Tenets of genuine and lasting peace in nation building

By Suzanne Jambo

December 5, 2011 — The South has tragically suffered insurmountable amount of dear losses due to the absence of peace; innocent millions of souls have died in almost 50 decades, invaluable properties and resources etc. The South was forced as a result of too many civil wars and political instability to stagnate in development and stability in any form, hence, for a very long time and up most recently the average picture of the South is that of a Country is that of lack of any infrastructure, roads, schools, hospitals, homes and decent dwellings, recreational activities among many more.

The most tragic about the two civil wars we had undergone during Anya Nya One of 1955 – 1972 and the SPLM/A one of 1983 – 2005 is the loss felt by the People; hundreds of thousands of us today suffer from various levels of trauma as a result of either having being born and brought up during war times whilst others fought at any given time during any of the two wars. We carry deep scars of bullets either physically on our bodies or mentally by having witnessed the innocent deaths of millions over the years. The trauma is surmountable and heavy.

We however, live in a patriarchal society; maybe somewhat macho due to our culture highly influenced by militarism and the culture of conflicts too. Both cultures do not publicly permit for a healing process from such scars terms as leaning more toward feminine ways of handling the effect of wars and its impact on our society, the People and Country as a whole.

There is a serious concern here, given that hundreds of thousands carry the baggage of two civil wars impact, physically (e.g. the physically challenged persons), widows and orphans etc. As well, the mental impact leading many to suffer from mental ailments and sicknesses including madness, chronic depression in different forms and high temperaments to mention a few. There those who completely loss hope in being productive neither the desire to constructively contribute toward Nation-building due to so much sense of hopelessness and despair.

Very importantly, the most visible impact of the prolonged decades of civil wars has far more damaging symptoms in our society; the culture of violence and squaring political differences through arming groups to fight against one another along communal (tribal) lines; ethnic fighting. This is extremely dangerous and very damaging, indeed, it is micro-wars. A new nation which has undergone and continues to suffer from ethnic fighting must take such internal threats and insecurity very seriously right from the outset and ensure that, open, inclusive and publicly-participated dialogues will go a long way in addressing the issues and unearthing the root causes of these conflicts in the hope to peacefully resolve them. In addition to public and inclusive dialogues, it is cardinally urged that state pillars such as the judiciary and law enforcement agencies must be fully equipped in objectively and professionally handling these dialogues approaches and outcomes and hence be able to handle them legally and deal with them objectively and professionally. The aggrieved People must feel protected, listened to and justice done to them. The aggressors and perpetrators must be investigated through public hearings and justice must take its course accordingly. To continue to commit gross human rights violations during peace times and after decades of civil wars this was ended officially in 2005. The call here is for all South Sudanese especially politicians and army officials or armed groups leaders generally and the State specifically not to support any micro or macro civil or ethnic fighting.

The State must ensure this from occurring through the establishment of Nation-wide People’s driven/interests Peace, Healing and Reconciliation Dialogue Forums comprised essentially of ‘wise’ and nationalistic community leaders, spiritual elders, civil society, women’s groups and leaders, youth groups and armed groups. This Dialogues MUST be fully supported by the state e.g. in terms of logistics, security, internal and external dialogues expert personnel. It is paramount that state organs and officials participate in such forums to ensure ‘the political weight’ and mainstream furthering of resolutions of deliberations.

To sustain our new found peace and SUSTAIN it we must begin to proactively engaging in restoring the culture of peace and peaceful co-existence. This is VITAL in our new nation-building or else we go on thinking/pretending everything is ok whilst the pains, bitterness and the ‘uncompensated’ loss is always felt by thousands of citizens; this can eventually lead, unfortunately to an avalanche of public discontent and ‘uncontrollable’ public rage! Equally importantly, more victims will continue to suffer from aggression as the armed groups continue unabated. Consequently, tragically ‘the culture of violence’ will almost become a routine part of our normal culture – UNLESS we prioritize an intrinsic culture of peace and tolerance and ‘combat’ any perpetuation of violence by developing a strong and consistent immediate-long terms Peace building, National Healing and Reconciliation Dialogues. If this is not fundamentally paid due diligent top priority attention we will most probably end up having (re-) new disgruntled and perhaps opportunistic and self-interests driven groups mushrooming everyday who would aggress innocent civilians in their locality or neighbourhood and may escalate eventually threaten our national security and retard development and progress of the new Nation as a whole!

The onus paramount is on the State, its organs and machinery to FULLY endorse and support Peaceful National Healing and Reconciliation Dialogues in all levels of the Republic of South Sudan and that these dialogues must be INTRINSICALLY INCLUSIVE of the various segments of our society including chiefs, traditional leaders and national personalities, women, youth, faith based groups, community members and state authority representatives.

These Peace Dialogues must begin NOW and must be widely acknowledged, supported, inclusive and CONSISTENT. Similar lesson can be drawn from the concluded IGAD-facilitated Sudan peace-process which not only unearthed the root causes of the Sudanese Conflict but successfully propelled the historical signed Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the CPA. The level of dedication and commitment during the Sudan peace process was manifested with the establishment of a full time secretariat and mediation teams fully and objectively dedicated to untangling the root causes of the Sudanese Conflict these included documentation, agenda discussions preparation, the convening and sustenance of negotiations meetings periodically. The Republic of South Sudan can borrow a leaf or two from the Sudan IGAD-facilitated peace process; why not replicate a similar approach to our micro-ethnic conflicts which are threatening us particularly at local levels and already affecting our national socio-economic development. We need to have ‘branches’ per each affected state of such dialogue forums, form working secretariats and inclusive competent and committed committee members of various backgrounds as mentioned above who will in turn be able to listen to the people, meet the warring elements representatives and document their grievances and share with both the authorities and the public.

The truth of the matter, is that many of us to-date are/have been negatively affected; mentally, physically and constantly feel threatened in our bodies and souls as a result of more than 40 years of civil wars. This pain has over the years developed more complicated long-term symptoms e.g. trauma, the culture of violence, intolerance, domination, oppression, stagnation etc. As well, the product of such ills may have also been detrimental factors in the appearance of exploitative opportunistic persons and factors who in turn exploit on our communities’ pains and losses by instigating them and pitting them against one another. Unfortunately, often these selfish and exploitative individuals are highly educated, cunning, without any national-interests agenda but rather to gain political and financial selfish interests. Furthermore, such non-nationalistic individuals aim toward political mileage or leverage so as to achieve higher powers through ‘backdoor’ by coercion and arms twisting of decision-making processes. This is very sad indeed especially at this very infant era of our just gained Independence: we have an overwhelming needs, demands and expectations to be attained for the common good than for such petty greedy and extremely narrow-minded selfish interests.

The Peace-building National Healing Dialogue platforms may perhaps, if not the most certain way to heal our prolonged wars-inflicted wounds, genuinely highlight and address the issues of grievances, inequality and injustices and present them constructively to the concerned equipped authorities and bodies whilst acknowledging and sharing the findings openly with the public – everyone has a right of hearing in order to heal and join the ‘South Sudan Healing and Reconciliation Caravan’.

We must all be able to point out at whats paining us…we must respect the principles of liberty; ‘Live and Let Live…’; we must steer away from oppressing, victimization, generalization and be able to speak freely yet responsibly. Domination will always back lash and very seriously for that matter, and can be fatally damaging, we must strive to be sensitive to ‘put ourselves in the shoe’ of the other, how else can one sympathize or understand what and how it means to be a victim of oppression? How can one be happy if another is suffering (consequent to my domineering and oppressive rule on him/her…)….? Inter-ethnic Forums for Peace must be state-supported and fully empowered to ‘preach the gospel’ of peaceful co-existence (overcoming discrimination along ethnic and nepotism lines discussions; such forums shall enlighten and sensitize our communities and especially the so called ‘selfish-driven’ politicians and militarized personnel who continue to ‘divide and rule’.

Such manipulative and exploitative politicians and war-mongers who selfishly and without shame or ethical accountability are busy taking advantage of communities’ traditional ‘innocent’ ways of ‘sticking together’ (for the common good..) and lack of/inadequate reprisals systems so they continue unabated in perpetuating violence and negatively politicizing matters which can be discussed within the norms and parameters of the rule of law. As such these damaging orchestrated actions continue to push communities attacking one another militarily and forcefully encroaching other neighbouring ethnic group(s) and consequently sabotaging any national or local government’s development programmes just because ‘the person(s)/authorities initiating development isn’t from my tribe and or doesn’t ascribe to the selfish-destructive agenda perpetrators ….’ so we all end up being losers as our people are threatened, Innocently killed and their properties destroyed, our villages, county, state and the Country lags behind due to inter and intra-ethnic conflict….equally damaging, one wonders, as well, some corrupt elements from within either national or state levels take advantage of such politically-motivated divisions in order to stall development and hence end up enriching their own pockets, regardless of riches gained through innocent souls blood!

In conclusion, we need to embrace Lasting Peace, National Healing and Reconciliation Dialogues platforms in every corner of the Country. This must become our Motto and must be fully endorsed and supported by the Government and its organs. The said platforms must be inclusive and dynamic and always must engage with the public through public outreach and people-friendly approaches and programmes including the media, local set-ups and any means of communications because these micro-conflicts have direct impact on the average people as well have a direct impact at national levels on our national security, political and economic stability. We must remember, we are the world’s newest nation and we must ‘borrow many leaves and lessons’ from them so we don’t repeat the mistakes done by others and worst, let’s not make our own mistakes.

Now is the time to consolidate a long lasting and just peace in the Republic of South Sudan!

Suzanne Jambo, is the SPLM Secretary for External Relations
Juba, the Republic of South Sudan
[email protected]