Dear elders,
I will tell you my thoughts and how I perceive things.
Who am I? I am nobody but a confused and uncertain person. I wish you get
sometime in your super busy schedule of negotiation and photo shooting to read
this.
I have heard in different occasions and news media
that the ongoing negotiation is the one and only opportunity for Sudan to
achieve long lasting peace. This makes me in doubts about what does long
lasting peace actually mean.
If we considered the achievements of long lasting
peace is only restricted to cease of causalities in war areas, I think this
negotiation would be a chance to put the guns down. I perceive long lasting
peace as a condition that includes achieving justice to the survivors and
victims of war and treating the root causes of the conflict which were never
highlighted in all your speeches neither in the code of principles signed by
the Paris declaration group or 7+7 committee.
I am searching for the reasons making a
salvation opportunity for Sudanese people out of the ongoing negotiations. The conditions that made this
negotiation round unique; out of other 7 rounds since 2011, uncountable rounds
in Abuja and Doha. The later two resulted in many peace agreements which never put
an end to the war not to mention the people suffering. I get to know that Paris
declaration and Umma Party involvement in the process was the magical
ingredient to the long lasting peace, simply because it is the biggest
political party in Sudan in terms of membership numbers. I found it needless to recount the times that NUP
attacked the SRF, to remind the people of the disappointments and unmet
promises by NUP leader.
The opportunity for Sudanese people to enjoy a lasting
peace, justice and dignity begins with bringing the NCP regime down then
collective efforts to heal the damages of war, tribalism, economic inequalities
and achieve justice for the innocents who killed in a war they didn't fought.
But the glimpses of opportunities in bringing the regime down were aborted
several times by the (opposition leaders). I will restrict this to the recent
disappointments;
In July 2012, people were gathered in Wad Nubawi,
planning to pray for the souls of youth and school children being killed in
peaceful protests in Nyala only few days ago. However, the Friday prayers
speech focused on the fact that protestors are annoying the people who want to
pray and they are no longer welcome. Regardless the lack of coordination of
that day, it seems you never cared about those peaceful protesters being shot
dead. Lessons learnt are not to spark protests from a mosque and never rely on
untrustworthy leaders.
On September 2013, after masses of peaceful protesters
being shot dead in the streets of Khartoum, and other cities, most of them were
very young some as young as 12 years old. Those masses missed the political
leadership and the guidance when the protests reached its peak 23-25 September
2013. On Thursday 26 September 2013, when people in Khartoum were trying to
comprehend the reality of death tolls, It was even more frustrating to see Abo
Isa, of the National Consensus and his peers speaking to the regional news
channels saying that they couldn't hold a meeting in Azharis house because police denied them entrance to the building and pointed the guns.
What a
turning off message he was trying to send to the Sudanese people who witnessed
life shooting and killing of their beloved ones. After such a statement from a
leading person; I could even understand my family concerns and excuses for
giving me a hard time while trying to keep me away from taking the streets
again. They have been listening to the 80 something years old man who announced
quitting a meeting because a gun was pointed at him under the world sight and
hearing. The protests momentum was dispersed by the too late, too little
response to it and by the ongoing attempts to validate NCP regime through
national dialogue and later the comprehensive negotiations.
It worth telling, that while each and every opposition political actor in Sudan was considering the national dialogue
option or at least meeting with Thambo Mbeki of the AUHLIP except Girifna
movement. Girifna members were being summoned, interrogated and tortured by
NISS for rejecting the national dialogue and specifically for rejecting meeting
Mbeki. This was the kind of dialogue that you were considering. A dialogue that
shuts off all disobedient voices and I could see that nothing has changed that
would make NCP more open to peace and democratic conversation, let alone the
unmentioned justice.
I am wondering, how many times do we need to be
betrayed by the unmet promises to be convinced that regime change ought to be
our starting point? I wish I might be wrong and the negotiations and national
dialogue would bring peace. I wish it would end the war, bring justice to the killed,
the tortured and displaced persons. I wish it would heal the society that got
damaged by inequalities and war. Please don’t forget that it has been 11 years
of war in Darfur. The children who were born in 2003 know no peaceful life, and
they have no home but the displacement camps. I hope it would succeed because I
see no political will or power to bring NCP down to start up a construction
process that might bring the long lasting peace.
I found myself in no position to judge or reject the
ongoing collective deal of bringing peace between so called opposition and NCP.
I am only an average Sudanese activist, a woman with a dream to make the world
a better place to live. I want to go to bed without the images of outraged
women, emotionally and physically broken down activists and striving children.
I am in no better position than you to speak on behalf of the people, and with
no power, similar to you to bring down the regime.
However, I will continue to record failures and disappointments
for the sake of history, for the sake of millions who died, displaced, tortured;
who sacrificed their life and well-being for a better tomorrow of the Sudanese
people. I will continue to remind myself of that; so one day I would not
consider shaking hands with criminals as a way to bring long lasting peace.
And I know I am not standing alone on this.
There are
many young persons, the housewives, the unemployed guys next door and the students
which resistance is part of their daily schedule. Those are the recipe for
peace and justice in Sudan and the missing component that never considered.