Jonglei intellectuals at peace gathering call for real unity

By Thon Philip Aleu

May 22, 2009 (BOR) – During the five-day peace and reconciliation conference in Jonglei State, intellectuals who hail from the two major tribes laid out what should be done to have long-lasting peace with “real unity to salvage something for our people”.

Beginning on May 14, 2009 at Dr. John Garang Institute in Bor town Uror, Nyirol, Duk, Ayod and Twic East Counties sat at a round-table and sealed an agreement to cease hostilities and adopt amicable resolution to tribal contests. The five counties represent Nuer and Dinka Bor tribes in Jonglei. Paramount chiefs from the five counties were also issued guides to the South Sudan Local Government Act of 2009 to help them in their work.

The peace meeting was attended by chiefs, youth leaders, MPs, commissioners and elders. The chiefs challenged the government for not enforcing laws and allowing widespread crimes with impunity in the state. During the discussion, the traditional leaders silenced intellectuals for most of the discussion saying “you have a lot of time together.”

In an exclusive interview with the Sudan Tribune at the sideline of the peace signing on May 14, Hon. Maker Deng Malou, Duk County MP in the South Sudan Assembly cited politicians’ diverse approaches to tribal problems as a peace threatening factor.

“The people are ready to forget and to forgive but politics try to arouse events which have been almost forgotten. Our people have been ready to forget and to forgive,” Hon. Maker responded when asked to comment about the 1991 SPLM split which catalyzed Lou Nuer attacks on Dinka Bor. Thousands of lives were lost in that contest.

Reconciliation over the events of 1991 is seen as signpost for overall healing of tension between the two tribes. Hon. Maker, however, wants people to look beyond the 1991 crisis and live up for the future for peace and unity to prevail.

“My position in the talk was very clear that, the people of Jonglei are seriously disadvantaged by being misled on these issues of cattle rustling, on these issues of tribal feuding and it’s my anticipation to see that they abandon this completely and be together,” he said.

Until 1991, Maker said, “our people were together. Even after the split of the movement [SPLM/A], there were some spirit of peaceful co-existence among our people.” As soon as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed and opportunities availed – things like positions in the State government, in the Counties with commissioners being placed on political bases, things went wrong and things are bound to go wrong unless these local administrative problems are addressed, Hon. Maker warned.

But Uror Commissioner Gatluak Reath Kuil disagrees.

COMMISSIONERS ARE NOT JUDGES

“That one [1991 crisis] will not be happening anymore because that one has happened not for the community; that one was a faction. For this one [current tribal tension], it is only because the ripples from the war have poured to everybody,” said the commissioner.

Responding to the alleged commissioners’ fueling of tribal conflicts, Mr. Reath Kuil said: “This is an allegation, because there is no interference from the commissioners… It’s the police’s responsibility and the court…. Not the commissioners. We are not assigned to judge any person. We just talk or give instructions to the police to go and collect the person.”

However, Hon. Maker admitted that elected officials’ behaviors affects the situation at home directly or indirectly. “Yes, when two or three politicians go differently, the rest of the politicians, no matter how good they are, will just be put together with these politicians,” Hon. Maker said.

The politicians [MPs] don’t visit their people to brief them on what is going on, Commissioner Reath claimed, and that is why the community are complaining. Mr. Reath was reacting to allegations that MPs use their tribesmen against others to gain popularity and they are causing tension in the process.

But commissioners can play a vital role when in the vicinity of villages, where cattle raiding and fighting over resources are common, Jonglei Assembly MP representing Akobo, Hon. James Rout, told the Sudan Tribune during the peace discussion when asked how best cattle rustling can be averted.

NEGLECTED TALENTS

“They (commissioners) are supposed to educate our young people that cows are not the only source of the life in the community. Our young ones have many talents but they (youths) don’t know this,” Hon. Rout said adding “it is commissioners’ sole responsibility to do this.”

The leaders unanimously called for full-scale disarmament but argued that the effort would be “squarely in the hands” of the Government of Southern Sudan because communities themselves would be reluctant to give up their arms.

“The disarmament can not be decided by the people… because they simply wish to have their arms. Nobody is doing any other work other than to grab food or cattle with firearms,” Hon. Maker said adding “So, disarmament is squarely in the hand of the government and should not be discussed [here]. When the government is ready to do it, it has to be done.”

Hon. Gatkuoth Duop, MP for Uror and Nyirol in the South Sudan Legislative Assembly, protested in his speech at the opening ceremony that his constituencies are vulnerable to neighbors having been disarmed in 2006 by SPLA forces.

However, a lot of arms are said to have resurfaced. When asked to explain how the communities still hold firearms, Kertut Jiek, a youth leader from Nyirol County and a delegate to the peace conference, said disarmament had not really been completed.

“There was no full disarmament made in all places. That disarmament is not really a full disarmament,” Mr. Jiek said adding “You can’t say that people were disarmed and… got guns again.” Without full scale gun collection, Mr. Jiek said, “people who are not disarmed may sell guns to those disarmed.”

Compensation for killing and looting of properties, as covered in the peace agreement, would help to restore peace, Mr Jiek asserted.

UNITY TO SALVAGE

But communities ought to agree to live together without aggression and to abandon the minor issues, said Hon. Maker Deng Malou when asked to respond to a comment about compensation for lives of people killed during tribal clashes.

“This internal border is not our issue at the moment and… we must establish a firm ground as politicians and tell our people that this is not the time for encroachment, for land grabbing. It’s time for them to be united,” he said.

Mr. Maker called for change of attitude from the youths, elders and chiefs in order to “come to a real united position so that we salvage something.”

At the closing remarks, Philip Thon Leek, Federal Minister for transport roads and bridges pledged to build roads connecting major towns in Lou Nuer and Duk Counties as part of development.

(ST)