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Mr David Amuor Majur is Secretary General of South Sudan Youth Forum for Referendum. With the Focus on the African Union Summit in Kampala shifting to what the African heads of state and government will resolve on the strategy on Somalia, Mr Amour told AFRAN/AMIN Nasser why its important for the rest of Africa especially the regional countries to support and receive the secession of Southern Sudan:-
How is the preparation for the referendum on southern Sudan going?
The referendum is one of the political demands that the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement made in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). It is emphasised in the last chapter of the CPA.
It is a technical issue in that it is divided into three; the legal part, the mobilisation and the exercise of registration and voting.
So the referendum is the final resolution in the CPA that gives the people of southern Sudan a right to exercise their rights – do they remain second class citizens as the north has turned them out to be or do they secede?
The northerners think that Sudan starts and ends with them. So the people of southern Sudan will have a chance to determine what they want to be in January next year.
We are calling upon the international community and the AU who will be watching the exercise to make sure that there is no manipulation such that if the south decides to break away, we are able to form our own government and a separate state.
Having been a people coming out of two decades of a war situation, do you feel the southerners have had enough capacity to decide their future?
We have given them all the civic education for the process to be fair. This process is for example different from capturing towns as a rebel group. People will vote, determine their destiny and that is how the process can only be fair.
People from the south are ready – they have drawn the flag themselves; SPLA is a transformed guerrilla army. They are jolly people waiting for a new state. We need the help of the international community and the AU.
What kind of help?
We need them to participate by sending very strong election monitoring teams to avoid rigging. They should also support us with an electronic voting system and this will eliminate manipulation.
The international community should also get ready to recognise us as an independent state. Once the problem of southern Sudan is resolved it will even enhance regional peace and tighten the noose on the terrorists.
Once we entered the peace agreement and southern Sudan got a transitional independent government, the question of LRA was resolved and people of northern Uganda can sleep. Now LRA is in CAR.
We also want all the international journalists to come to witness the process. We also call upon the international community to help repatriate our refugees in neighbouring countries such that they can exercise their right to vote.
Why do you think southerners will vote for cessation and not a unified Sudan?
As earlier said, we have already established our systems and even designed our cherished flag. If we don’t get independence, where do you think we shall put our flag?
Do you think we shall just accept to see it buried? What about our army, do you think we can just dissolve it? You know Khartoum is not only unready for change but they are also not for unity. Unity is not an alternative for them.
They see a unified Sudan with an Arab orientation. They have already committed crimes against humanity and we should not be part of this. What’s the definition of unity? We can never be Arabs.
We cannot be recreated again to be Arabs so we cannot accept to be part of the National Islamic front. We would rather die fighting. Those small Arab minorities do not even represent 20 per cent of the population of Sudan.
What is SPLM’s vision for the region if southern Sudan secedes?
First of all – the macro-economics. Africans naturally like business. The Ugandan community, for example, has benefited much in the time southern Sudan has had a peaceful government.
An independent southern Sudan will fit well within the East African community and all East Africans will benefit from this.
Fighting terrorism will be made even easier with our intelligence systems able to track down the remnants of Islamic fundamentalism of Osama Bin Laden and Al Shabaab with no chance of having any pockets in the our areas.
Southern Sudan has worked very well with regional governments including Uganda and a good example is how we have dealt with LRA.
There have been questions over SPLM’s ability to run the government. Some people say chaos will reign in once you are left on your own.
That will not happen. We have the capacity not only to run the government of southern Sudan but also a unified Sudan.
We have been a rebel army but have helped the region to build peace so you cannot say that once we are left on our own, there will be chaos. Besides, the chaos that has been in the south has always been sponsored by the North – bribing our people and brainwashing them.
If we are independent, it will be peace.
It’s a claim by Khartoum that we cannot rule ourselves. But the South can even rule the north.
That is why some people run from the north to enjoy peace in the south every weekend and return home to face dictatorship on Sunday. The president of the government of southern Sudan is running his government besides 10 other governments in Juba.
We have our own army, police, banking system and run our own foreign diplomatic service. So the AU should prepare to welcome a new state of the Southern Sudan. Cessation will give AU glamour of hope to bring peace even to Darfur.
Mr David Amuor Majur is Secretary General of South Sudan Youth Forum for Referendum. With the Focus on the African Union Summit in Kampala shifting to what the African heads of state and government will resolve on the strategy on Somalia, Mr Amour told AFRAN/AMIN Nasser why its important for the rest of Africa especially the regional countries to support and receive the secession of Southern Sudan:-
How is the preparation for the referendum on southern Sudan going?
The referendum is one of the political demands that the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement made in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). It is emphasised in the last chapter of the CPA.
It is a technical issue in that it is divided into three; the legal part, the mobilisation and the exercise of registration and voting.
So the referendum is the final resolution in the CPA that gives the people of southern Sudan a right to exercise their rights – do they remain second class citizens as the north has turned them out to be or do they secede?
The northerners think that Sudan starts and ends with them. So the people of southern Sudan will have a chance to determine what they want to be in January next year.
We are calling upon the international community and the AU who will be watching the exercise to make sure that there is no manipulation such that if the south decides to break away, we are able to form our own government and a separate state.
Having been a people coming out of two decades of a war situation, do you feel the southerners have had enough capacity to decide their future?
We have given them all the civic education for the process to be fair. This process is for example different from capturing towns as a rebel group. People will vote, determine their destiny and that is how the process can only be fair.
People from the south are ready – they have drawn the flag themselves; SPLA is a transformed guerrilla army. They are jolly people waiting for a new state. We need the help of the international community and the AU.
What kind of help?
We need them to participate by sending very strong election monitoring teams to avoid rigging. They should also support us with an electronic voting system and this will eliminate manipulation.
The international community should also get ready to recognise us as an independent state. Once the problem of southern Sudan is resolved it will even enhance regional peace and tighten the noose on the terrorists.
Once we entered the peace agreement and southern Sudan got a transitional independent government, the question of LRA was resolved and people of northern Uganda can sleep. Now LRA is in CAR.
We also want all the international journalists to come to witness the process. We also call upon the international community to help repatriate our refugees in neighbouring countries such that they can exercise their right to vote.
Why do you think southerners will vote for cessation and not a unified Sudan?
As earlier said, we have already established our systems and even designed our cherished flag. If we don’t get independence, where do you think we shall put our flag?
Do you think we shall just accept to see it buried? What about our army, do you think we can just dissolve it? You know Khartoum is not only unready for change but they are also not for unity. Unity is not an alternative for them.
They see a unified Sudan with an Arab orientation. They have already committed crimes against humanity and we should not be part of this. What’s the definition of unity? We can never be Arabs.
We cannot be recreated again to be Arabs so we cannot accept to be part of the National Islamic front. We would rather die fighting. Those small Arab minorities do not even represent 20 per cent of the population of Sudan.
What is SPLM’s vision for the region if southern Sudan secedes?
First of all – the macro-economics. Africans naturally like business. The Ugandan community, for example, has benefited much in the time southern Sudan has had a peaceful government.
An independent southern Sudan will fit well within the East African community and all East Africans will benefit from this.
Fighting terrorism will be made even easier with our intelligence systems able to track down the remnants of Islamic fundamentalism of Osama Bin Laden and Al Shabaab with no chance of having any pockets in the our areas.
Southern Sudan has worked very well with regional governments including Uganda and a good example is how we have dealt with LRA.
There have been questions over SPLM’s ability to run the government. Some people say chaos will reign in once you are left on your own.
That will not happen. We have the capacity not only to run the government of southern Sudan but also a unified Sudan.
We have been a rebel army but have helped the region to build peace so you cannot say that once we are left on our own, there will be chaos. Besides, the chaos that has been in the south has always been sponsored by the North – bribing our people and brainwashing them.
If we are independent, it will be peace.
It’s a claim by Khartoum that we cannot rule ourselves. But the South can even rule the north.
That is why some people run from the north to enjoy peace in the south every weekend and return home to face dictatorship on Sunday. The president of the government of southern Sudan is running his government besides 10 other governments in Juba.
We have our own army, police, banking system and run our own foreign diplomatic service. So the AU should prepare to welcome a new state of the Southern Sudan. Cessation will give AU glamour of hope to bring peace even to Darfur.
