South Sudan: a missed opportunity

A few months ago I wondered what would it take for South Sudan’s current leadership to learn the bitter lessons of their kin to the north? It now appears that it would take a great deal more suffering, destruction, and waste.

Kiir and Machar had an incredible opportunity to model what it means to be the world’s youngest country in 2011. They had the lessons of history from Sudan and across the continent. They inherited substantial oil wealth. Yes, it is a depletable resource; but in the short term, it could be mobilized to benefit the current generation and, with prudent planning, to build a solid diverse economic base for the future. Kiir and Machar had all the dreams and aspirations of a people who have endured decades of oppression, war, and displacement. They had good will and support from the UN and the international development industry. If Kiir and Machar had begun with only the desire to avoid the devastating national example from which South Sudan wished to secede, the results would have been much better.

Instead, the lesson that Kiir and Machar learned from the regime to the north is extremely selfish struggle for power, and deafness to the suffering of thousands of people. What they learned is Al Bashir’s example of repression, malfeasance, disdain for citizens, and resolve to obliterate all that is wholesome in Sudan’s past and present. Indeed, the results of their brief reign – mass killing, rape, torture, looting, and destruction -- have matched him well in brutal criminality.

Northern Sudanese people with conscience and a platform must speak and press for action. Not from a position of patronage, but of deep empathy and solidarity. If we have not done so before for Darfur or southern Kordofan, we must now. This is a time to call for the brutality and devastation to stop – by demilitarization, arms embargo, a peace keeping mission, or any of the instruments available to the African Union, with help from the UN. In an ideal scenario this intervention would not be necessary, but nothing will be achieved in South Sudan without ending mass violence and restoring security. Debates about the complexity and historical depth of the situation and the search for durable solutions can continue in the meantime.