Editorial
When Peace Agreements are not the Solution
By Djifa Kothor
In 1999, Foday Sankoh, the leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), came to Lome, Togo to sign a peace accord. The agreement gave Sankoh control of the country’s diamond fields and the vice presidency, but the RUF did not stop fighting. Jonas Savimbi, the leader of the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), was offered the vice presidency of Angola, during that country’s civil war, but Savimbi rejected the offered and continue fighting.
Riek Machar, the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) is no different. Machar can be offered the vice presidency of South Sudan and control of its oil fields. Yet, he would continue fighting because what Machar wants is the presidency of South Sudan.
Machar claims to be fighting the South Sudanese government because its leader, Salva Kiir, is a dictator and for the killing of his ethnic Nuer men and women in the early hours of December 15, 2013 in Juba. Thus, he demands the restructuring of the South Sudanese state to be a federal rather than the unitary state it is now. Furthermore, he demanded the release of individuals the South Sudanese government believes were part of the December 15 coup attempt as well as the resignation of Kirr.
As a result, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have tried everything from hosting the SPLM/A-IO delegation in luxurious hotels in Addis Ababa and when they get angry they then move them to nightclub. But the fact remains that Riek Machar wants to be president of South Sudan.
He wants to be the man on top, it is that ambitious that led him to lead a faction, with the support of Khartoum, during the Second Sudanese Civil War, in an attempt to overthrown the late John Garang, the then leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
Machar, who now accuses Kiir of ethnic cleansing, massacred 3,000 ethnic Dinkas, after it became clear he was not going to ascend to the chairmanship of the SPLM/A, in 1991. Now, realizing the ethnic arithmetic of South Sudan will not grant him the presidency through the democratic process, is now depending on his White Army of ethnic Nuers, who believe he is a prophet, to give him the presidency through war.
There is a delusion among some African leaders and people that a war in another African country doesn’t concern them. They believe this because they believe their involvement will threaten either their economy or their safety. It’s a notion exemplify by the demand of some Kenyan opposition leaders who are demanding the withdrawal of their country’s military from Somalia. That delusion has led to a calculus that whenever warlords like Sankoh, Savimbi and Machar take up arm against their governments, the answer is getting them to sign peace agreements.
