South Sudan: Communists call for an end to violence

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The Communist party issued a statement when President Salva Keir liquidated his cabinet and sacked his deputy in 2013, in that statement we called this action as another step towards exasperating the power struggle within the ruling party SPLMK, and we consider it as a major distraction from the real agenda of post-independence such as poverty, unemployment, diseases and low living slandered of the people.
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The strife in post-independent South Sudan concentrates on who rules and for how long, the official higher positions and ranks in the state were looked upon as the mains vehicle for accumulating wealth and power through very high salaries, unlimited remunerations, corruption and embezzlement. We affirmed that this power struggle opens the doors to all sorts of problems including violence, and the way out remains in the formation of a national inclusive government of all political parties with a defined and agreed upon programme, and the different political persuasions and programmes should be left to the people to decide on, and choose from, in a general election.
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The incidents of 15 December 2013 was a perilous stage in the power struggle through armed mutinies with a sole purpose of amassing power through militarised actions, while the political strife within the SPLM/A is a clear sign of the failure of the ruling party to govern. The false projection of the events as political strife is a mere trial to white wash the truth, facts shows that both wings of the SPLM failed to tackle post-independence challenges and they should both bear the responsibility of this calamity that befell the people of South Sudan.
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The nature of the ethnic construction of SPLM, especially the Republican Guards contingents, is one of the reasons of the problem, not the wide diversity of the people of South Sudan. In spite of the amalgamation of all militia forces of SPLA in the SPLM/A army, yet each one of them retained its tribal formation and pre-independence leadership and exercised power through this tribal and ethnic associations and alliances, despite earnest trials to miss-represent this fact, yet it pops up loud and clear that the strife is moving towards bitter ethnic war.
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The material and human loss is huge and the military machine is destroying lives of thousands of people without mercy, we borrow a proverb which says that, when elephants wrestle, only grass will die. Many parts of the country were strewn with mass-graves, normal people no longer feel safe in their country, many were made displaced and refugees in their own land, faced with hunger, disease and death.
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The repercussions of this war leads to ripping apart the fragile social fabric of the country and exacerbate acrimony and bitterness between the different tribes and groups in South Sudan. The continuation of this fighting will jeopardise oil production and tighten current economic austerity policies and consequently worsen the living standards of the already badly deprived people of South Sudan.

The Solution:
We, the Communist Party of South Sudan, firmly and unfalteringly declare that peaceful solution to this political struggle is the only way out. And we unreservedly condemn this unrestrained violence and condemn all parties accomplice to it, and we demand that all those responsible should be brought to account for it through international justice.
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We welcome the steps of the International Security council to send international forces to keep the peace and halt the situation from further escalation, and to stop the State of South from becoming another Rwanda.
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We also welcome the efforts of IGAD to bring together the warring parties for negotiations and demand of the Government of South Sudan to create a conducive atmosphere for these negotiations.
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We call upon the Government to free all political detainees.
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We demand unconditional cease-fire
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We demand that any agreement between the warring parties should be presented to political parties for their opinion and at the same time to be tabled in the parliament for debate and sanctioning.
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We in the Communist Party of South Sudan reject the sole control of SPLM of National issues, which was tolerated before the war. We acknowledge that SPLM has achieved peace and independence, but it also created crisis by its in-wars and its lack of ability to solve people’s problems and cater for their needs. It is high time for SPLM to acknowledge its mistakes and offer an apology to the people of South Sudan. The coming government should represent all political forces in the country if we really seek a way out.
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We call upon all political forces to strengthen the spirit of peace in the society and preach democracy,
And we call for national re-formation and re-organisation of the national army of the state of South Sudan.