By Malek Arol Dhieu
When you look closely at the army, you can see a great difference between SPLA (Anyanya 1 and 2 included) veterans and SSPDF veterans.
SPLA veterans are those veterans who joined the army from 1955 to 2005, meanwhile, SSPDF veterans are those veterans who joined the army from 2005 to date. And by the way, who is a veteran? In layman’s language, a veteran is a person with long experience in a particular activity. But a veteran, from a military perspective, refers to a person who has served in the armed forces, especially an old soldier who has seen long service.
Up to 2011, it was still SPLA, but after independence, the army’s name was changed to SSPDF. It was as if the name SPLA was abandoned together with SPLA veterans. Most of the army and civil positions have been held by SSPDF veterans and this led to the pushing of the SPLA veterans to the periphery. Of course, there is a division among those who chased independence, those who skinned it and those who came to eat the ready food. SPLA veterans aimed at the independence and shot it dead. Those who joined the army from 1998, after the massive expulsion of Arabs, to 2005 came to skin it, and those who joined the army from 2005 to date just came to eat the ready food. Chasers——Skinners—–Eaters.
So, when SPLA veterans ask for their share of a national cake, it sounds like an insult in the ears of SSPDF veterans who are now the dominant. Even a few SPLA veterans holding public offices have turned deaf ears to other SPLA veterans who have been pushed to the periphery. Since there is no retirement because a pension package is not there, SPLA veterans are still active in the army. When a veteran falls sick, maybe suffering from a disease of old age, chronic disease or an injury due to a gunshot, neither the SSPDF administration nor the Presidency, which is headed by an SPLA veteran, takes good care of the sick veterans.
With a medical referral form, a veteran struggles for months or even a year to get money for treatment abroad. Only a few veterans who are too close to SSPDF veterans holding public offices get money for treatment as early as possible, but a majority of veterans have difficulty getting money for treatment. Of course, their salaries cannot even buy a one-way air ticket, let alone treatment and all other stuff. So, they need help by all means, and such help is not only for those going abroad for treatment, but those receiving treatment inside South Sudan need financial support as well. Not all veterans who are dying are dying due to the severity of their conditions, some are dying due to delays in medical intervention as the release of health insurance money takes a long in all the concerned institutions.
So, why? Why would people who had sacrificed for South Sudan be neglected? They should well be taken care of and accorded full respect and protection even when they are in tombs. Remember elderly people have the potential to curse. Who knows 20% of South Sudan’s ever-ending crisis comes from the curses of abandoned SPLA veterans? There is a need to put two things in place. Firstly, retirement should be put into force and a retirement package prepared, approved and paid for retired veterans. This would cater for the veterans’ basic services, including their health.
Secondly, if putting retirement into force threatens the president himself as I know it does, then a directorate for veteran affairs should be created in the presidency and financially equipped to look into critical affairs of the veterans. Affairs of the veterans are so critical that they should be close to the president, rather than putting them at a distance. With the current setting, it takes long for veteran affairs to reach the presidency and takes much longer time for them to reach the veterans. Veterans are not sold so that a country that has depleted its veterans can go and buy. Veterans are sustained, or preserved. As inevitable as death, one veteran falls asleep and another one is awakened. Long live all the veterans.
Thanks for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth”.