Western Equatoria: Local radio journalists train in media advocacy for the voluntary surrender of LRA rebels
June 6, 2011 (YAMBIO) – The Ministry of Information and Communications in Western Equatoria, South Sudan, in collaboration with Conciliation Resource, a UK-based charity on Monday trained local journalists in the state on how to use media to send messages to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abductees and troops to abandon their rebellion and return home peacefully.
Radio journalists from Yambio FM, Maridi FM, and Ezo FM in Western Equatoria converged in Yambio to attend a four-day workshop on finding a way of persuading the LRA by using media by developing programs that will encourage the rebels come home.
The LRA are a rebel group originally from northern Uganda, notorious for their barbarism. They have been killing, abducting and pillaging in the region for years. They are a marauding band with indeterminate demands who fill their ranks with inhabitants of the places they attack. Their leader, Joseph Kony has an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court against his name.
The facilitator of the workshop, William Gaaniko, disclosed that the workshop was a continuation of the resolutions of a stake holders conference which was conducted in Yambio in early March this year, which involved Acholi leaders of northern Uganda, who have experienced the LRA blight and successfully pushed them out of their region.
Ganiko pointed out that the messages will “contain dramas, songs to enable leaders send positive messages of hope to rebels, conduct interviews with both abductees and their parents to appeal to other sections return safely home.”
He added that “other affected countries including Central Africa Republic, and DR Congo [Democratic Republic of Congo] are running the same programs.
The state minister of information and communications, Gibson Bullen Wande said “so many attempts have been made at discussions […] including military actions but still the LRA is continuing with their atrocities in the region.”
He maintained that with the experience learnt from colleges in northern Uganda, based on the accessibility of the media, radio was identified as a tool to be used to help in advocating for the return of sons and daughters forced to kill by the LRA.
“This workshop will not stop the military operations because we also have stubborn LRA rebels“ decried the Wande.
The minister also noted that the messages will target various groups including the LRA commanders.
“The messages will be addressing the LRA and the abductees and also there will be messages to the communities where the LRA rebels continue to abduct, loot and burn, including the displacement. There will also be messages to the victims of the LRA”, Wande disclosed.
He also mentioned that some messages will target the authorities, suggesting they have an amnesty to those abducted children who are returning home and with regard to the kind of laws that will be protecting them when they come back.
Wande cautioned the state journalists should be extra careful in delivering such messages.
“You have to be careful with the messages you will be developing so that the content does not instigate chaos amongst the communities” cautioned Wande.
The Government of South Sudan earlier pledged to deploy more Joint Integrated Units (JIU) and Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) troops in the state to improve the security situation. The JIU are troops made of South Sudan’s army, the SPLA, and the north Sudanese army, the Sudan Armed Forces.
This will boost the work of the home guards known as the Arrow Boys, which remain firm in their protection of the local population from the attacks of the LRA rebels in the state using traditional as well as modern weaponry.
(ST)