د. لام أكول: الحركه الشعبيه لم تضمن هجليج في المناطق المتنازع عليها

Quote: I find Jacob Akol’s article interesting, especially the exposition on where Heglig (Paanthou) belongs. However, I do not understand why he blames the international community, which has been friendly all along to the SPLM/A, for believing that Heglig was, indeed, part of today’s Sudan when the SPLM leadership themselves have admitted so, as he so eloquently presented in his article. Does he expect them to be more royal than the King? You see, this is a community that has been made to believe that only the opinion of the SPLM/A mattered in South Sudan. The truth must be told that the SPLM/A leadership bungled the matter. They had more than one opportunity to correct the mess. Riek Machar himself, who hails from the Unity State where Heglig belonged, led the SPLM/A delegation to the HAGUE for the international arbitration. He very well knew that the map of Abyei he presented included Heglig. He and his team never raised a finger. Again, when the 1/1/1956 border with the North was being discussed, Heglig was not included by the SPLM/A side to be part of South Sudan. It is not among the five areas now being disputed by the two sides. The international community has been following all these talks very closely and have been blindly supporting the SPLM/A. How do you expect them to suddenly buy a new flimsy argument? Unless you want to say that they do not use their minds. The international community also knows that Abyei, at least up to the time of the court of arbitration, was part of the North. It follows therefore that any part of the Abyei map presented to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) excluded from it becomes part of North Sudan. I tend to agree with Akol’s last theory on why GOSS accepted the ABC ruling without questioning the inclusion of Heglig (Paanthou) in it. This must be the only reason why Dr Riek Machar was cowed into defending such an indefensible position. The SPLM/A leadership must accept the responsibility for having handed Paanthou in a platter to Sudan. Then and only then will the South Sudanese be persuaded that their intentions are genuine. One question poses itself: Is the fighting in Heglig really for claiming it back to South Sudan? If that were to be the case, why are we not fighting at Hofrat el Nhas, Kafia Kingi, etc, which are still annexed to Sudan? If that were to be the case, are the Sudan rebels, who admitted in the media that they were fighting in Heglig, really fighting to reduce the size of their country by taking Heglig out of it? I do not believe for a second that the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, gave an “ultimatum to Kiir” to pull his troops out of Heglig. He was only conveying the resolution of the UN Security Council which URGED South Sudan to pull its troops out of Heglig and URGED Sudan to stop bombing areas in South Sudan. When South Sudan joined the UN in July last year it must have read the UN Charter which clearly specifies that the Security Council is the custodian of World Peace and Security. Why should they be surprised when the UNSC is exercising its authority mandated to it by more than 190 countries including South Sudan? We should stop scapegoating and face our problems squarely. We said it time and again that South Sudan needs the consensus of all its stakeholders, especially the political parties, more than any time before. The SPLM/A alone cannot deliver the country. This is the time it must humble itself and begin to think that the country belongs to all, government and the opposition. Thanks. Dr Lam Akol.