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 بيان من الحركة الشعبية بالولايات المتحدة ردآ ما أدلى به الرئيس البشير لقناة الجزيرة فى 14/6
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Statement of the SPLM Chapters in USA on President Omer Bashir’s interview on 14th of June 2008 on the Al-Jazeera TV.
Date: July 2, 2008
1. The SPLM Chapters-USA in the Diaspora followed with dismay the interview conducted by Al-Jazeera TV on the eve of the 14th of June with H.E. Field Marshal Omer Hassan Ahmed El Bashir. That interview came in the wake of the agreement between the SPLM and NCP that removed the Abyei hurdle and opened the way for fruitful cooperation between the two partners to the CPA. That interview contained serious accusations demeaning to the SPLM and GoSS, contrary to the spirit generated by the Abyei understanding. The SPLM Chapters, therefore, owe it to the Party cadres, to its supporters all over Sudan and to its many friends abroad, to put the record straight. We do this with due deference to Field Marshal Bashir both in his capacity as President of the Government we share and that of leader of the Party signatory to an Agreement which we have concluded together.
2. In that interview the President raised controversial issues relating to, and cast aspersion on, the SPLM and GoSS. Those comprised: alleged control by the SPLA over governance in Southern Sudan, failure of GoSS to deliver on the promises of post – war development, that the Southern militias who were fighting alongside Sudan Armed Forces are the solid base for unity, replication of the story about the misuse of 60 million dollars made available to the SPLM's late Leader in the pre-interim period, purported inability of the SPLM to transform itself into a political organization capable of running a state and finally reluctance of the SPLM to contribute to efforts to lift sanctions imposed on GoNU by the US government.
3. To all those claims and accusations we take strong exception. Accordingly, we have this to say:
(i) While we hold the SPLA in great esteem, the claim that the intelligence service of that valiant army is running Southern Sudan is belied by the existence of a civil government that exercises effective power all over Southern Sudan and regularly deliberates on all matters that deal with the affairs of the South, including the management of its army. It also studiously takes decisions on those matters. That government is also superintended by a robust legislature that keeps the government in check without fear or favor. Indeed, much so often, the President of GoSS urged the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly to play its public oversight role without fear. Indeed, governance in Sudan would have been in a much better stead, if all its Executive branches were afforded real (not virtual) power to deliberate and decide upon all matters of state in the manner the Southern Sudan Cabinet had been doing, and its Legislative Assemblies were guaranteed independence in the exercise of their oversight role as the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly had enjoyed and was encouraged to exercise.
(ii) The SPLA and all its services, including the intelligence service, work under effective control of the democratic civil government of Southern Sudan. In no one single instance had the SPLA, out of its own volition or as a result of orders from above, harassed political opponents, seized publications or wantonly provoked journalists as happened in other parts of the country. Consequently, if there is the slightest suspicion that the SPLA intelligence service is becoming, in stealth, the real government of Southern Sudan, then the SPLM is duty-bound to join hands with its partner, the NCP, in investigating this misdeed as well as misdeeds by law – enforcement agencies and security services all over Sudan so as to ensure that those forces and agencies are functioning within the bounds of the CPA and the Constitution.
(iii) We know that the SPLM, indeed its Chairman Gen Salva Kiir Mayardit, without inducement from any body outside the party, was the first to lament the lack of progress, especially by GoSS, in availing to the people of Southern Sudan the dividends of peace. And though SPLM 2ND National Convention admitted this underperformance, we must add that GoSS had inherited a wasteland in Southern Sudan: not a single kilometer of roads was built since the era of the Regional Executive Council in the 1970's, all schools and universities were turned into barracks and neglected office buildings and houses became decrepit because of lack of regular maintenance. We are abundantly aware that this miserable situation was caused by war. However, we also hope that the other party to that war realizes the nature of the Southern Sudan that has been left over by war and bequeathed to GoSS. Indeed, SPLM cadres often wondered about the reconstruction of Southern Sudan, incessantly repeated in development literature. That term is a misnomer. In all fields of activity the term reconstruction is, in reality, construction from scratch. Nevertheless, we were happy to hear GoSS proudly announcing last year that it had now one million boys in schools compared to 343,000 in 2005, that is a three fold increase and one thousand (1000) running health facilities managed by 1600 health professionals, in addition to 1862 kms of rehabilitated roads.
Nonetheless, given the high hopes of our people, this performance was deemed very modest by the 2nd National Convention of the SPLM. The Convention, out of its own volition, thought it fit to urge GoSS to redouble its efforts so that our people enjoy the dividends of peace. In the meantime, the CPA and the reports of the Joint Assessment Mission equally obligated GoNU to play its role in the development of Southern Sudan, first in view of its national responsibility, second, on account of its CPA commitments and third owing to our common desire to make unity attractive. Up to this moment the only national edifice constructed by GoNU in the capital of Southern Sudan is not a school, university, hospital or a training center for war orphans, but the imposing building of the National Security Services inaugurated early this week. Important as it is for our country's security, that achievement is not the best advertisement for national development in Southern Sudan.
(iv) The tired story relating to the $60 millions "given" by GoNU to the SPLM to enable it transform itself into a political organization as well as the innuendos that those funds were misused are, to say the least, half truths. First, those funds were not a donation to the SPLM out of GoNU's largesse, they were part and parcel of the pre-interim arrangements agreed upon by the parties to the CPA. They were part of the sharing of oil revenues generated from oil fields in Southern Sudan and not from any where else in Sudan. The Funds were to be used for three purposes identified by the SPLM leadership and no body else: first to finance Civil Administration in New Sudan (CANS), the name by which SPLM's administration arm in the Southern Sudan was then known. Second to take preliminary measures towards the evolution of the SPLM into a professional army. Third to help transform the SPLM in order to meet the challenges of a new system of rule. The magical figure of 60 million dollars so often mentioned was part of this operation and was but a fraction of what was due to the SPLM in the pre-interim phase. That amount was deposited in a bank account in the name of the SPLM at the Bank of Sudan. The authorization to the Minister of Finance in Khartoum to transfer the 60 million dollars to the aforementioned account came in a letter signed jointly by Nhial Deng Nhial (SPLM) and Yahia Hussein (National Congress Party) who were leading the so – called advance team. From then on, accountability on the way those funds were used, rested with the overseeing bodies of SPLM.
(v) Notwithstanding the above, we appreciate the President's concern for the way public funds, including oil revenues, are expended in Southern Sudan. That concern was expressed before by the Speaker of the National Assembly. But Southern Sudan is only part of our vast country. So, both the SPLM and NCP owe it to all people of Sudan to be informed about how every single pound of public money is spent and what are its public oversight bodies doing to ensure "integrity in public life consistent with Sudanese religions and cultural values" as prescribed in Article 16 of the Interim National Constitution. In this respect, the SPLM was first in translating this constitutional edict into reality by establishing an Anti-Corruption Commission. That is yet to be done in other parts of Sudan. The SPLM should, therefore, engage the NCP, GoNU and the National Assembly on the elaboration of ways and means and the initiation of open debate to find out how much of Sudan's public assets and resources are used for the public good and how much is defrayed on political patronage, in addition to how can National and Southern Sudan public institutions stop the illicit leakage of our people's wealth.
(vi) . As for the transformation of the SPLM into a political organization that knows how to share a level playing ground with other parties in a democratic environment, the SPLM's sustained and transparent engagement with all political forces in Sudan must have revealed to all Sudanese the political chemistry of this "untutored" Party. That chemistry was also exhibited, despite all claims to the contrary, in the SPLM's resounding success in organizing itself from the grassroots level to the top leading to the 2nd National Convention in a manner unparalleled in Sudan.
(vii) We also appreciate the kind offer from the President and the NCP to help transform the SPLM into a Party capable of undertaking political work and running government. What we object to is the allegation that our Party is still living with the mentality of al Ghaba (bush), and that the NCP is "the more competent to provide it with the needed training". We would have thought that our partner had come to discover another SPLM after three years of negotiations and another three years of shared government. In those negotiations, the SPLM had adroitly debated with the NCP all matters relating to the transformation of Sudan: its constitutional framework, system of rule, economy, diverse cultures and the fundamental rights of its people. Probably, the notions and postulations advanced by the SPLM at the negotiations were part of what it learned in the Ghaba (bush). Some of those notions were either unknown to, or not acknowledged by, successive Sudanese constitutions including the NCP constitution of 1998. The contribution of the SPLM to the redrawing of Sudan's political, administrative, economic and cultural map should not, therefore, be underestimated. The people of Sudan who "came out in millions to receive the leader of this party, Hero Dr. John Garang de Mabior, which just came "out of the woods" must have had different understanding of the SPLM, its political orientation and capabilities.
(viii) The SPLM was, moreover, accused of recalcitrance in helping to bring to an end the US sanctions on GoNU. It was claimed that those sanctions were imposed by SPLM's "friends" because of war in the South. Though we know that the SPLM treasures its friendship with all those who supported it during the struggle in the US, Africa, Europe and Arab countries, the accusation that sanction imposed on Sudan ensued from the war in the South and the SPLM is questionable. It is true that war in the South was one reason why relations deteriorated between the US (Administration, Congress and Civil Society Organizations) and the Government of Sudan. But it is equally true that there are other reasons for those sanctions which neither relates to the war, nor to the SPLM. The SPLM and the South war had nothing to do with the sanctions under Chapter VII imposed by the Security Council in 1996 (Resolution 1054). They have nothing to do with the resolutions by the Human Rights Commission for over a decade and a half against the Government of Sudan. They also have nothing to do with resolutions by a host of UN agencies on Dar Fur. Nevertheless, we expect the SPLM to remain ever ready and willing to contribute to the normalization of relations with the US as it has been actively doing in the talks between the National Congress Party (not GoNU) and the US administration in Washington, Rome and Khartoum. The SPLM should also remain ever ready to contribute to the mending of our country's relations with all other countries who are at odds with it. Such intermediation, however, shall come to no avail if the NCP perseveres in imagining conspiracies from outside Sudan, while ignoring possible root causes for antipathies towards it emanating from not a few countries and organizations. Indeed, it is time for the NCP and the Government of Sudan to realize that they cannot take on the whole world and expect the world to suffer that gladly
(ix) The most distressing part in the interview was the President's reference to what he called "a considerable number of Southern Sudanese (40.000) who fought the SPLM, alongside SAF, for the sake of unity of Sudan. Those 40.000, according to the President, represent a strong foundation for unity. For sure, we in the SPLM have a different name for those so – called unionists. However, we would have thought that since the signature of the CPA there was another road map to unity devised by that Agreement as well as a commitment by the parties to stay the course charted in that map.
4. In conclusion, it is our firm belief that both signatories to the CPA have a duty, within the framework of their present partnership, to resist the desire to go back to the sabre rattling of the war days or the dreams of attaining peace by destroying the South to pieces. That was not possible in the past and shall be impossible today. Wisdom dictates that, instead of such adventures, the two parties should see to it that that historic Agreement is implemented in its totality. This is the only way to deliver our people from the woes of the past and furnish them with what they have been yearning for since Sudan's independence: peace, stability, development and voluntary unity in diversity. On our part, we call on the SPLM leadership to remain committed to achieve that goal.
SPLM Chapters’ Leaders in the United States below have jointly endorsed this.
01. Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth – SPLM Representative to the USA
02. Peter Lam Thot – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- California—SPLM Chapters West Coast Coordinator.
03. Joseph Chol – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter-Florida, SPLM Chapters Southern Regional Coordinator.
04. Reat Nhial Tuany – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- New York-SPLM Chapters East Coast Coordinator.
05. Kenneth Elisapana-Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- Illinois, SPLM Chapters Midwest Coordinator.
06. Mun Nam Koak—Chairperson, SPLM Chapter—Iowa.
07. Deng Deng Nhial – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- Washington DC Metro Area
08. Anwar El Haj--Deputy Chairperson SPLM Chapter-Washington DC Metro Area
09. Edward Laboke – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- Maine, D/Coordinator East Coast.
10. Atem Mator– Chairperson, SPLM Chapter-South Dakota
11. Abuk Makuac- Southern Representative of the SPLM Women’s League
12. Mangok Mangok Mayen- Chairperson, SPLM Chapter-Mississippi.
13. Lual Riak Adiem – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter-Arizona
14. Mary Wani- Midwest Representative of the SPLM Women’s League
15. Peter Makuoth Won – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter –Texas
16. Makoi Paul – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- Indiana
17. Isaac K. Gang- Secretary General, SPLM Southern Regional Council
18. Makoi Wol Manuer- Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- Michigan
19. Akok Madut- Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- Missouri
20. Mayol Aroman – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- New Hampshire
21. Elizabeth Benjamin Ajongo-Acting Chairperson, SPLM Chapter-Nebraska
22. Dut Mangar Malek- Chairperson, SPLM Chapter-Connecticut
23. Philip Ruach Chan-Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- Georgia
24. Kenneth Elisapana-Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- Illinois
25. Solomon Kabolla- Chairperson, SPLM Chapter-North & South Carolina
26. Miaj Riek- Chairperson, SPLM Chapter- Wisconsin
27. Emmanuel Mayen- Chairperson, SPLM Chapter-New Jersey
28. Nyuol Nyuol – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter – Utah
29. Machar Wek Aleu – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter – Oregon
30. Ujulu Ugala – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter – Washington
31. Helen Abyei – Chairperson, SPLM Chapter – Colorado.
32. Diany Deng, Chairperson, SPLM Chapter—Alabama
33. Deng Chol Mourter, Chairperson, SPLM Chapter—Tennessee
الرجاء المساعده بالترجمة لتعميم الفائدة
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Anwar Elhaj
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست