Christians in South Sudan mark Easter celebrations with message of reconciliation
March 31, 2013 (JUBA) – Tens of thousands of Christians in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, celebrated the Easter Sunday with the message of national reconciliation across the 20-month old nation.
Reverend Paul Ruot Kor told the congregation that the theme for this year’s Easter celebration is reconciliation among the people of South Sudan. He narrated that Jesus, whom Christians believe is their Messiah, died on the cross to forgive the sins and reconciled the mankind with God, adding that it was also high time to reconcile the communities of South Sudan with one another.
Speaking at the same occasion, Vice President Riek Machar Teny, told the Christians that his government, after the achievement of independence, had now initiated the national reconciliation process to reconcile the people and heal their wounds created by war.
Machar told the Church that the war had created barriers between communities which should be broken in order to achieve peace and development in the country.
“Communities have been torn apart by wars, created no-man’s land between themselves and can no longer interact or speak one another’s languages as it used to be in the past,” he said.
The long awaited national reconciliation campaign is scheduled to be launched in a conference in June this year.
Machar on Thursday urged the political leaders from the three states of Warrap, Lakes and Unity, to play an active role in bringing about peace and harmony between the adjacent communities in the three states.
In a joint meeting with the members of the national legislature from the three states he called on them to help change the status quo of the ongoing cattle-raiding and revenge killings in their constituencies.
“Visit the states and talk to the populations to stop violence and reconcile,” he told them.
He also called on them to contribute to the development of their areas through the Constituency Development Funds (CDF) which they receive in the parliament for the purpose.
The meeting was also attended by the ministers from the security sector, Gen. Oyai Deng Ajak and Gen. Alison Monani Magaya, as well as the deputy minister of Roads and Bridges, Simon Mijok Mijak, and discussed the importance of training and deploying more police forces to the volatile areas and opening up security roads for movement of the deterrent organized forces.
The forum also stressed the importance of empowering the traditional authority to identify culprits as well as establishing border courts to try criminal suspects in the three states.
Meanwhile the Vice President in a separate joint meeting with representatives of youth groups from the three states of Lakes, Unity and Warrap, discussed the role the youth should play in reconciling the communities.
The youth leaders presented their joint proposed plan to promote peace in the tri-states, including a plan to move between the three states and register the guns which are illegally owned by the populations in the states.
(ST)