the fragile situation of the takeover of Abyei by the
North Sudan forces, SAF. That is a strong symbol of a godly leadership
that draws no comparison in the other part of Sudan. Of all the
aggressions Southerners have experienced since the signing of the CPA
there is nothing Southerners had taken more seriously than the control
of Abyei by the Northern forces. Southerners would have obliged to go
the hard way by choosing to have it with the North Sudan over Abyei
just in the same manner of violence and war, but on the President’s
call of no return to war South Sudan will again have to swallow it one
more time.
>From the statements issued by President al Beshir while addressing a
meeting of Educational workers and vocational teachers in Khartoum
early this week, it is clear that the occupation of Abyei was planned
purposely to abrogate the CPA, but did not come as a result of
provocation of the SPLA as claimed in the earlier reports. Affirming
that he has no intention to withdraw his forces from Abyei, al Beshir
said, “Abyei is Sudanese land, a northern land and we will not
withdraw from it.” The manner with which Abyei was taken over by SAF
and how quickly a pair of presidential decrees dissolving Abyei
Administration and relieving the leadership in the area were issued
without consulting the First Vice President of the Republic as
stipulated in the CPA indicate that no one provoked the fight in Abyei
as speculated in the first media reports but the Sudan Armed Forces
were acting on the orders of the President to find all reasons
possible to invade the contested area.
We have people in and around Abyei and we got all that first hand
information. What really happened in the area is that a SAF soldier in
the last truck of their UNMIS escorted convoy bombed a police post
near Abyei with an RPG 7 killing four people. This led to the rounding
up of the convoy and then fighting ensued. So, therefore all people
who lost their lives in this confusion on both sides in what they
chose to term as SPLA ambush had to die in an agenda arranged by few
individuals of the NCP to enhance justification for the impending
attack to take over Abyei. An army of about five thousand SAF soldiers
and Popular Defense Forces aided by elements of Janjaweed militias and
Mesiriya were used to capture Abyei. Civilians had to pay severely as
killing was indiscriminate, looting was rampant, raping was all over
and lastly – after they were sure nothing else could go to their
mouths or pockets, the attackers set the town ablaze. These are some
serious and ugly atrocities the world does not want to see in the 21st
millennium. But here they easily happen every day in the Sudan, the
country of President Beshir. Shamelessly, as if lives that was lost
all over the years of wars in the country, the President continued to
say, “…we are prepared for war and going back to the battles of the
40th Mile and Torit” just in the face of the world – and even more, at
a time he is struggling with the ICC indictment over charges of war
crimes and genocide.
Well, the Abyei case at the state of current South Sudan may take
different forms altogether. It was so easy for President al Beshir to
hint at going back to the battle of the 40th mile and Torit. But
whether they are mind games or not, the Southern cause came a long way
and cannot be halted by the threats of war. And for Abyei it is just
the same. War is not something new for South Sudanese and it needs not
to be sung in public meetings and rallies. A boosted confidence from
meeting the Presidents of Chad and Central Africa Republic in Khartoum
made Beshir so defiant that he forgot that with war you don’t count on
one you have not yet won. What someone mockingly describes today as
the battle of the 40th mile is something we know very well. That long
attack by NIF through the desert is still clear in our memory, the way
it is vivid in the mind of any Northerner who experienced the Bahr
Naam battle, the Kurmuk battle, the Yei fall and so many more. For
Abyei, if at the right time, Southerners could march bare hand into it
despite all bombs and tanks.
A long list of plans to destabilize South Sudan has failed, much to
the frustration of President al Beshir. The hope of a breaking SPLM,
the South Sudan’s dominant political party, at the 2nd national
convention in 2008 did not happen as was wished. And again the SPLM
won elections in Southern Sudan. In actual fact, NCP had to beg SPLM
to withdraw its candidate for presidency of the Sudan, Yassir Saed
Arman, in order for Beshir to retain the post which he badly uses
today.
South Sudan Referendum faced some difficult obstructions and ilful
strategies either to disrupt the plebiscite or alter its outcome, but
everything about it was achieved in the watchful eyes of the NCP. No
one can simply drive his army in Abyei and own it. That cannot happen.
Even if the militias have failed to deliver al Beshir’s mission in
South Sudan, the president should never attempt to take up the matter
in his hands. Abyei’s occupation is not good under someone we still
call ‘our president’. And even to remind the public those painful past
battles is not in the correct order. To go the 40th mile battle was
not an easy affair. The Torit battle was not easy. When it is war, I
think no one will sit down and laugh. Even after the takeover of
Abyei, the SAF and militias that fought the police and a small number
of SPLA Joint Integrated Units did not enjoy it. If a President pits
an army against other people or uses people against other people, then
he has no government. Had it been Egypt or Tunisia, President al
Beshir could have been removed by the public demonstrations. But
unfortunately for reasons we very well understand; and because this is
Sudan he still has the comfort and freedom to do what he wants with
the people of Darfur, Beja, Funj, Nuba Mountains and now those of the
Southern region of Abyei.
But for Abyei, which carries a lot of meaning for southerners it
cannot be an easy ride. Abyei issue for all South Sudanese is not
about oil. It is about a sincere ownership of a people, the Ngok Dinka
of Abyei. The place is called Abyei in Dinka language, not in any word
in a Messirya or Arabic. This right was given to us by God and it was
again awarded to us by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The
Hague. It is a right that we are suppose to claim in the South Sudan’s
constitution and it is a right that we carry everyday in our hearts
and it will not be obstructed by any amount of threats and
intimidation.
South Sudanese have fought so hard for many centuries to be
independent. The southern quest faced an unaccountable number of tests
but it has arrived this far. As a result, Abyei which we rightly own
can only be occupied for now but not forever.
The people fleeing the Abyei massacre have run towards the South and
are now in many Southern towns of Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Wau and
Warrap. It is an indication that they are true Southerners. If the
Abyei people were from the North, then why did they not flee towards
the north? Why did they not go to Khartoum? It is because they are not
Northern Sudanese and their land is not Northern Sudanese land.
South Sudan struggled beyond battles of a 1000th mile footing with
AK47 from Bonga in Ethiopia to attack Kassala in the East, Kurmuk in
Blue Nile and all over the Nuba. South again would have gone even more
miles in the cause of Abyei, but war is not a good idea and it does
not present any better solutions. Truth and justice always take slower
steps to be realized, but they can never be hidden forever. The right
of the people of Abyei can only be delayed but can never be denied. I
salute President Kiir’s reiteration of no return to war. That is the
art of leadership the modern world aspires for and that requires to go
beyond being only a manager of country’s affairs, but also to be a
leader who is a mediator. That is to be a leader who looks at both
sides, creates nothing between ‘us’ and ‘them’ – and above all avoids
conflict.
We have listened to the two presidents and now we know who is not only
a head of state but a real leader. I appeal to all Southerners and the
South Sudan Army, the SPLA to calm down and obey the president’s call
of no return to war.
Taban Abel Aguek is a South Sudanese based in Rumbek, he can be
reached at [email protected].
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