The ownership of the Nuer genocide!
By Luk Kuth Dak
October 5, 2014 – Most South Sudanese at one point or another have experienced the evil of violence during the course of their lives, but the December, the 15th, 2013 undeniable genocide of the an apolitical Nuer people, in the hands of the disgraced President of the republic of South Sudan, Mr. Salva Kiir Mayardit will go down in human history as one of the most brutal act of evil, against innocent and unarmed civilians!
Almost a year later, not a single person has been brought to justice for the massacre, which has sicken the world by viewing the gruesome images of the unburied dead in the streets of the capital, Juba and other towns and cities across the country.
Emphatically, Mr. Kiir will never take ownership of the genocide. In fact, he doesn’t even want to talk about it, or show any kind of a fake remorse; instead, he’s barricaded himself with some Nuer worshipers of the likes of Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin, Health Minister, Shiek Riek Gai Kok, my brother -in-law, Mr. Philip Ruach Chan, and of course, the Jieeng golden boy, Mr. Gordon Buay. On numerous occasions, the later assured the President of his greatness!! “You’re the best leader the world has ever seen,” he was quoted as telling a prepaid hand-picked crowd at Kiir’s arrival at the UN General Assembly in New York. Seriously! I have never thought that Mr. Kiir and “greatness” could ever meet in one sentence.
If the Gallup polls were conducted in South Sudan today, they will indicate that an overwhelming majority of the South Sudanese, particularly among none Dinka, disapprove of Kiir’s performance as President. But since he won the presidential election, chances are that some of those who now disapprove of what he has done voted to put him in office. We all make mistakes, but the burning question is whether we learn from them.
With many Jieeng (Dinka) intellectuals now acting as if it is no time for a none Jieeng to become the leader of our nation, apparently they have learned absolutely nothing from what let to the division of South Sudan in 1983, better known as “Kokora” and, the current disastrous results of choosing a president of South Sudan on the basis of tribal background, instead of individual qualifications, all of which Kirr has none.
More than anyone else in South Sudan, the Jieeng have everything to lose and absolutely nothing to gain by destroying the nation. They are, after all, the beneficiaries of the nation’s wealth. Under this corrupt regime, the wealth gap between Jieeng and the rest of the country had grown to its widest in favor of Jieeng. So why are they shooting themselves in the foot?
To the majority of the Jieeng intellectuals, it means that criticism of Mr. Kiir is considered to be a sign of being against the Jieeng as a whole, which is a total nonsense. I have been accused of being a “Jieeng hater” for simply calling for a new leadership. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it would not matter to me if the next ten Presidents of South Sudan in a row were Jieeng, if these happened to be the best individuals at the time. But to suggest that Mr. Kiir is irreplaceable after a decade long and counting in office is to say that we are willfully blind to the dangers of putting life-and-death decisions in the hands of someone chosen for tribal reasons.
Bluntly stated, it is by no means possible that South Sudan will survive the long-run consequences of the disastrous decisions already made by Mr. Kiir, especially the cold-blooded massacre of the Naath people on December, the 15th.
Today, the Naath people are standing all alone in an island of despair. The UN won’t protect them from Kiir’s brutality. The US and the European Union won’t protect them either, instead they clutching arms with the murderer, Mr. Salva Kiir. So the question is who will protect the Naath from the eminent danger of Kiir’s savage regime?
The simple answer is: the Naath themselves.
If the Naath wake up in some morning and find out that some of their people have been murdered by the regime, don’t blame the world, it will be because you earned it.
Luk Kuth Dak is an independent columnist/writer. He can be reached at [email protected]