Youth organizations advocating for separation are using wrong map

By Atok Dan 

 “Whatever spoken within a reach of a child tend to the formation of a character of that child” Juba 29th September: 

Pick it from the horse mouth that different youth organizations advocating for separation of the South from the North in a referendum next year are using a map that contradicts the wording in the CPA which says north-south borders shall be as defined in 1st 1 1956. Acting childishly or boyishly and girlishly, youth organizations spearheading the referendum campaigns for separation are too eager and obsessed to separate that they don’t mind whether lucrative villages situated along the north-south borders are annexed to the north, depicting the majority as being spoon-fed by a few who don’t care of the fate of those who might be affected by such harsh decision without close scrutiny. 

 Since the discovery of oil in the 1970s around Heglig in Unity State, successive regimes in Khartoum had been busy day and night redrawing, twisting, readjusting, and shifting the 1956 north-south borders with a calculation that that rich piece of land would either fall in north border to create an elusive impression of whereabouts of true maps of that locality. Such attempts were made around the Raja district at Kafia Kinga and around rich agricultural lands in Renk and Magenis, another triangle up the Shilluk Kingdom in Manya County; however, the prompt reaction from the regional assembly in Juba rendered it an unachieved project to greed Khartoum leadership. 

 Conceding to such unfounded drawings or maps, Southern youth organizations for separation whose aggregates majorly hail in areas far from the north-south borders have exactly pasted those wrong maps in their campaigns banners and slogans and harshly rushed to world media telling the world that what they have is exactly where borders of interest of the South are yet it is purely being ignorant of the reality on the ground. 

In fact, the map youth organizations are using for campaigns today was taken from the one drawn on CDF vehicles, which actually left away vast areas around Unity State like the Heglig Triangle where this money utilized in campaigns is generated. It is in fact a shared mistake by several bodies because youth organizations thought it that if such a map is proudly adapted by the assembly, then it should be right yet the real meaning is that we have given NCP land grabbers go ahead with their ill plans. 

It is also a shared mistake in the sense that Unity State governor Taban Deng Gai signed an internal pact in 2008 with his Southern Kordofan counterpart indicted Justice Ahmed Haroun annexing Karsana Payam to North yet there was no question in the leadership of the SPLM on what prompted such a dreadful move, only native of Parieng (Panaruu) whose land was officially given away complained although their complaint was immediately bashed by the presidency twisting it with then looming tension amongst the Nuer native which led to losing of Taban Deng as the Chairman of the SPLM in the State. Panaruu Dinka was severely fragmented by the decision taken by Governor Taban Deng to sign such a harmful pact yet he is not a land commissioner whose lands issued are within his prerogatives.

 SPLM which was then for its 2nd Convention paid deaf ear to such and nobody wish to hear of such, while a message from the office of the president to Panaruu community was that “if Panaruu is ready to fight for Heglig, it is upon them to do so. It is also a shared mistake because during the negotiations of the CPA in Naivasha Kenya, natives of Abyei who were privileged to have been around the negotiating table and closer to the leadership of the SPLM then delineated Abyei borders annexing Heglig to Abyei Map and when dissenting voices started rising in Unity State, especially among the Panaruu natives, a delegation of expert went to Parieng meeting with chiefs and elders convincing them that they only take it from NCP and it would later be given back to Unity State. 

Panaruu youth who were in Khartoum complained to the leadership of the SPLM of such but were later asked to apologize to Abyei peace elders but now is that apology duly. Having been mesmerized by the euphoria of peace, coupled with a lack of even-handedness amongst the table round sitters, Abyei expert of course exceeded their borders, curving in Heglig oil fields which has today given toothache to SPLM, whereas it is tooth well fixed for NCP lands’ grabbers. 

If the leadership of the SPLM had then keenly guided the Abyei team not to overhaul their maps, Heglig fields would have remained a known party of Unity State but since the claim was dismissed by the PCA, several arguments shall be the torturous hills to either win or defeat in the battle besides, it is fuelled by SPLA evacuation at military strategic deployment points backward to plain flat lands south of Parieng town. 

The majority of misled Southerners came to surprise by the Permanent Court of Arbitration PCA on Abyei that the borders of Abyei to the East and West were too large while assessing the reasonableness of the ABC Experts' interpretations of the formula. 

 By contrast, the western and eastern boundaries of the Abyei Area were not drawn by the ABC Experts in compliance with their mandate. Thus, in fulfillment of its own mandate, the Tribunal proceeded to “define (i.e. delimit) on the map” the eastern and western boundaries in accordance with Article 2(c) of the Arbitration Agreement. 

In fact, this ruling left Heglig oil fields as a land of no man until it is confirmed in the North-South boundary demarcation. It would also continue to be a shared mistake if such a map is responsibly still used without being questioned by the authority because our partner will later use it as a point of strength referential to the fact that we had been operating on it while advocating for separation. It is would actually be a hereditary mistake to pass down the lineage. 

 The stability of the North-South ecological relationship and chemistry along these common borders would now be determined by how committed parties behave during this referendum otherwise, gravity of the problems would still be shouldered by border communities as before. 

In fact, majority of these youth who pleasantly advocating for separation without questioning the origin of this map are entirely those relatives and communities have never sensed border disputes. To rest the deadlock, youth need not portray the reality of being known as politically neophytes by repeating the previous unlearned mistakes of doing things for the sake to be known as a champion as people are nowadays struggling to fix into history yet the quality of your work is worse than undone, otherwise, scrambling over the position in history with hidden motives hamper the lives of other Southerners living at the bleeding edges of the region. 

 Finally, seek first before you make these painful irreversible historical mistakes if we cannot learn from previous mistakes when bird in the hand is worth too than in a bush. As we talk, SAF is massed up around Parieng in military radar defense to Heglig in case of an eventuality, and guess how risky the Southern citizens there are.