From sudaneseonline.com
South Sudan: Remember the past when deciding the future in 2011 BY: Savo Heleta, (courtesy: sheleta.gather.com)
By [unknown placeholder $article.art_field1$]
Nov 24, 2009 - 8:28:03 AM
South Sudan
: Remember the past when deciding the future in 2011
BY: Savo Heleta, (courtesy: sheleta.gather.com)
Over the next two years, and especially on the day when they cast their vote during the 2011 referendum on self-determination, the people of
South Sudan
need to remember the past when deciding the future.
They need to remember that
Sudan
as a political entity in its present borders is a very recent creation. The colonial powers drew the boundaries of
Sudan
in the late nineteenth century without considering the religious, tribal, and ethnic diversity or the interests of the people in the region thus, intentionally or not, preparing the ground for future conflicts.
Deliberate Marginalization
People of South Sudan need to remember that they have been deliberately marginalized politically, socially, and economically for over a century and treated as lesser human beings first by the British and Egyptian colonial administrations and later by the successive Arab regimes in Khartoum.
Southerners should remember that for the most part of their history, people of
Sudan
had never had a common language, identity, customs, or culture.
After independence, various regimes and military dictatorships in
Khartoum
had tried to change this. They attempted to create a common religion in
Sudan
through the spread of Islam and conversion of animists and Christians in the south by gun.
They had also attempted to create a common language through forced imposition of Arabic in the south.
Southerners need to remember the ruthless terror and persecution committed by their northern countrymen and their allied militias from the west and south. They need to remember the millions that have been brutally murdered in the genocidal campaigns organized by
Sudan
’s Islamist regimes since 1956.
They should also remember the slavery promoted by the current government in
Khartoum
, which in the 1980s and 1990s encouraged its allied militias to raid the south and take captured civilians and children with them as slaves and do with them as they like.
Can
Khartoum
Make Unity Attractive in
Sudan
?
People in
South Sudan
need to ask themselves if they can ever again trust the current or any future government in the north. At the same time when the
Khartoum
regime was negotiating peace with the south, it began a vicious campaign of murder, rape, and scorched earth policy in
Darfur
.
The southerners need to realize the absurdity of the calls by northern politicians to "make unity attractive" in
Sudan
. They need to ask how can the same people who have organized the horrendous war crimes and crimes against humanity first in the south and recently in
Darfur
talk about unity of
Sudan
and peace, prosperity, and inclusiveness for all and be taken seriously.
This would be like having Adolph Hitler and the Nazis promote peace and unity in
Europe
and prosperity of Jewish people and
Israel
after World War II and Holocaust.
Southerners need to ask themselves are there any guarantees that things will be different from now on in
Sudan
. Are there any guarantees that the future elected or military regimes in
Khartoum
will be truly reformed?
Are there any guarantees that the future regimes will protect and respect all Sudanese citizens regardless of their religion, ethnicity, color, or geographical origin? Are there any guarantees that the northern regimes will not start yet another jihad against the south and kill, rape, enslave, or force out of the country the southerners left alive after the last war?
What About
Darfur
and Other Marginalized Parts of
Sudan
?
Some people argue that, if the south becomes independent in 2011, the other marginalized people in
Sudan
– in
Darfur
, east, and north – will be left alone without any hope and support.
This is an important and valid argument but after so many decades of unthinkable marginalization, death, and destruction, the people of South Sudan need to think about themselves and their future and not sacrifice their wellbeing for the sake of others - especially if those "others" – such as many Darfurians – had taken part in the killings of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in the south in the jihad against Christian and animist "infidels."
Now many people in
Darfur
say they were used by
Khartoum
, that they did not know what was really going on in the 1980s and 1990s in the south. This is very hard to believe.
If the people of South Sudan consider all the above before they go out to exercise their democratic right and vote in the 2011 referendum, they will very likely realize that a separation may be the best solution.
As the president of
South Sudan
, Salva Kiir, rightly pointed out recently, if "you want to vote for unity so that you will become second class citizens in your own country, that is your choice. If you would want to vote for independence so that you are a free person in your independent state, that will be your own choice" too. END
© Copyright by sudaneseonline.com