Southern Sudan independence vote won’t bring easy peace, Bishop warns
By Paul Jeffrey
Catholic News Service
YAMBIO, Southern Sudan – The people of Southern Sudan should not expect quick results from a January referendum on independence, said a Catholic Bishop in the war-torn African country.
“People expect a lot. They think that independence means milk and honey, that all will be OK. And while ordinary people think that, the politicians are only thinking of having power and the riches it can bring,” said Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio.
The Church should help people from both groups understand the new responsibilities that independence – the expected outcome of the referendum – will bring, the Bishop told CNS.
“The Church must help people understand that we have to take upon ourselves the noble duty of building our own nation,” Bishop Kussala said.
“We are the privileged generation that is going to be voting and laying a strong foundation. We need to help instill pride in being a nation and help people understand that they have a God-given right to be free. They can only do that together with one another, not just within their own ethnic group. We are a multicultural, multireligious community, and we need to respect one another.
“For the politicians, it’s the same. There’s a need to engage them and help them create a vision. No one is talking much these days about vision. Most politicians don’t seem to see where we’re going. We need a group thinking ahead of us, because we’re not going to have the international community with us forever.”
The January vote on independence was stipulated by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended decades of civil war between Sudan’s North and South. Southerners are expected to vote overwhelmingly for secession, and Bishop Kussala said creating a functional and effective government will not be easy.
“The people of Southern Sudan have never had a government. We’ve just practised this for the last five years, and you can see the difficulties we’ve encountered. There’s an absence of proper laws, little respect for law and the dignity of persons. Most government personnel came from the fighting forces, and they’ve just been converted into civil servants. With independence, there could be new competition among them, a new struggle for power,” he said.
The Bishop warned that some of the dangerous practices of political leaders in northern Sudan, such as control of the media, limited free speech, corruption, nepotism and tribalism, have begun to emerge in the South.
“We don’t want to see dictators replaced by other dictators, so we’re designing our programmes so we can keep talking to those who take power, as well as to the people of Southern Sudan, to help them see that they have to be the founding fathers of democracy, a people who will uphold the rule of law and show respect for each other,” Bishop Kussala said.
The Catholic Church in Southern Sudan played a major role during the liberation struggle, said John Ashworth, an adviser to the Sudan Ecumenical Forum, which includes the Catholic Church. The Church was the only institution that stayed with the people during the long war.
“Everything else collapsed,” Ashworth told CNS. “There was no government, no NGOs, no UN, no civil society, and the traditional (tribal) leaders were seriously weakened and divided. The Church took on many of the roles of government, providing basic human services and aid, schools and clinics. We didn’t have guns, but the presence of the Church provided a degree of protection and safety. It provided moral and political leadership.”
Bishop Kussala said some in the government now want to forget that history and ignore the moral voice of the Church.
To help prevent the entrenchment of power among a few leaders, the Church has designed pastoral work to include civic education so people understand their rights, identity and citizenship, he said.
The prelate also expressed concern that some government officials in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, will not respond well to Southern Sudan’s independence and will seek to make trouble for the fledgling nation.
“For our neighbours in northern Sudan, separation is not going to be a cup of tea. They are not happy about it. Many officials have made strong statements that if the South breaks away, then southerners who live in the North are going to be denied their rights. Such behaviour will pull us toward war and cause chaos in the South,” he said.
“My mother was killed by northern government soldiers when I was just two months old,” Bishop Kussala said.
“I don’t want to see another baby losing its mother in the same way. If I have any power to promote a culture of harmony and peace, I will do it.”
Bishop Kussala also appealed to Catholics in the United States to become aware of the situation in Sudan.
“Especially at this moment, we need their solidarity. We need them to continue praying for us and being close to us,” he said.
“We need them to raise their voices with the US government. The CPA came about in part because of the American people. The pressure that the US government brought to the conflict enabled the fighting to stop.
“The Church from the US and around the world has continued to accompany us for these last five years, and now we come to the most critical part of this process when we choose between unity or separation. We need their accompaniment now more than ever.”