Oil-Rich Southern Sudan Seeks its Own Destiny

October 15, 2008 (JUBA) – Southern Sudan’s spiffy new outpost in Washington isn’t really an embassy. But it could very easily become one in 2011 if this vast, Texas-size chunk of territory decides to secede from Sudan and become Africa’s newest independent nation. For now, Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth is content being called "head of mission" rather than ambassador.

"I report to Juba, not to Khartoum," said Lol, who at six feet six inches towers over almost every other envoy in town. Lol, a veteran of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), spoke to The Washington Diplomat from his sixth-floor office at 20th and M Streets.

"The SPLM is calling for a united Sudan," he insisted. "If it can be transformed into a democratic, secular state where everybody is equal and all religions are respected, there is no need for us to have two countries. But if the north thinks we’re still uncivilized peasants — just a bunch of African tribes who cannot even govern themselves — then it’s better for us to have our own independent state."

That could very well happen for this semi-autonomous region, which is expected to hold a referendum on its political status in 2011 under the terms of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement that tentatively brought an end to a 22-year civil war between the north and south. The fragile peace deal also ushered into power the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), which now has 18 missions around the world, including branches in Cairo, Nairobi, Brussels, Pretoria and Washington.

In fact, unlike many African embassies that suffer from peeling paint and general neglect, the GOSS office in Washington is new and sleek. A steady stream of petroleum revenues fund Lol’s 14-member staff, not to mention a sophisticated, user-friendly Web site that puts the sites of many larger, wealthier nations to shame.

"Our mission is funded by GOSS and is completely legal," said Lol of the D.C. office that was established Jan. 16, 2007. "It’s in the Sudanese constitution."

The Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan was adopted following the Second Sudanese Civil War of 1983-2005, which displaced some 4 million people and killed an estimated 1.9 million — one of the largest civilian death tolls since World War II. That conflict though is entirely separate from the current crisis in Darfur in the western part of the country between militias backed by the Arab government in Khartoum and various rebel groups.

Given the widely reported atrocities in Darfur, it’s no surprise that Lol is doing all he can to distance his government from the generally abysmal image of the Sudanese dictatorship. Asked to describe relations between his own mission and the Sudanese Embassy only six blocks away, Lol said there’s cooperation on routine matters like the issuance of visas — but huge differences on issues like Darfur.

"In my opinion, what is happening to the people of Darfur is genocide," Lol told The Washington Diplomat. "They suffer just like us, they are marginalized just like us, and we cannot allow this to happen to fellow Sudanese. When it comes to violation of human rights, discrimination or censorship of the press, we’re not going to tolerate that."

But Lol sidestepped a question on whether Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, is a war criminal. "The International Criminal Court says he has committed atrocities and has requested his arrest," he said. "It has nothing to do with us. Whatever they do, we have no influence over it."

Rather than elaborate, Lol simply handed The Diplomat a prepared statement dated July 14 on the ICC indictment, which says that "the SPLM leadership was taken aback by the speed of recent developments ... which has understandably created a serious situation that could threaten peace and stability in the Sudan."

Not that the 42 million inhabitants of this country — Africa’s largest in size — have ever enjoyed much of either, whether they lived to the south, west, east or north. Lol, 36, grew up in a nation at war.

"Sudan got its independence in 1956. Our first war lasted from 1955 to 1972, and the second from 1983 to 2005," he explained. "So we have had only 10 years of peace in this country."

That first war saw the Anyanya movement — representing mainly Christian and animist black Africans in Southern Sudan — battling Arab Muslim government forces from the north. Civil war resumed in 1983, when the dictatorship ruled by Gaafar Nimeiri restricted southern autonomy and imposed Islamic law, known as Sharia.

"We were fighting on two fronts, the political and the military," noted Lol, who was born in the village of Maluan, in the state of Upper Nile, and trained as a soldier in Ethiopia, where his rebel army unit was headquartered.

In 1993, Lol moved to Kenya and resettled in the United States the following year. After going to school in Texas, he became the SPLM’s deputy representative in this country, even as the civil war continued to rage back home.

By the time fighting between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army finally ended in May 2004, the country’s economy was in shambles — a result of strict U.N. sanctions imposed on it by an outraged world.

Lol said that under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed on Jan. 9, 2005, "we have one country, Sudan, with two systems. In the north, it’s the Islamic system, or Sharia, and in the south, it’s a secular system. We also have two armies, the SPLA and the Sudan Armed Forces, and we have a joint integrated unit — with soldiers from both armies — and have put them together as a symbol of unity."

The CPA also gives this enormous territory the right to secede after six years, which means that a referendum on political status will most likely take place on Jan. 9, 2011.