WHAT I TOLD DR. RIEK MACHAR WHEN HE ASKED ME TO ‘GO TO JUBA’…
WHAT I TOLD DR. RIEK MACHAR WHEN HE ASKED ME TO ‘GO TO JUBA’…
‘July 10, 2018: Khartoum, Sudan’
After a 2-hour waiting and wading through a long queue of hundreds of ‘meeters’ in front of the Big Man’s office-cum-home north of Khartoum City, we are now ‘fluked’ in by Luke Thompson Thoan Teny, a ‘friend of the civil society’, and my own Jon Pen’s. Wani Michael, Mario Konyen Nakuwa Jnr and this note taker are in for the Civil Society consultation.
Throughout the 4-year negotiations on ARCiSS, HLRF and now the Revitalized ARCiSS, we, the trio, among others, are known for this thing of ours. They christened us ‘Team 5AM’: meaning we are a technical and tactical team that work from 5PM till 5AM on the documents of the Agreement and walk from 6AM to 6PM from office to office, meeting the leaders of the oppositions, Government’s, Diplomacies’, IGAD, TROIKA, etc.
While we are ‘team nocturnal’ as such, there is ‘team diurnal’, the day’s daredevils who present such findings in the Plenary (face-to-face negotiation). My hat off to our small iron lady, Dr. Koiti Emmily and all those colleagues…! Here, we are so emboldened to say and do anything that is within the decency of the talks and/or with the urgency unto our folks’ frustrations back home.
This is my fifth and last face-to-face encounter (officially) with Dr. Machar, the SPLM-IO leader. The first of my CSO’s delegation was at Safari Park in Nairobi (2014), then Addis Ababa (2014), Arusha (2015), Pagak (2014-2015) and now Khartoum (2018).
After a brief background reminders in the presence of the IO’s iron lady, Dr. Riek asked, “John, so when are we going to Juba?” This question is pregnant…! I mean it’s almost related to the one he posed to me in his house at Addis Ababa and Pagak — where I spent 31 days (December 1, 2014 to January 1, 2015).
Tempter’s questions like this are not meant for characters with weak tempers. Yes, so many of my fellow peace activists had declared sides immediately, but not these Big Three! Oh, wow, nothing is as tempting as the Mayen Wol Jong’s appointment letter to J1 on February 8, 2014 (with the CMC-based envelope and ToRs of up to $120,000).
To hell with me and family! I dipped deep into my shallow pocket not the Innocents’ bloodstained dollars but the President Kiir’s contract, and flew straight outta of J1 to Addis Ababa on the 12th day of February in 2014, “…until this office (Presidency) is ready to assign me on genuine peace (not war) journalism.” I intimated this to my former CSO friend, Kur Ayuen Kou (Majeep), the man behind my ‘appointment’, who would be jailed immediately thereafter with the Executive Director (Mayen ‘Wolf’ Jong), Chaat Paul (RIP) and John Agou John Woi for life imprisonment till ‘father noticed’ two years later. Don’t ask what was awaiting me…
“Mr. Chairman,” I told Dr. Riek. “I’ll go to Juba anytime, but on one condition: when Juba is in Juba!” He looked at me and threw a glance at his wife, before I repeated myself. “Yes, I will go to Juba after Juba has gone to Juba!” Madam Angelina picked up her notebook and scribbled something down…
SOURCE: Day 4, ‘My Car-Tomb Die-hurry’
FOOTNOTE
Dear reader, do you still want to know whether and when ‘Juba is in Juba’ and when/whether Jon Pen should now fly home on this 3rd anniversary (Year 3) of the Khartoum Peace Agreement (KDA), now ‘RARCiSS’?
