Nuer UNCONA rejects call for autonomy from South Sudan government

Union of Nuer Community in North America (UNCONA)

Press Release

Nuer Community Calls For Dismissal of Prof. Dechand

March, 25, 2006 — The Nuer community in North America is deeply disturbed by Professor Dechand’s press release issued on March, 24, 2006. The call made by South Sudan United Democratic Alliance (SSUDA) to declare autonomy from South Sudan is irrational and irresponsible.

UNCONA is troubled by SSUDA’s call that SSDF under Gen. Gordon Koang should declare areas under its control separate from the GoSS established in Juba. It defies all forms of logic that Professor David Chand can declare areas under SSDF autonomous without knowledge of Gen. Gordon Koang. SSDF is an army allied to Government of National Unity (GoNU). SSUDA is not a political wing of SSDF nor is it a registered party in Sudan. Moreover, Gordon Koang denied any connection with Professor David Dechand’s SSUDA when contacted by the Supreme Council of UNCONA. What Gordon Koang said is that the press release of SSUDA has nothing to do with him.

The Supreme Council of Nuer community totally rejects the call for autonomy of certain areas of the South from the GoSS. It does not auger well with logic that South Sudan can declare autonomy from the same South Sudan. Besides, it is violation of the unity of South Sudan territory. It is a call that even South Sudan chiefs in the village would consider it as the joke of the 21st C. The people of South Sudan have been fighting for independence of the South as defined by the British colonial power before the independence of Sudan. The territory call South Sudan is defined in the Khartoum Peace Agreement that was thrown to garbage bin by President Omar Bashir. Anybody calling for the autonomy of some areas of the South is violating the deceased Khartoum Peace Agreement.

We would like to inform Professor David Chand that the grandfather of Gordon Koang chol, the leader of the SSDF, was one of the chiefs who fought British colonial power for thirty years to defend the territorial integrity of South Sudan. Moreover, Gordon Koang was a corporal in Anya-Nya I to fight for the total liberation of the South. It is a moral insult to Gordon Koang to be associated with SSUDA which is calling for disunity of South Sudan territory.

We call on the chairman of SSUDA, commander Biel Torkech Rambang, to fire professor David Dechand as soon as possible. SSUDA needs to emulate other South Sudan parties which are opposing SPLM party within the Government of South Sudan Unity (GoSSU). The GoSSU (also known as GoSS) is a coalition of six parties: SPLM, South Sudan Democratic Forum (SSDF), SANU, NCP, USAP I and USAP II. It is advisable for SSUDA to join forces with other South Sudan opposition parties to work hard for the coming election in 2008/2009. SPLM party shall be defeated in the election, not through violent that would claim lives of innocent Southerners.

Professor David Dechand needs to know that establishing a democratic South Sudan needs the participation of all parties including the SPLM. UNCONA condemned late Dr. Garang in the past because he didn’t want the participation of other political parties in the government. If David Dechand has become another John Garang calling for exclusion of the SPLM party from South Sudan politics, then it is safe to conclude that he a dictator masquerading as a democrat.

The people of South Sudan are responsible to unseat SPLM from power during election. Any call for military confrontation between South Sudan armies is counter productive to the enemy of the South. If professor Dechand wants to replace Salva Kiir as the leader of the South, he has to persuade the people of the South through democratic means rather than calling for bloodshed. To dethrone Kiir, David Dechand needs to relinquish his teaching position in the US University and participate in Sudan politics practically.

UNCONA is calling for all its members to disassociate themselves from SSUDA and support parties which oppose SPLM within the GoSSU such as USAP, SANU and South Sudan Democratic Forum (SSDF). SSUDA is behaving like a party without a democratic vision for the South.

We call on Gordon Koang to start negotiating with Salva Kiir to unite all South Sudan forces in support of Juba Declaration signed on January, 8, 2006. Khartoum Peace Agreement is dead. It was killed by Omar Bashir because it contained the right to self-determination. If CPA is a copy of Khartoum Peace Agreement as professor Dechand alluded to, there is no need for SSDF under Gen. Koang not to support it. Omar Bashir discarded the original signed on April, 21, 1997. It is responsibility of Gordon Koang to protect the CPA, which is the copy of KPA because it is the only copy left for Southerners to exercise the right to self-determination. It is irrational for professor Dechand to support the original (that is the KPA) and reject the copy (that is the CPA).

We call on professor Dechand to sue President Omar Bashir for the violation of Khartoum Peace Agreement. There is a Constitutional Court set up in Sudan that can hear such an argument. The problem is that he needs SPLM leaders like Riek Machar and Lam Akol as witnesses; otherwise, his case would be unsuccessful. It was Riek Machar and Lam Akol who signed Khartoum and Fashoda Peace Agreements. They already testified that the National Congress Party killed all the agreements signed in 1997. The people who signed the CPA are the ones who also signed the Khartoum Peace Agreement.

The SSUDA must dismiss Professor David Dechand without conditions. The Nuer community calls on all members of the SSUDA to jettison unwanted element like Dechand who is now discrediting legitimate opposition against corrupt SPLM party.

John Gatluak Kam, President of UNCONA
Email: johngatluakkam@hotmail.com

Source: Sudan Tribune