Nuer community urge S. Sudan rebel generals to rejoin Machar
August 13, 2015 (KAMPALA) – Sections of the Nuer community from South Sudan have criticised the recent decision by two former rebel generals to form another armed opposition group.
But the Nuer community, at a meeting held in Kampala, Uganda, called on the Nuer generals to reverse their decision and return to the initial armed opposition struggle against what they described as the “dictatorial tendency” in the young nation.
“We are calling on our sons, daughters, elders and politicians from the Nuer to reverse a decision to fight each other. We urge you to save thousands of lives from Nuer, which were mainly targeted by president Salva Kiir in the December 2013 outbreak of conflicts,” partly reads the community’s statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Thursday.
Puok Ruach Lam, chairman of Liech community in Unity State said the whole Nuer community do appreciate the role being played by the two generals, who swiftly responded to the killing of their children in the aftermath of the violence in Juba.
“For the sake of lives of Nuer [people], you were the very people who shot the first bullet on air in Jonglei state. We now have a feeling of being betrayed by you at last, when we put all our trust on you to unites us to bring change to the very country,” said Lam.
He called on the generals to sit down and get ideas from Nuer elders, sons, daughters and intellectuals to cement their differences peacefully, rather than by armed struggles.
Both Gatwech Lum, a representative of Eastern Nuer community, said the two generals have been misled by certain groups and instead of settling their grievances with rebel leader, Riek Machar, they opted to defect from the armed opposition movement.
“We as Nuer need unity. We should have avoid [the habit] of saying, who is she or him? And this is what is making us divided giving opportunity to our enemies to penetrate within us easily,” Lum told Sudan Tribune.
“We as the Nuer community in Uganda have appreciated the contributions by these generals but our question remains that why would they want to bury their legacy putting the whole Nuer to zero level forgetting why they had gone to the bushes,” he added.
The group urged the defected generals to reunite ranks with the armed opposition leader Machar to work for peace in South Sudan for the sake of achieving everlasting change.
CALLS FOR PEACE
James Tayien Koang, a member of the Nuer community in Kampala, says for South Sudan to restore calm for peace, there is need for removal of egos among tribes, stressing that the characters of some of the tribes have messed up the country.
“On behalf of my community and on my own behalf I urge the anti-peace elements to give peace a chance because South Sudan belongs to all of us and does not belong to war investors. In our community, we don’t have room for war initiators” he said.
Meanwhile, Koang urged the IGAD countries to work hard to bring peace to South Sudan.
“The very people who have been most affected by current conflicts in South Sudan’s Greater Upper Nile States never staged demonstrations against the peace proposal,” he said.
(ST)