South Sudan, A Nation With No National Army

By Both Cesc David,

Liberation Army (SPLA) are seen during the signing of ceasefire agreement with southern rebel leader representative of Lt. General George Athor in Juba(Photo: past file)

July 02, 2015(Nyamilepedia) — According to my analysis on the SPLA/M, I came to realize that South Sudan does not have a national army because Sudan People Liberation Army is not a national army but instead it is a party’s army as you can see does not reflect South Sudan National Army.

This is one of the root causes of the war that broke out on 15^th December, 2013 because the SPLA factions were just supporting their masters within the same SPLM party that they pay allegiance to. For example, president Salva kiir who is one of the founder of the SPLA, stuck with his tiger, a battalion that he initially commanded during the SPLM/A rebellions.

So if you go against the SPLM, you have gone against the SPLA too. This is why both the SPLA in the government and SPLA-IO have and are still committing crimes against humanity trying to protect the SPLM party leadership and communities. All THE POLICE, THE MI, 777, CID and NATIONAL SECURITY, they all pay allegiance to the SPLM which is tasked with the leadership of the country.

Now, how can we have everlasting peace in our nation if we only have SPLA has both the party army and a national army?

Even if we had peace today, it will not be a sustainable peace. We will still have SPLA acting has both the national army and party army. It needs to be change to South Sudan National Army not Sudan People Liberation Amy because when you try to question any dealings like corruption, transparency and development, the SPLA will protect it masters, not the citizens. The SPLA do not serve the people of South Sudan, they serve the South Sudan government officials, who are leading the Sudan People Liberation Movement.

In other neighboring countries e.g. Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda, they do not have army for parties; they only have national army like in Uganda, the acronym UPDF stands for Uganda People Defence Force and in Kenya the acronyms KDF stands for Kenya Defence Force but in South Sudan it’s the opposite, acronym SPLA/M stands for Sudan People Liberation Army/Movement. Now tell me, how can they be loyal to the people of South Sudan?

We as South Sudanese, we acknowledge and appreciate the work that the SPLA/M did during the struggle, we don’t take it for granted, but now I believe that it is the right time for us to change it so that the people of South Sudan can be able to identify themselves with national army because now in this conflict, most of the civilians have been killed, over a million displaced and other are living in fear everyday whenever they hear or see an SPLA/M soldier.

This need to change, at least the people of South Sudan should feel protected whenever they see a police or a spla/m soldier because the National security, police, the national army e.t.c, is always trusted with the security of the nation not individuals.

Security has worsened in the Africa’s new nation and it is created by the SPLA/M and this has led to a lot of inflation and the economy has shifted down rapidly. Businesses cannot thrive where there are insecurities.

South Sudan will only have sustainable peace when appointment of leaders is abolish, e.g. commissioners, governors, members of parliament and also when the name Sudan people liberation army {SPLA} is change to South Sudan national army {SSNA}.

The national army will protect all the citizens of South Sudan without any discrimination despite their race, tribe, religion or party affiliation. That’s when we can be able to have rights to ask our government representatives where the hospital, schools and the roads you promised? That’s when we can be able to report a member of SPLM to face justice in the court of law if he/she has committed crimes against civilians.

People have lost trust in the SPLA/M.

The author can be reached at vossdafir@yahoo.com

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