More about our killers; civilian or military

The answer is with the SPLM and the SPLA, and policies of exclusion that were masterminded and implemented out of fear of displeasing those who dominated the rank and file and its top echelons.

More about our killers; civilian or military

By Opoka Christopher Arop

 

Most of our leaders both in the socio-political and military arena exhibit traits of ultimate egotists, exponents of old-fashioned African liberation and post-colonial rugged individualists pushed their logical extremes.

 

In the wars; our army generals and local tribal leaders or even children who have been hardened by what they have seen and done, have inadvertently led those individuals and collective lot to feel and experience the kind of freedom of self-discovery, a freedom to explore the limits, to be themselves completely without any interference. Persons who have been to this place, can only readily embrace any opportunity for war and violence or any situation that can mimic the same sensation that they would otherwise derive from the real event. Our idea of freedom is not and can never be the same as their own.

 

The soldiers, the free generals and commanders know only one type of freedom. The freedom to act, to act without limits, to have the choice between millions of options, none of which they must think over before acting and the option therein to take action without any sense nor regard for checks and balances. This sense of self-discovery, for our case, is self-evident in the persons of our politicians and some of our politician-turned businessmen. Ruthless!

 

It is now coming together for me and some few citizens who have not had the chance to experience that silly liberation indoctrination many others received in SPLA’s liberated areas during the years of the struggle since 1983. It is also worth noting how, the people of Yei, Nimule; Mundri [border tribes and communities] areas that were among the first few to be liberated have little admiration for the liberators today as they never had when their homes were “liberated”. Why?

 

The answer is with the SPLM and the SPLA, and policies of exclusion that were masterminded and implemented out of fear of displeasing those who dominated the rank and file and top echelons of the liberation struggles. So we simply sowed seeds of peace during liberation wars, knowing full well that, those were seeds of separation, division, tribalism, corruption and that those were the grapes of wrath destroying us today. This is not ironical at all.

 

The idea that militancy is among the top likely options to win ones liberation and freedom, also presupposes the idea that the same force is likely to snatch the same freedoms soon after. Unless, there is a deliberate effort to consolidate these freedoms as soon as possible at whatever cost [even if it means killing thousands or even millions of people that will object to the peace and tranquility that is won by blood]. Yes. Forget about your notions of human rights and freedom of speech. What we needed in South Sudan in 2005 was a leader who was capable of taking the worst among those few bad choices and standing his ground, even if it meant the West would distance itself from us altogether. Do not get me wrong on the idea of a strong militarist or calculating politician who can keep the country together by killing and maiming millions in the process. It is a question of eliminating the right people. America has done it and is continuing to do so on American soil just as in foreign lands, as long as it is in their national interests. Eastern and Southern Africa countries have understood this far better than some other parts of Africa. As it is done professionally and for the right reasons, and in the larger interests of keeping the nation united or appearing to be united, and in the process ensuring an atmosphere of business as usual; development, military-industrial-complexes, donor-aid, a vibrant NGO substituting government services; the likes of Transparency International will dish out the usual rhetoric, Human Rights Watch will do the same, but the super powers will be silent. Why? Because the country will be one. No wars!

 

Our nationalism has never been a question. It has always been a reality. It was never a question of time. The whole world knew this, perhaps more accurately and much more sincerely than we could bring ourselves to accept. I remember, my high school teachers saying, your people will surely be free “someday”. But in other quarters, the conviction that the South Sudanese people are a free people capable of surviving and existing despite the horrors they suffer at the hands of their own brothers.

 

This reality had given me and some others the hope that all would be well, if we read late in the night, avoided trouble. We had to develop cults in schools. I am not talking about the obvious student groups of which both Vice Presidents (current and past) explored to their advantage. Albeit to the detriment of a self-conscious path for a new politics in South Sudan!

 

The character traits of our men in uniform reminds me of General Gordon whose stories made many of our South Sudanese rebels of the time to consider him a “superman” of sorts. They argued then that General Gordon was a great man because he ignored the orders to pull out. They said soldiers that are remembered are those that can rise above mediocrity. “Any mediocrity can get anybody killed for a reason. Any dross can do that, but Gordon was the pure stuff. He didn’t just risk his own neck, but everyone else’s too.

 

He proved he wasn’t ordinary because he proved the ordinary rules don’t apply to him. He had a natural right to do what he did. He didn’t need a reason,” says a character called Nordstrand in a book called “Horn of Africa” by Phillip Caputo. You can surely guess that Nordstrand would be one of our generals today. May be David Yau Yau, or Dr. Riek Machar, or even General Salva Kiir, why not! Our Nordstands are in the persons of Taban Deng Gai, Chief-of-staff General Paul Malong. The following list are of the softer generals, the kind that would never equate the thinking of my Nordstrand, because in my writing they are simply the bosses who were issuing orders for Gordon to evacuate, save his life and that of his soldiers, when he was surrounded by the Mahdists.

 

My Nordstrands are the frontline commanders who will never have any life outside of the frontlines. The smell of death is like the aroma of tasty stew in the kitchen to them. They can go days without meals, as long as their thirst for blood and taking of life are quenched. They are most times delusional-maniacs about their invisibility and their followers adore them.

 

My predictions of our Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration program was almost perfect. Soon, we had shootings in residential areas, robberies, hired thugs, suicides and others. Disgruntled soldiers took matters into their hands. The army didn’t address the real reasons these soldiers killed during the war. And no effort was made to distinguish between the jalaba as an enemy from other factional militia groups [South Sudanese] and as a result South Sudanese killed more soldiers from their country than the real enemy.

 

The situation with our relationship with the SPLA-North, especially the Ingassena from Blue Nile, the rebels in South Kordofan that supported our liberation struggle and fought alongside our forces against the same people like them we considered as enemies [northern-Arab Sudanese] [the idea that the Sudanese Question was purely religious is a topic for another discussion] remains complex, especially if the government of Sudan reaches an agreement with the SPLM/A-North. This would pre-suppose that the SPLA-South would likely fight soldiers from Blue Nile and South Kordofan in any event of war along the border with Sudan. Interesting! Another reason why we shall kill without proper reason! After all soldiers in our part of the world are happy enough with any opportunity to go to that “place” where they are fully in control of events, where every second is optimally utilized to deliver as hard a blow as possible.

 

So will the war continue in much of 2015 and 2016 and far beyond? The answer is a resounding yes. Our wars are very personal. The effort we put in displacing innocent citizens, women and children convinces me that the conflict is personal. Soldiers, generals and commanders behave as if they get some “release” from the suffering of their people or the opportunity to prove that they all have a Gordon in them.

 

The talks in Addis Ababa, or Khartoum or Kampala or Arusha means nothing to the soldiers, a different kind of soldiers, a different kind of generals and commanders who have been stunted in a world of their own, where they are judge and jury. And these commanders and generals are on either side of the conflict as such I have often laughed at the accusation and counter-accusation about who attacked the other first. Everyone is right in their claim that the other attacked first. It is just too difficult and perhaps impossible to determine who attacked the other first. If we couldn’t establish who attacked the other first in at the military base in Giyada, how are we going to establish aggressors in the jungles of Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity? Even with the support of United Nations Peace Keepers, the best they can achieve in terms of tangible results is dismal.