IMMEDIATE DEMARCATION OF SOUTHERN SUDAN STATES' AND COUNTIES' BORDERS
By: James Ogilo Agor
Mach 16, 2010- Although the CPA did not mention the
demarcation of the southern Sudan states’ and counties 'borders, the present
prevailing insecurity and instability resulting from the tribal conflicts,
necessitates immediate action simultaneously with the demarcation of the
north-south borders. The IGAD, UN.AU, EU, ARAB LEAGUE, CHINA , USA and RUSSIA
all have expressed complete and unqualified dismay at the failure of the
relevant security organs in the south to bring under control the state of
lawlessness and chaos in south Sudan .
The Anglo-Egyptian Administration in line with their
policy of native administration divided the south into three provinces of
Bahr-el-Gazelle, Equatoria and Upper Nile. Each province was divided into
districts, sub-districts and local government councils. At the time there were
only minor occasional tribal conflicts usually arising from stealing a cow or a
goat or eloping with a girl. These occurrences were not limited to inter-tribal
crimes, but also within each tribe or clan or even within one village. Sticks
and spears were the only weapons in use. Inter-tribal or inter-district or
inter-provincial conferences were held annually and especial courts were held to
settle such cases as were reported during the conferences. Fire-arms were almost
non-existent at the time, but even so there were often weekly or monthly search
for unlicensed fire-arms Possession of an illegal gun was a big crime. Weapons
for the use of the army, police and prison warders were only issued for duty and
to be handed back into the stores at the end of the day or of duty. Such was
the normal good governance during the British rule in south Sudan which they
left behind as their legacy.
The successive northern Sudanese governments which
took over from the Anglo-Egyptian administration as from 1st January 1956 up to
3rd March 1972,continued the same native administration policy which they had
inherited, the difference being the rapid introduction of Islam and Arabic in
the whole south. This has nothing to do with us in this article. The ten years
of the High Executive Council [H.E.C.] administration which was established as a
result of the Addis Ababa Agreement between the south and the north, also
adopted the same procedures in their rule. However in 1975/6 a high level
Commission was constituted under a Presidential Decree in order to recommend the
red division of the southern provinces into more so as to easy the volume of
work in the area. It is to be recalled that the Commission, unlike the ones we
are seeing in Juba now, being run by inexperienced fellows, was chaired by late
uncle Clement Mboro, the top southern Sudanese to be appointed as an
administrator by the British and the 1st and last southern minister of interior
of the Sudan. The Commission for the Re-division of the southern provinces work
was presented 1st to Southern Regional Assembly in JUBA, then passed to the [H.E.C],then
to the National Assembly in Khartoum and finally to the President's desk in the
Republican Palace in Khartoum.
H.E.the President of the Republic of the Sudan
issued a decree redividing the southern provinces as follows: 1.Bahr-el-Ghazelle
into two provinces of Bahr-el-Gazelle and Lakes provinces. Bahr
el Gazelle province to comprise of northern district with Awiel as capital;
Western district with Raga as capital; Jur River district with Wau as capital;
Gogrial and Tonj. It is to be noted that Cuebat Rural Council of Tonj district
was cut to Lakes province maybe for cultural reasons .My own guess is that it
seems that the uncircumcised were being separated from the [angwela.] The
important point to empathize here is that the boundary between the two provinces
followed the boundaries of the adjacent districts or rural council. 2 Equatoria:
Eastern and Western with the districts Kapoeta, Torit, Juba and Yei together and
Yambio with Maridi respectively. 3. Upper Nile and Jonglei with districts of
Renk, Kodok, Nasir, Malakal and Bentiu together while Bor, Pibor, Akobo and
Fangak together respectively. With the discovery of oil in Bentiu district of
Upper Nile province, Bentiu was
removed to be a separate province and named Unity. It is to be empathized again
that the old districts boundaries were never affected by any new changes .
The military regime
of President Omer Al Beshir made another change upgrading the provinces to
states and redividing Eastern Equatoria into two states and Bahr el Ghazelle
into three states .Again there was no effect on the old districts boundaries
.The districts were further redivided and upgraded to provinces. The CPA renamed
the provinces as counties and increased their number by grouping village
councils, but maintaining their respective boundaries. All the processes and
procedures used to realize decentralization system from the Anglo-Egyptian
administration through CPA, remained and continued one and the same. There were
no land grabbing’s or encroachments into other peoples’ lands whether by
other villages or clans or tribes. As mentioned elsewhere above village or clan
or tribal conflicts were connected only with cattle theft and girls' elopements.
There were rare cases of child kidnapping confined to few neighboring tribes.
On 9th January,
2005 a permanent peace agreement was signed between the government of Sudan and
the SPLM. A regional government was
established in south Sudan with capital at Juba . The SPLA
came home as the army of south Sudan under the command of the President of the
South Sudan . The army was not disarmed as it was to take over the garrisons
being vacated by the northern army under Omer Beshir who were to go back to the
north. The southern citizens were tremendously overjoyed by the fact that life
had returned to normal, law and order well maintained; government, justice and
law enforcement in the hands of their own sons and jalaba no more in charge of
their well being, progress, development and prosperity.
Unfortunately and
to the surprise and annoyance of every concerned community on the globe, it has
transpired that some southern communities or individuals had actually joined the
movement risking their precious and God's given lives for two decades for
reasons of a secrete agenda. It is now abundantly clear that some SPLA military
leaders have been arming their localities during the last five years of
tranquility. The reasons for these senseless and unpatriotic thinking, are
obvious and clear to some of us who have been following up the ancestral legends
of some southern communities.
To them greed for
the goat, sheep, cow, daughter, wife, child, land and all the property of a
neighbor is virtue worthy of praise and honor which should be accepted with
grace. The weapons in the hands of the ordinary southern citizens who are
killing themselves be they Dinka Bor with Murle or Murle with Law or Jeikany dor
with Law or Gawaar with Nyarweng or Ruweng with Chollo or Agar with Atoot or
Chichi with Ador or Bul Nuer with
Pakam or Agar with Gok or Gok with Rek or Rek with Rek or Bor with Zande or
Latuka with Dinka or Bari with Dinka and so on and so on, were all supplied to
these poor people by their SPLA generals in total without exception. The wealth
being acquired be it in the form of livestock or land, is for the family good
and hell with the sovereign independent country so-called Janub.
Under these
circumstances and being aware that the southern Sudan is definitely saying
farewell to the north NOW , and forsake of consistency and continuity its
peoples are going to vote mindful to keep the SPLM in office despite their
having remained raw for the last five years, it is imperative that the IGAD, the
AU, the UN, the friends of IGAD and well wishers of the southern Sudan, should
intervene so as to prepare the south for a smooth transit to a transparent
democratic state subject to the rule of law, justice and equity. This can only
happen if the prevailing tribal conflicts are ironed or completely removed. In
order to avoid chaos and anarchy in a post referendum independent south Sudan ,
the international community must make sure that the internal boundaries of the
southern states and the counties are demarcated before the referendum. Referring
such work to the SPLM government whose military generals have been supplying
their respective clans with sophisticated weapons in readiness to rob others of
their live stocks children and lands, will be a disservice to the southern
people.
The author is a
South Sudanese currently living the United States ; he can be reached at
agorjames@yahoo.com
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