By David Fugoyo
News about Sudan
and South Sudan has occupied the media for
number of days now. The contest over Heglig (Panthou) is the main reason of the
current struggle between the two countries. The question of “in whose
territories does Heglig (Panthou) lie?” is the cardinal question as far as the
struggle or the talk about the struggle between Sudan
and South Sudan is concerned.
My concern, in this article, is not to show
or prove who the owners of Heglig are. My mandate here is to let the readers
know why the war between Sudan
and South Sudan would be very devastating. I
would like to give an illustration to what I want to explain in this article.
My cousin, Kennedy, and I lived in one house
and were very close friends in our childhood. We were a very strong team that
vowed to fight our common enemies (whoever attacked and threatened either of
us). I knew Kennedy’s points of strength and weakness; he also knew my points
of strength and weakness. We fought with our neighbor’s kids and with our friends
in school and in our residential area. However, whenever I disagreed with
Kennedy and we decided to fight, the result was always ‘bloodshed’. None of our
colleagues or friends was able to stop us from fighting. In most case, our
colleagues and friends had to rush to our house to report to our parents that
we were fighting. Even with the presence of both or one of our parents, Kennedy
and I were willing to continue fighting.
There is no country in the world that knows
Sudan as South
Sudan does. South Sudan knows the weakness and strength of Sudan; it knows almost all the military
strategic areas and the buildings and bridges that are very strategic in Sudan. In the
same way, Sudan knows South Sudan more than any other country. Imagine if war
breaks out between Sudan and
South Sudan! Many strategic places in both
countries would be destroyed, many lives will be lost. The war would also
hamper developmental projects and plans in both countries. Given the fact that
South Sudan has been viewing Sudan
as the reason of its lack of development, and the reason of the death of
millions of its citizens, war would add fuel to the already-existing antagonism
between both countries.
The point of the immediate two paragraphs
above is that the closer people are, the fiercer their conflict is. The going
to war of Sudan and South Sudan would, therefore, be the worst option. The
best option, if possible, for Sudan
and South Sudan is to go for negotiation (dialogue). Even if
the solutions to the outstanding issues between both countries seem to be
impossible, negotiation is the best option.
I would conclude that war between Sudan and South Sudan
would mean going back to anguish and to the days of devastation. It would mean going
back to the days of lack of schools and good roads, to the days of hunger and
sleeping in the cold, to the days of worries and families’ disintegration, to
death. War should not be THE OPTION, if possible.
