final letter from concerned Southern Sudanese leaders 2

H.E. General Salva Kiir Mayardit, First Vice President of the Republic of Sudan, President of The Government of Southern Sudan, Commander-In-Chief of The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), And Chairman of The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). Juba, Southern Sudan.

Your Excellency,

First of all, we greet you in the name of our people, in your capacity as the leader, of The Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), charged by providence, to lead our people at this extremely crucial time in their history, as they chart their difficult and uncertain future. We address Your Excellency, with our collective humility, regards and respect to you, as the leader of our people.

We are a community of South Sudanese Political Leaders, Political Activists, Elders and Intellectuals, representing a cross-section of South Sudan political society. We are moved, to write to Your Excellency, by the state of affairs, as we see it in South Sudan today, more than four years of your being totally and personally in charge of the affairs of South Sudan, as your many titles we have addressed you with above indicate.

We are addressing Your Excellency, because we are all moved by our collective concern, that the period we are in, is critical for the future of our people. Since we are all South Sudanese and all of us are endowed with many aspects of collective responsibility, for our future and that of all our people. We write to Your Excellency, to bring to your attention, our concerns about the future of South Sudan. We feel that, at the very least, you will put many of our concerns, expressed here, under your personal consideration, if not at all act on any of them.

We have chosen to write to your Excellency, on four main items of our concerns. We have written on each of them in some details, because of the time factor and the nature of these events that suggest to us that South Sudan should try to chart a collective path under your leadership. Without such a collective path, we fear that South Sudanese are likely to perish separately. The four topics we want to address in this, rather lengthy document to you, your Excellency, which is more than the usual letter to any leader, is because all the four are interconnected, in the way we think South Sudan should make its choices, at this critical time in our history. The four items are:

1. We have reviewed the last four years of the implementation of the interim period of the CPA. How did we do, during the last four years? Could we have done somethings differently and better? If so, why did we fail in that?

2. We are still left with nearly two years, to the end of the interim period of the CPA. How do we plan to spend the next two years, as South Sudan? Do we want to spend the remaining period in the same way we have spent the last four years? If not, how can we act differently and collectively, as South Sudanese and what do we want to achieve during the remaining two years, that may enhance the achievement of the collective will of all the people of South Sudan?

3. The remaining two years of the interim period, have some extremely crucial matters to tackle, for South Sudan. There is the general parliamentary and presidential election that must be held all over the country during this year, 2009. This is an important step, in the process of the implementation of the CPA. This process of the elections is crucial for South Sudan, because, it precedes the running of the referendum on Self – determination in the South, in the year 2011. Failure to run the general elections this year on schedule has an important implication on the running of the referendum itself. South Sudanese must adopt a collective view on this crucial matter.

4. The fourth and the final issue we want to address you about, is what is now a current political event for the entire Sudanese nation. South Sudanese must decide collectively, how to behave as a political society, under your leadership, on the question of the indictment of President Omer Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir, by The International Criminal Court (ICC). We all know that Al Bashir is The President of the Republic of Sudan and the man who signed the CPA into the Sudanese law and its national constitution, on behalf of the people of Sudan.

As the clock of both history and time ticks away on all of us, Mr. President of GOSS, we are all glaring at the approach of the year 2011 and the exercise by our people, of their long denied right of Self-determination. We think that only President Al Bashir is capable of getting South Sudan to the promised land of Self-determination in the year 2011, because of his personal commitment to the CPA.

You will no doubt, have noticed the outpour of anger and grief, on the streets of the cities, towns and villages of Sudan, rejecting the ICC indictment of The President of The Republic of Sudan. You, Mr. President of GOSS, may think that you have personally done enough to support and respond to the sentiments of the people of Sudan, in supporting President Al Bashir, as head of state and the symbol of our national sovereignty. Doing just enough, in the circumstances is fine, if this is a deliberate personal decision, not to do more. But as South Sudanese, we think that this was the opportunity, to show our president, in person, that we stand firm and tall by his side, at such difficult moment in our country. We do not think the leadership of the SPLM has shown enough solidarity with the President, over this issue of the ICC. This does not reflect well on the leadership of the people of South Sudan, which is you.

Whatever has passed, being the case, we like to urge the leadership of the SPLM, not to create the impression to the outside world, that the government of Sudan is divided, between those, including the leadership of the partner in government, the SPLM, who may wish to accommodate the ICC, in its humiliation of the people of Sudan, by indicting their sitting head of State and those who support the President of the Republic, against the ICC.

The insult by the ICC against our country, to us, seem to be an excellent occasion, for the leadership of GOSS, to show that the country is one and that it all stands with the President. This is not an issue of internal independence, which the CPA accords the government of (GOSS). This is a matter of repulsing an external assault on the sovereignty of our state.

It seems to us, that it is self-serving, for the government, or the leadership of GOSS, not to be suspected, of colluding with foreigners, who want the President of the Republic removed from power. We have no doubt in our minds, that your Excellency is aware, that the removal of President Al Bashir from power in Khartoum, means the end of the CPA. That is why we think it is self-serving for South Sudan, to stand with President Al Bashir, at the hour of his need for our support.

You know, Mr. President of GOSS, that there are many in our country, including some of the rebel leaders of Darfur, who think that President AL Bashir has given too much to the South in the CPA. There is no clause in the CPA that compels anyone who succeeds President AL Bashir, to abide by the CPA. Not even President Al Bashir’s own National Congress Party (NCP), is compelled by any law to abide by the CPA, if there is a changing of regime in Khartoum today. If we cherish the CPA and want to see the completion of its implementation, to the holding of the referendum on Self-determination in 2011, as we all preach, then we should stand with President Al Bashir now; defend him to the end, whatever the consequences of this defense.

It is clear, that all of us were opposed, as South Sudanese, to President Omer Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir and his Salvation Government, when we were at war with that regime. But once we signed the CPA at Naivasha with them, we have to accept, that we have become allies and partners. We need to defend and protect each other’s cause. We cannot allow ourselves to behave in an opportunistic way whatsoever. In this regards, we must accept that President Al Bashir is our head of state. Any assault on his person is an assault on the sovereignty of the Sudanese state, of which we are all members.

President Al Bashir’s signing of the CPA, made it into the law that we want every Sudanese to uphold. If we permit our President, to become an open criminal, because of the events in Darfur and he is taken away to The Hague, in our acquiescence, then we have undermined our own cause. We can plead with whoever takes over from President Al Bashir, to respect the CPA, but it is not the same thing, as holding a person to his own signature. This is what we do to President Al Bashir all the time and we should continue to do.

Without making a value judgment on the situation in Darfur, we cannot, in our clean conscience, advocate that President Al Bashir be indicted and taken to The Hague, because of the war atrocities in Darfur. Especially that no sitting head of state has ever been indicted for war crimes, while still in office as head of state. This undermines our own cause as South Sudanese.

Were there no war atrocities in South Sudan during the long civil war there? President Al Bashir was the President of Sudan during at least sixteen years of that long bloody war in South Sudan. Why did we not refuse to sign the CPA with him then and request that he be indicted and taken to The Hague?

If we do not see it, President Al Bashir is being politically targeted over the situation in Darfur. That political targeting is also aimed at undermining the implementation of the CPA and all the other peace agreements in our country, which President Al Bashir has orchestrated and signed into law. It is obvious, that the only thing the indictment efforts by ICC can achieve, if pursued, is to bring about anarchy and instability to Sudan. What can Darfur, or the implementation of the CPA gain under such conditions of lawlessness?

We urge the leadership of the SPLM, to adopt the correct attitude, in defense of the President of the Republic, over the ICC Prosecutor’s efforts to indict President Al Bashir, over the war atrocities in Darfur. This is not a matter of likes and dislikes for you in the SPLM leadership and for all of us as South Sudanese. It is a matter of the preservation of our own self interest. We want to see you, Mr. President of GOSS and the leadership of the SPLM, stand up properly and be counted, in the defense of President Al Bashir-the President who accorded you and all of us, the CPA, which in turn, has accorded us peace, leadership and power in South Sudan.

Providence has it, that it is you, your Excellency, who signed the first protocol of the CPA, the Machakos Protocol, which gives the people of South Sudan, the legal power, to exercise their right of Self-determination, in 2011. With you as the leader of the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) now, we urge Your Excellency, to ensure, by exercising leadership, that nothing we do as leaders of South Sudan, should derail the process. But we need to collectively prepare ourselves and our people for this task of Self-determination.

We are concerned, that some members of your leadership of the SPLM create an impression, from time to time, as if this right of the people of South Sudan to Self-determination is something that they can alter at whims as leaders. You need, your Excellency, to disabuse such elements in your SPLM leadership of such notions. Having come this far, only the people of South Sudan should decide, in 2011, between unity and separation.

As political leaders, political Activists, Elders and Intellectuals of South Sudan, we however, need to prepare our people for this crucial vote in 2011. We need to agree, at the leadership level, all of us, what to recommend to our people- unity or separation. We need your leadership, in rallying the parties and the leadership of South Sudan, to discuss this. This is not an issue of rivalry for power between any South Sudanese leaders. It is a question of the future of the entire people. We must discuss it and agree on it.

We are sometimes confused, about how the SPLM regards the future of the people of South Sudan. Often, we are worried, by the rhetoric that comes out of some SPLM Northern element, which offers confederation as an alternative to Self-determination. No, Mr. President of GOSS, we should only discuss alternative systems of government for a united Sudan, only as those political discussions relate to after the year 2011, when the people of South Sudan might have voted for unity, in their referendum on Self-determination.

Any debate about the alternative systems of governments for a united Sudan before the referendum on Self-determination is conducted, we fear, is an attempt, within some leadership of the SPLM, to plant confusion, in the minds of the citizens of South Sudan. We urge you, to exercise your leadership, to warn against creating this confusion.

Furthermore, we appeal to your leadership, to ensure that the SPLM leadership is clear about the need for the country going for the general elections this year, 2009. Because that is the provision in the CPA and under the National Constitution. Everything in the CPA is interconnected, especially, the crucial constitutional provisions. If we do not have the general elections, all over the country this year, for whatever good reasons that may be given some of us fear, that it will be a major misstep, in upholding the provisions of the CPA.

Confusion apart, it should be clear in our mind, that the postponement of the general election from 2009, to any other time in the future, will constitute the first major violation of the CPA. If we support, or even acquiesce to the postponement of the general election all over the country now, then we will have no argument against those who will argue now, tomorrow, or in the year 2010 or 2011, for the postponement of the referendum on Self-determination. South Sudanese politicians in the leadership of The SPLM and elsewhere cannot afford, to play such political games, with such a crucial issue, for the future of the people of South Sudan. We urge you to exercise leadership on this matter and to get the GOSS, to cooperate and to prepare for elections within 2009.

Review of the last four years of the Interim Period of CPA:

Mr. President of GOSS, many of us, who have agreed to sign and send this document to you, are members of some of the other South Sudan political Parties, of the Government of National Unity (GONU) and, or are participants in the governments of the ten states of South Sudan. If these governments had functioned in the traditional way coalition governments function, many of us here, would accept collective responsibility for failure. But you know, Mr. President, that especially in South Sudan, your party, The SPLM and its armed wing, the SPLA, have made it a very shouting point in South Sudan, that the power is SPLM’s power and that the SPLA will not brook the sharing of this power with others. Our representatives in these various governments are not allowed by the SPLA forces to exercise their powers.

Security is an important aspect of the functioning of any political institution in the state. It is important, to note, that the SPLM, as a political movement, has failed in the last four years, to ensure security for all our citizens. The SPLM, as a ruling party of South Sudan, has used the SPLA, not as the army of South Sudan, for the protection of all the citizens of South Sudan, but has maltreated and marginalized the civilian population of South Sudan, in the name of the SPLM.

Many of us, as members of the political parties of your many governments in South Sudan, who are not SPLM members, have lived through extremely hard times of insecurity. We have specific recommendations, at the end of this long note, on security and other matters, related to the functioning of the South Sudanese governments of the states. We pray that you look at these recommendations carefully, as we urge you to embrace a more collective approach and an even handedness that may salvage something for the people of South Sudan, in the less than two years left to the end of the interim period of the CPA.

Since the interim period of six years, stipulated by the CPA, is almost running out and the final act of the CPA, the right of the people of South Sudan to Self-Determination, is now only less than two years away from us, we feel it is our duty, to write this collective letter to you, mainly, so that posterity may record, that we did not fail to register why we think that the GOSS has failed, under your leadership, to serve the cause of the people of South Sudan.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) And The South:

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, (CPA), of 9 January 2005, is a noble peace agreement that ended a long bloody civil war, between the Government of Sudan (GOS), on behalf of Northern Sudan and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), one of the many armed groups of South Sudan, that were fighting the Central Government of Sudan, for more than two decades.

It would be disingenuous and highly uncharitable, for any one, to think that the SPLM was the only armed group, in South Sudan, fighting for the cause of South Sudan. But the real nobility of the CPA, is that all the political groups in South Sudan, armed or otherwise, decided to allow the SPLM alone, to negotiate peace on their behalf. Since our people were yearning for peace and the international community accepted that the SPLM alone could negotiate peace with the Government of Sudan, on behalf of the people of South Sudan, all the South Sudan’s movements accepted this position. We feel that the SPLM should have recognized this nobility of the people of South Sudan and behaved as their representative, not only at the negotiations at Naivasha, Kenya, but also as a representative of all the people of South Sudan, during the six years of the interim period, rather than behaving as if the SPLM alone represented the South. Or as if the SPLM, has conquered the people of South Sudan.

There are four main items of the CPA that are at the heart of South Sudan’s long grievances against Northern Sudan. When we say Northern Sudan, we do not mean the people of Northern Sudan as a whole, many of whom have never participated in the exercise of political power and are, therefore, as innocent as South Sudanese themselves. We mean by Northern Sudanese, those who have exercised political power in Sudan, to the exclusion of South Sudanese, since our country became independent, on first January 1956, until the CPA was signed in 2005.

We must exclude from this period of Northern domination of the Sudanese state power, the brief eleven years of the Regional Autonomy for Southern Sudan 1972–1983, which the 1972 Addis Ababa Peace Agreement had accorded South Sudan. It is clear, to all who follow Sudanese public affairs, that if the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement was not abrogated in 1983, not only would the country have been spared the agony of 22 years of another bloody civil war, but the country would also have been spared the uncertainty of what may happen now, when the South exercises its right of Self-determination in 2011.

The South clearly continues to mourn the tremendous loss it has sustained during the 22-year war. But the South must also cherish the gains of the CPA. The South cannot afford, by its behaviour, to lose sight of these gains:

Firstly, notwithstanding all the shenanigans that go on around the CPA, it must be recognized and accepted, that the CPA was a peace agreement between the SPLM, on behalf of the people of South Sudan and the National Congress Party (NCP), representing the central government of Sudan. The CPA is the answer to the long grievances of South Sudan. The CPA was not recognition by Northern Sudan, or the Central Government of Sudan, of a military victory by the SPLM over the North. The CPA is not aimed at the establishment of a “New Sudan”, to be achieved under the SPLM, for the whole country.

Secondly, the CPA was a peace agreement for the sharing of power, between the South and the North. The central Government of the Sudan, before the CPA, represented the North and the SPLM represented the South, since the South accepted the SPLM, to negotiate on its behalf.

On hind sight, as we debate these issues, in the midst of the divisive situation the SPLM has created in South Sudan today, we hope that even the most die-hard leaders of the SPLM, will recognize and accept that if the South was splintered and divided, as we see in Darfur today, we may not have achieved the CPA.

It may well have been that the SPLM was the most powerful armed group in South Sudan, but it did not need an equally powerful group, to contest the right of the SPLM, to negotiate peace on behalf of the people of South Sudan on its own. How long would it have taken the mighty and powerful SPLM, to defeat a small resistance group opposed to it in South Sudan? And would the international mediators, who made it possible to have the CPA in Sudan, have waited around for that long, until the SPLM first defeated its internal rivals in South Sudan, before negotiating peace? The agonies caused to South Sudan, by the few internal splits, within the SPLA, during the war, should serve as a reminder to the SPLM leadership. No one single movement is all so powerful.

If the CPA is, therefore, basically an agreement between Northern Sudan and South Sudan, why then, have the South Sudanese leaders of the SPLM, allowed such a strong influence, in the affairs of South Sudan, by a tiny small group of Northern Sudanese, within the SPLM, to take place? As a movement, or even a political party, the SPLM is free to allow its Northern Sudanese elements to dominate it. But it has no right, to extend that Northern domination, to the affairs of South Sudan. We are all witnesses to our history in the making and do not see the practical contribution of the Northern Sudanese element, within the SPLM or elsewhere, in the struggle of the people of South Sudan.

We wish to recognize here, that the people of the Nuba Mountains and of the Ingessana Hills, of Southern Blue Nile, are entitled to what they got under the CPA, because they struggled for these rights, along their Southern compatriots in the SPLM. But was the contribution of the Northern Sudanese element in the South Sudan war of liberation, so strong that it gives them such an overwhelming influence, in the power sharing, between the North and the South? To the extent that the influence of this Northern element undermines the cause of the South, we want you to know that we strongly resent this.

The SPLM’s share of power in the Central Government of Sudan is absolutely the share of South Sudan. The CPA clearly says so and fixes it just under one third, which is exactly the proportional population of South Sudan. Taking away any portion of this one third, undermines the proportional share of the South in the central government of Sudan and we strongly object to this trend. We urge your Excellency, to change this very incorrect trend.

That we did not say so clearly before now, is a sign of our political weakness that we must admit. That, by the way, also applies to the proportional sharing of power across the entire country.

Thirdly, the CPA provides for the South to be in charge of its system of government in South Sudan, without the interference of the central government or of Northern Sudan. This system, under the CPA, was intended to accord the South, the opportunity of establishing its own system of viable government, leading up to the exercise of the right of Self-determination. Giving the Northern element of the SPLM such a strong influence, in the affairs of South Sudan, strongly undermines the power sharing mechanism of the CPA.

For nearly four years now, South Sudan has failed to use its time and resources, to establish a system of government with any credibility and accountability; a government that accepts the rule of law for its people, with a functioning and credible civil service, judiciary and a respectable parliament. If we had created such a government, even those who do not wish to see an independent South Sudan today, may have been persuaded to give the South a fair chance for its own nation state, if its people voted for that in the year 2011.

Now, with the rampant unruliness in South Sudan, if not outright lawlessness, many serious minded South Sudanese must ask themselves the question that if they vote for an independent South Sudan in 2011, are they not voting for a second Somalia in Africa? And where is GOSS in all this lack of the rule of law in South Sudan?

It is impossible to assess, with any degree of certainty, but it seems obvious, that the ordinary South Sudanese citizen, is now more afraid of their own SPLA soldier, than they were of Northern Sudanese soldier, even during the war. Do we really care, if this ordinary South Sudanese citizen does not think that he has not become liberated? And this is for an SPLM leadership that is so loud, in Northern Sudan, about democracy, democratic transformation and respect for basic freedoms! Please Mr. President of GOSS, apply these basic freedoms to the people of South Sudan, who so much are yearning for them.

Fourthly, the CPA has given South Sudan fifty percent share of the oil revenue, accruing to the Sudanese state from the oil extracted from South Sudan. It is credibly reckoned, that the GOSS has received, from when it was set up in October 2005, to the present time, something exceeding seven billion United States dollars of oil revenue. It seems that the GOSS is satisfied with its oil revenue that it has failed in four very long years, to set up its own non-oil tax system, to collect other types of revenue.

How does the government of Southern Sudan answer to the people of South Sudan, for this very large oil revenue, by any standard you may choose to use? Who is accountable to whom and for what? There are no financial regulations or systems to measure against, four years after GOSS was set up. We do not see what you might call development, or provision of services, for which one might justify the disappearance of such a large sum of money, of such a poor people, like the people of South Sudan.

We are concerned that the leadership of the SPLM and of GOSS, who regard themselves solely in charge of the affairs of South Sudan, have failed to seek cooperation with their partner, The National Congress Party (NCP), with whom they, in fact are coalition partners. To the contrary, the SPLM leadership wants the people of South Sudan, to feel proud, that it is working with the Sudanese political parties, opposed to the NCP, to bring about a change of the regime in which they are partners. The SPLM leadership does not tell us, how it will guarantee that the CPA will remain on the statute books as an agreement, if the partner to that agreement with the SPLM is removed from power?

The Agenda For The Remaining Period Of The CPA:

We are now left with only less than two years of the interim period provided for in the CPA. We urge you, your Excellency, as The First Vice President of The Republic of Sudan; leader of the SPLM; Commander-In-Chief of The SPLA; and The President of GOSS, all the positions you hold on behalf of the people of South Sudan; to return to the interest of the people of South Sudan, enshrined in the CPA, which your party has neglected for more than four years. We urge Your Excellency, to begin to offer the people of South Sudan, their rights under the CPA, so that they may begin to enjoy some peace dividends, not only by providing them with services and socio-economic development, but also in terms of political rights and political freedom as well.

The period of less than two years, left in the implementation of the CPA, is a short time, in terms of what is doable, especially when we compare it with the wasted four years. But it is still possible to achieve something in two years, especially in grounding a system of government that is responsible for and accountable to the people of South Sudan. There are good examples of successful interim periods of two years in this world that can be cited.

If we learn from the mistakes of the last four years and we inspire the people of South Sudan to work together towards their future, we can achieve something. We can restore self-confidence in our people’s ability to achieve, if we cease to feed them with empty slogans about unattainable grandeurs, like the “New Sudan” slogans, and we stop the rampant misuse of power by the SPLM leadership.

We urge you, your Excellency, to concentrate on the things we can do for the people of South Sudan in the remaining two years. We can provide for our people, the following, during the next two years:

* Security situation in South Sudan: We need to and must provide credible and sustainable public and personal security for every South Sudanese. Instead of being the protector and the security guardian of the people of South Sudan, the SPLA, the supposed national army of South Sudan, is now the most disturbing cause of insecurity of the people of South Sudan. We know that you may have a long list of your own examples of the causes of insecurity in South Sudan, attributable to the SPLA. A people who are afraid of their own army cannot be said to be free.

We hope, you will understand why the lavish use of the advocacy for freedom and democracy, by leaders of the SPLM, in the public media of Northern Sudan, are so hollow to the people of South Sudan. But we also all know that the SPLM leaders, who are so loud about freedom in their public statements, care the least about these freedoms, when it comes to the people of South Sudan, or in the practice of these values amongst themselves within the SPLM.

According to the CPA, the SPLA should be a standby army of South Sudan, to safeguard the existence of the CPA and to prevent the recurrence of any attempt by the North, to abrogate The CPA, as they did in 1983, with the Addis Ababa Agreement.

Like any other regular army, the SPLA should be confined to the barracks and be retrained to enforce discipline. All the guns should be kept in the garrisons and no soldier should carry a gun except on duty.

The CPA has specified thirty-four assembly areas in Southern Sudan for the redeployment of the SPLA; fourteen in Upper Nile Region and ten each in the other two regions of Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal. Today, the SPLA soldiers are all over the villages. For what purpose?

The maintenance of law and order in Southern Sudan, like anywhere else in the world, is the responsibility of the police. This is well provided for in the CPA. The SPLA must be stopped from interfering with the normal business of the police. The latter requires training in their profession for them to carry out their duties properly and effectively.

Please, Mr. President and C-in-C of the SPLA, discipline the SPLA and accord it the status of a responsible army that has successfully liberated its people. An army without discipline is like a person without a backbone.

We consider the following additional points as important points of security that merit your personal attention as the President of GOSS:

* There is mounting inter tribal and intra tribal conflicts in South Sudan causing the loss of dear lives of our people in proportions not seen even during the war time. It must be a priority of GOSS to address the root causes of this destructive fratricide. Disarmament of all tribes must take place as soon as possible. There must be also a concerted effort to build confidence among Southern Sudanese communities.

* The Government of Southern Sudan needs to ensure personal freedom and liberties, based on unimpeded democratic freedom of discourse, of expression, of assembly, of religious worship and practice, of organization and of movement, and the rule of law. It is not possible to speak of the rule of law, for a country whose army does not respect its judiciary. The local courts system is abused and not allowed to function as chiefs are threatened by armed defendants. Soldiers required to appear before such courts defy court orders with impunity.

The law court judges in Southern Sudan are unable to take courageous professional stands and decisions for they are abused and threatened by the army. Some of the judges, on the other hand, have not made any serious impression as learned judges of a founding judiciary of a newly established Government of Southern Sudan. How can the judiciary achieve that, if the judges are not called to the bar, as is the legal practice all over the globe, and they are selected and promoted on the basis of a political party list alone and not on professional competence?

Please, Mr. President of GOSS, take stern steps to ensure the independence of the judiciary, by ensuring a secure environment for the functioning of all courts of law and by adhering to professional competence, in the selection of judges and respect for the judicial decisions. This is the only way of upholding the rule of law, for all our people in South Sudan.

* The GOSS should ensure food security to our people, instead of dangerously relying on food imports from abroad. One way, to achieving that is to provide farmers with agricultural subsidies in form of bank loans, tools and improved seeds.

* Use the existing resources, now available to GOSS and the generous assistance available to the people of South Sudan, from their friends and well wishers, to provide the vitally needed social services and even begin a serious meaningful socio-economic development. This can be possible, only if the GOSS takes genuine measures, to combat the currently rampant corruption in South Sudan.

* Unite the people of South Sudan, politically and socially, so that they begin to have a sense of mutual togetherness and belonging to one national family, rather than the present thinking of the SPLM leadership, of “us and they”. South Sudan will not stand on the power of the SPLM alone, no matter what the members of the SPLM think the power they have is! South Sudanese will stand as a nation and people united, only when they accept themselves as one community.

* The remaining two years is sufficient, for us to offer our people self-confidence, in their national leadership, if you, your Excellency, is not being seen, only as the leader of the SPLM, prepared to use the power that the CPA offers you, to break the spirit of the people of South Sudan, for freedom and resilience, on behalf of the SPLM. You need to offer the people of South Sudan, the hope that you symbolize their national struggle and well being.

* We can offer our people the confidence and hope in the future, by being seen to seek to cooperate and in agreement and in solidarity with your partners in the National Congress Party (NCP), instead of dashing the hope for peace in our people and always creating the public impression in South Sudan, that it is only a matter of time, before we return to war with the North again. The best and the only impression the leadership of the SPLM, give to the people of South Sudan all the time, seems to be that we are preparing for war again.

* If South Sudan separates in 2011, Northern Sudan will be our most important neighbor. We have the longest and the most difficult border with Northern Sudan. It is, therefore, of vital interest for both parts of our country to maintain cooperative good relations.

* In spite of all our cultural and racial affinity with Africa South of us, our closest and most vital linkages are and will remain with Northern Sudan. We are very grateful for the support of our African brothers and sisters to our people during our long struggle. Since our future remains so precarious, we may still need our brothers and sisters south of us, in East and Central Africa. But our future and life interest will remain in our vital linkage to Northern Sudan.

* No existing leadership of South Sudan, including you, Mr. President, and any future leader of South Sudan, has the right to create a permanent hostility for South Sudan with Northern Sudan. This is so, whether South Sudan separates from the North, in 2011, or remains part of a united Sudan. We urge you, Mr. President of GOSS, to refrain members of your SPLM leadership, from creating the unnatural impression that South Sudan is perpetually at war with Northern Sudan.

Refraining From Using Abyei As a War Flash Point:

It is our sincere hope, that the people of the war devastated Abyei area of Southern Kordofan, will decide in their referendum, in 2011, to become part of South Sudan. They are South Sudanese in blood, culture and everything else. The Abyei Protocol of the CPA, has provided them with the opportunity to confirm their South Sudaneseness, in their referendum in 2011. But until then, we urge you and your SPLM leadership, to recognize, that according to the provincial borders of 1st January 1956, which the CPA also recognizes; Abyei remains part of Northern Sudan, until their referendum decision. Let your government cooperate with the government of National Unity, of which you also are its second in command, to implement the Abyei Protocol, in the interest of the people of Abyei. Let us provide them with services until then. Let us refrain from using the innocent people of Abyei as perpetual war flash point, between the South Sudan and Northern Sudan. Such tactics hurt the area of Abyei and the community that lives there.

Honest Cooperation With The CPA Partner

Your Excellency,

If members of your government are interested in helping South Sudan, to go through whatever period is left of the CPA interim period in peace, they should now show the people of South Sudan, that they want a smooth and successful end to what is left of the interim period. Members of GOSS and the SPLM members of the Government of National Unity, should do what regulations, common sense and normal political practice of coalition governments require of them — cooperate with their coalition partners.

The Need For Elections On Time

The Government of Southern Sudan and the SPLM leadership should clearly speak for the completion of the CPA interim period on time. That means that the South should be united as parties and people, to support the running of elections on time. Any attempt to postpone the elections from the time specified in the CPA and in the National Constitution, is playing with political fire that is likely to burn the South more than anyone else. If the South advocates the postponement of the 2009 elections, then the South is, in effect, advocating the postponement of the entire constitutional process. This means the postponement of the conducting of the referendum on Self-determination of the South in 2011 by some period. We do not understand how any member of the Southern Sudanese community can argue that if such laws like freedom of media and security laws are not changed in the North, then the South will not go for elections. How can any member of the Southern Sudanese community argue about freedom of media law more than for the enactment of the referendum law? Not that the media and security laws are not important, but these were on the status books when the CPA was signed in 2005. Why were they not changed all this time?

The Need To Promote The Interest Of The South Now

We want the Southern Sudanese leadership of the SPLM and yourself, Mr. President, to concentrate your efforts on the interest of Southern Sudan for the remaining period of the interim period, so that Southern Sudan may achieve whatever interest is provided for them under the CPA. If the SPLM insists that it is a national party and not the party of Southern Sudan, this is fine by us, but the CPA is an agreement for Southern Sudan. It must concentrate on the interest of Southern Sudan, especially at the dying years of the interim period.

Resolution Of Disputes Over Land Ownership and Use In The South

In Naivasha peace negotiations, the SPLM argued passionately that the land belongs to the community concerned. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of such a position, it is absolutely essential to be consistent. Hence, the situation regarding land ownership and use now developing in Juba town and its environs needs to be addressed speedily.

Dealing With The International Economic Crisis

The current international financial and economic crisis has aggravated an already precarious economic situation in South Sudan. The falling oil prices have resulted in the South getting only 40% of the oil revenue it received the previous year, 2008. To ameliorate this situation, the GOSS should undertake the following measures among others:

1. Downsize the GOSS, by reducing the number of Ministers and Advisors to the minimum possible.

2. Cut down on the expenditure of hard currency.

3. Bring down the salaries in the South, to the levels of the central government.

4. Establish firm control over the collection of customs duties.

5. Create opportunities for production.

6. Expand agricultural production and create food security.

7. Improve the foreign investment opportunities and laying out clear orders and regulations to control investment.

Stamping Out Corruption

We note with great concern the mounting corruption in all its forms in South Sudan. This dangerous cancer eats out the little resources available to South Sudan and must be stamped out.

Additional Recommendations:

In addition to the recommendations suggested in the text above we further recommend that the following matters be considered by the GOSS:

* The Civil Service is the backbone of any government and must be founded on qualifications and merits only.

* The CPA is based on federation with the states. The reality is that power is centralized in Juba, and GOSS budget is disproportionately more than the budgets of the ten states combined. This situation has to be rectified.

* We must pay more attention to the returnees by creating a conducive atmosphere for their return and stay in South Sudan.

* There is an urgent need to promote religious harmony between the various religions in the South.

* Unite all the clans and tribes of South Sudan, by observing justice, equality and impartiality in all the system of services, in the private and public sectors.

* Foreigners should enter South Sudan only with proper travelling documents.

* Separate the SPLA from the SPLM, so that the SPLA truly becomes The South Sudan Army as stipulated in the CPA

Conclusion

The intention of this open letter, Mr. President of the Government of Southern Sudan, is to urge you and your party, to please open your arms and heart to the people of Southern Sudan, in mutual cooperation.

It is not too late, but time is running out on all of us. We extend to you, in the spirit of this letter, our sincere desire, to join with you, in a genuine effort to rescue the CPA, in the interest of all our people.

Thank you.

Gissimalla Abdallah Rassas Chairman, The Kenana Meeting of South Sudanese Political Leaders, Political Activists, Elders and Intellectuals.

Kenana, 3rd April 2009

Signatures of The Attendants are attached