S. Sudan NGOs network urges Salva Kiir to reconsider talks with Uganada LRA
H.E. Hon. Salva Kiir
President of Government of Southern Sudan
Juba
Dear Sir,
RE: ONGOING TALKS BETWEEN GOVERNMENT OF SOUTHERN SUDAN AND LRA
June 21, 2006 — The 67 indigenous civil society organizations that comprise the New Sudanese Indigenous NGOs Network (NESI Network) have been keenly following events on the aforementioned subject.
While we appreciate your efforts aimed at sustaining the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), we wish to express our discomfort with the manner in which talks are being handled between the Government of Southern Sudan and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels.
Your Excellency, it has been reported of how the LRA has committed unforgivable human rights violations of not only Ugandans but also innocent Southern Sudanese citizens, mostly women and children. Captive children have been reported to be forced to take part in combat, carry heavy loads, act as personal servants to the rebels, and, in the case of girls, serve as “wives” to rebel commanders. The children undergo a brutal initiation into rebel life: they are forced to participate in acts of extreme violence, often being compelled to help beat or hack to death fellow child captives who have attempted to escape. The rebels often marched their child captives to rebel base camps in our own country, Southern Sudan. Many children have died of disease or starvation during the marches. Many civilians have been brutally maimed or have lost their limbs as a result of stepping on landmines. Travelling through roads in Equatoria is a great risk because of indiscriminate ambushes. This makes normal social and economic life extremely difficult. Many Southern Sudanese citizens as well as international humanitarian workers live in constant fear of attacks by the LRA. The activities of the LRA have resulted in international recrimination and eventual indictment of its leaders at the International Criminal Court (ICC). As a matter of fact, the activities of the LRA are a formidable threat to the CPA.
In light of the foregoing and the fact that Sudan peace is at a delicate stage with people slowly returning to their motherland after years of displacement, NESI Network on behalf of the civil society in Sudan, appeals to the Government of Southern Sudan to review its decision to engage in talks with the LRA in a manner that can be construed as deviance from international norms and judicial systems. We ask that justice should be allowed to take its course by arresting and extraditing the rebel leaders to face their well-deserved charges before the ICC.
We wish to affirm that our expression above does not imply our disloyalty to your government, which we would like to congratulate for making real efforts aimed at sustaining the CPA as well as developing Southern Sudan.
Thank you very much.
Yours sincerely,
Suzanne Jambo
Coordinator, NESI Network
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