Peace and goodwill to us all, especially South Sudan, CAR

Tomorrow is Christmas day and a week later will be New Year’s Day. It is a festive season and period of goodwill when joy, generosity and a sense of common humanity are the dominant feelings.But for some in the Great Lakes Region, such feelings are in very short supply.Barely two years after seceding from Sudan, the South Sudanese are engaged in a fratricidal butchering frenzy that could plunge the country into full-scale civil war.In many ways this is a betrayal – first, of ordinary South Sudanese who had a lot of hope that their lives would change with the country’s independence, and second, the international community, especially neighbouring countries, that invested so much effort, time and resources in the birth of the new country.There was goodwill towards South Sudan. That has now been squandered.In a sense, this was to be expected. South Sudan has not been able to transform into a nation. It remains largely a collection of ethnic groups, each with its leaders who all harbour ambition to be the head of the country.The groups have little in common except the geographical territory of South Sudan and a shared history of domination by their Arab neighbours to the north.In another sense, the history of South Sudan gave it a unique opportunity to forge a level of national consciousness and cohesion. The long years of struggle for freedom should have created a national awareness that transcends ethnic loyalties and individual ambitions.But that is not how it was. These loyalties remained primary and strong. The ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and its armed wing, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) reflected the ethnic patchwork of the country.The leaders of both are heads of their ethnic groups first and national leaders second. Military units owe their loyalty to individual leaders and their ethnic groups before they are a national institution.To these divisions add competition for the control of the country’s resources – both natural and from the goodwill of the international community – and you have a veritable combustible situation. Again the desire for resources control is not born out of a national zeal for their better utilisation, but for base selfish reasons.Regional diplomats are scrambling to prevent South Sudan from bursting into uncontrollable conflagration. They may succeed in dousing the fire for now. But that is only temporary.A more lasting solution is for South Sudan to develop a sense of nationhood and attitudes that go with that. The interests of the country are larger than President Salva Kiir or his former vice president Riek Machar, or those of the Dinka and Nuer.Next door Central African Republic (CAR) is already burning. Now, the CAR is a sleepy, forgotten place. The French colonialists ensured that it remained undeveloped and unremembered.However, the CAR has a way of forcing the world to take notice, usually by some notorious acts. Less than a year ago, the SELEKA rebels, until then little-known, burst into Bangui and sent President Francois Bozize and his government fleeing to neighbouring countries.They also killed a few South African troops that had come to back him. In a short time factions within the former rebels emerged. Christian and Muslim militias took out their differences on ordinary citizens, each killing people belonging to the “wrong” faith.Before the SELEKA rebels arrived on the scene and demanded attention by slaughtering innocent citizens, the CAR had earned notoriety by hosting the demented and vicious Ugandan rebel leader, Joseph Kony.Earlier in its history, the CAR commanded notice courtesy of a colonial sergeant with an ego out of all proportion to his diminutive figure. A certain Jean Bedel Bokassa rose to general, then thought that was not big enough and crowned himself emperor.He went on to plunder his impoverished country so as to live like a real emperor. In the end Bokassa died a pauper. Few people remember what His Imperial Majesty looked like.No one came to the aid of the people of the CAR when Bokassa and successive presidents destroyed their country. Today, however, the French and the African Union have scrambled troops to bring order to CAR. It is proving more difficult to pacify the CAR than had been anticipated.I suspect the rush to save the CAR is not purely for humanitarian reasons. The French have been keen to use force to reassert their influence in their former colonies. Also, there is probably more in CAR than forests, demented leaders and murderous rebels.In our immediate neighbourhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) an uneasy lull obtains. There is no fighting, but not much has changed. Conditions for renewed violence still exist.So, in this festive season when people across the world will be singing about peace and goodwill, we might do well to remember that there are parts in our region that could do with a little dose of that feeling that is overflowing in other parts,Merry Christmas to you all.The writer is a political commentator based in Kigali

Opinions

Peace and goodwill to us all, especially South Sudan, CAR