SPLM seeks partners at south-south dialogue conference

November 11, 2008 (WASHINGTON) – Nine southern political parties
participated with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) at a forum
in Juba in an effort to consolidate the political landscape in southern
Sudan and the diaspora before the 2009 elections.


The Southern Political Parties Dialogue formally began Saturday and ends
Wednesday.


“Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) is not owned by the SPLM alone—it is
composed of many parties. We all share in the great task of building the
government which our people deserve,” said GOSS President Salva Kiir
Mayardit at the opening of the forum.


SPLM, the ruling party of Southern Sudan, encouraged the conference
following the formation of the Alliance of South Sudan Political Parties
in Juba in June.


The historic predecessor to the Juba conference was the April 2005
south-south dialogue in Nairobi, which produced a covenant of southern
political parties and civil society, recognizing various grievances.


SPLM also recently drew in the African National Congress party (ANC-Sudan)
in a merger agreement in September, signed by ANC-Sudan President George
Kongor Arop.


Following the conference in Juba this weekend, the SPLM absorbed the South
Sudan Democratic Front, a recent breakaway part of the South Sudan
Democratic Forum, said one spokesman from each party.


At the conference in Juba, “all the parties agreed to work under the SPLM
leadership and the leadership of Salva Kiir so that they will establish
the New Sudan,” said Gordon Buay, the former secretary of information of
the South Sudan Democratic Front..


Buay lives in Canada but visited Washington on his return from spending
more than a year in Sudan. He will travel to Sudan again in the spring to
campaign on behalf of SPLM in the 2009 elections.


“I welcome Gordon Buay to the SPLM,” said Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, head of
the Southern Sudan mission in Washington D.C. “He has decided he is part
of the SPLM, to join the SPLM and to continue to struggle with SPLM toward
the vision of SPLM to change the country. I have informed the SPLM
leadership about this and they welcome the move and welcome all of the
political parties in the south to come and be part of the SPLM.”


Buay explained, "last year we founded the South Sudan Democratic Front
because we had problems within the South Sudan Democratic Forum. I was a
member of the Forum together with Joseph Lagu,” the former rebel leader of
the first Sudanese civil war who later became 2nd vice president of Sudan.


“Lagu joined the SPLM,” he said. “And then later we had a disagreement
with Bona Malwal because he is not looking toward the vision of New Sudan.
We left last year and formed the Front in Khartoum,” he said of his past
political affiliation.


Political reconciliation within the south, particularly in areas heavily
contested during the civil war, has to overcome grievances from years of
fragmentation and military confrontation. . Buay said that in his past
harsh criticisms of the SPLM, “I was not targeting the SPLM vision; I was
only targeting some individuals who were not advancing the vision of Dr.
John Garang.”


The young politician, who comes from Upper Nile but fled to Ethiopia in
1999, said that the 1991 split in the SPLA aggravated tribal tension and
was “a dark chapter in our struggle.”


But he noted, “tribal tension, as you can see right now in the leadership
of the SPLM is very diverse. Most of the tribes of the south are
represented.”


On this point, Salva Kiir attacked tribal forms of political organization
in his speech to southern parties on Saturday: “In Southern Sudan, people
often complain of tribalism. We accept that tribes are the basis of our
social fabric and we must promote all our rich and diverse cultures. But
tribalism is a cancer on our unity and we must do whatever possible to
contain it ... Let us all agree here to uphold the absolute principle of
opposition to tribalism.”


Suzanne Jambo, the SPLM national secretary for external relations, said
that at the conference there was a “spirit of honest constructive
dialogue, openness and encouragement of one another.”