By: Dr. Thon Giei
August 11th, 2010
Many observers have witnessed with dismay, the coordinated policy of the National Congress Party (NCP), famously and historically known as the National Islamic Front (NIF) to tear into pieces the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement just months before the end of the Interim arrangements which brought half peace to the county.
The NCP ill-intention to the agreement was communicated and known during Naivasha Peace Negotiations in Kenya. The Sudan government then demanded an interim period of 10 years before the conduct of the South Sudan Referendum, while the Sudan peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM) demanded a two-year interim period. The mediators overcame the deadlock by proposing a six-year interim period plus six-month pre-interim period to set up the various organs and laws to run the country during the interim period. Obviously, the NCP wants indirectly to achieve more than six-year interim which it failed to get on the table in Naibasha.
Currently, the NCP has resorted to various tactics and excuses to justify its demand for postponement of the Southern Sudan Referendum to the same tactics it used to destroy the infamous peace agreements of Khartoum and Fashoda of 1997. It would be good to remind ourselves that in Khartoum and Fashoda Peace Agreements, the Government of Sudan promised a four-year interim period to be followed by the South Sudan Referendum. Dr. Riak Machar, the Vice President of GOSS and Dr. Lam AKol witnessed the abrogation of the two agreements. It is worth reminding ourselves that the abrogation of Khartoum Peace Agreement (Peace from within) prompted Dr. Machar to take pain and rejoin his brothers in the SPLM in 2003, an act that was overwhelmingly well-received by the South Sudanese.
Now, the NCP is conditioning the conduct of the South Sudan Referendum to the demarcation of borders between the North and South and of course Abeyi area and the two sides in the borders commission have disagreed in 75% of the borders. How can the two parties then agree without a third party? Further, The NCP has not implemented The Hague International Court of Arbitration ruling on Abeyi borders. The NCP and SPLM have agreed to disagree on the borders and the Referendum can not be postponed. Also the Northern Sudanese members in the South Sudan Referendum Commission are calling for postponement of the vote on unity or separation for lack of time in preparing for fair and credible vote.
True, according to the Sudan CPA, the Interim National (Sudan) Constitution 2005 and the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan 2005, the Southern Sudan Referendum Act should have been promulgated by the third year of the interim ( precisely in 2007) followed shortly by the Presidency establishment of the South Sudan Referendum Commission. However, the logical question is: Who to blame for lack of implementation of certain provisions of CPA? The SPLM has left no stone unturned telling the International Community, CPA Partners, IGAD countries and the African Union that the NCP has been blocking CPA implementation.
The International Community should take the lead in pushing the NCP to agree to the conduct of the Referendum. Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil, the chairman of South Sudan Referendum Commission, has been quoted by the media shamelessly saying that South Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) of South Sudan would not be constitutional. The chairman needs to take a deep breath and come to term with the fact that with the end of the CPA interim period, the Sudan Constitution will cease to be legally binding. The said constitution is only good for the CPA era.
I am here to conclude that prior to the Independence of the Republic of Sudan, the United Kingdom and Egypt agreed on the Sudan self-determination preceded by the National Elections in 1952. The vote on the independence was unanimously made on December 19th, 1955 with the deceptive promise of giving due consideration to the South Sudanese members of SLA demand of federation. The declaration of Independence from within the Sudan Parliament was made to give way for the vote on the Sudan self-determination which was running into implementation problems. Why should the North now deny to us what it accepted in 1955?
If the North continues to block the conduct of the South Sudan Referendum, then SSLA should prepare itself for Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Any NCP objection to SSLA UDI should be countered by the SPLM objection to the Sudan UDI of 1955. We have won the international Court of Arbitration ruling on Abeyi and we can do it again if the situation demands.
Dr. Thon Giei, a concerned South Sudanese and can be reached at: tgiei@yahoo.com