S. Sudanese youth reject participation of rival leaders in interim administration
October 7, 2014 (JUBA) – A group of South Sudanese youth from different tribes have distanced themselves from a proposal from mediators from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) which provides for the participation of the country’s two rival leaders.
“We believe that Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the region and the international community can do much better than the current proposal to bring lasting peace and harmony to our country,” the group said.
“Given the past experience, which has planted the culture of mistrust, doubts, suspicions and the destruction of the social fabrics among our communities, especially between the two tribes of the Dinka and the Nuer, we believe that participation of the two main principal leaders in the interim government would not bring lasting peace. If anything, it would serve as a recipe for another conflict in future,” the statement adds.
The statement, which is the first of its kind by a group comprising different tribes, has called for help to identify neutral persons to lead the interim administration, suggesting that Joseph Lagu, the former president of the high executive council, who is now a special presidential advisor, could run the regime while the two rival leaders travel throughout the country to explain their recovery plans for South Sudan to the people.
Rival forces under president Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar have been engaged in an armed struggle since mid-December last year when a political split in the South Sudan’s ruling party (SPLM) turned violent, triggering tribal tensions across the country.
The fighting has pitted forces from the South Sudanese army (SPLA) loyal to Kiir, who hails from the Dinka tribe, against rebel troops, largely comprising dissident soldiers and ethnic militia’s from Machar’s Nuer group.
Both parties to the conflict have been accused of committing tribally motivated atrocities.
POTENTIAL FOR FURTHER VIOLENCE
The diaspora group has appealed to South Sudanese of all backgrounds to “explicitly, forcefully, consistently and categorically reject” the participation of Kiir and Machar in the interim administration on the basis that it would only plunge the country into further violence.
It has called on world leaders to help in identifying neutral persons who would not aspire for public office beyond the transitional period to lead the country’s interim arrangements.
As well as Lagu, the group also touted Francis Mading Deng, Bona Malwal, Bishop Paride Taban and Abel Alier as potential candidates.
However, the statement, dated 6 October, stressed that the president should be allowed to complete his term in office, explaining that removing him from power before his term expires in July 2015 would go against the principles of democracy and international norms.
“In our view, we think it would be unwise to unseat an elected president before the end of the term for which elections were run. The mandate of the current government expires on 8 July 2015. We therefore think it is wise for him to be allowed to complete his term,” the group said in the statement.
The statement contained the signatures of 138 members, including the names of the sons and daughters of a number of prominent leaders from Kiir’s home region of Bahr el Ghazal.
The coordinator of the group, Akeen Akec Wol, himself from Warrap State, said members hold no personal vendetta against Kiir, but that they were moved by the how the conflict has divided the country and were inspired by the need to preserve national unity and cohesion.
“Personally, if there were to be elections today and I happen to be in South Sudan and find that president Salva Kiir is one of the contesting candidates in an environment free of threats and tension, I would vote for him because of his legacy of loyalty to the cause of our liberation struggle,” Wol told Sudan Tribune, from New Jersey, accusing Kiir’s political enemies were working to taint his legacy in order to pursue their own agenda.
GOVERNMENT CONDEMNS CALLS
Government supporters have condemned the statement, likening the group’s position to that of the opposition and those who personal grudges against the president and other senior officials in his administration.
One prominent government official told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday that removing Kiir by unconstitutional means would not be accepted.
“Who are these people to reject [the] participation of an elected president? It is the people of South Sudan who elected him to decide when time comes,” deputy speaker of South Sudan’s national assembly Mark Nyipuoc told Sudan Tribune.
SUPPORT FOR LEADERS’ EXCLUSION
However, not all South Sudanese have rejected the calls for the rival leaders to be excluded from any interim administration.
Critics of the proposal have written voluminous articles and created social media campaigns to criticise the plan and call for the exclusion of the two principal leaders from participating in interim arrangements.
Majut Ater, who has spoken frequently of the effects of insecurity in his home state of Lakes, where hardly a day passes without reports of revenge killings, cattle theft or highway attacks on travellers transiting in the region, said he does so to create awareness around issues affecting the country and the damaging effects of tribalism.
“I talk about it because I want to tell our community to keep their heads up,” he said.
“I want our people to reject tribalism and ethnic solidarity on national matters. I talk about it so young people don’t get caught up in any false political theories about other people. Salva Kiir is not a Dinka president. He is the president of the whole country. All the tribes of South Sudan, big or small, voted for him during elections and he will need their votes if he continues to aspire for public office,” he added.
Ater had the current administration needs to give more consideration to plural views, even those not favourable to his leadership, and use them to adjust or strengthen government policies.
“We should expect difference views about the performance of his (Kiir) government. Some of these views will not come out in his favour, but that is the beauty of democracy. Such views should be allowed so that his government uses them for adjustment,” Ater said.
DANGEROUS TREND
Moses Duku is one of many citizens who have found themselves caught up in an ongoing debate as international concern grows over the country’s ongoing conflict, which was initially sparked by differing political ideologies within the SPLM.
“From my observations over the past months since the conflict started, I have noted two dangerous trends. When you ask a member of a Dinka community to condemn or denounce [the] heinous actions committed in Juba as result of the 2013 December event, he or she would give you a view defensive of the government’s action. If you ask a member of Nuer community, he or she would quickly interpret the views of individual community members from the Dinka community to mean that of the government. The two communities do not see the differences between a tribe and government and between leaders and the society. This is a dangerous trend,” said Duku
Duku said he was “tired of people in his communities constantly partaking in and creating public campaigns to put up a good face of ethnic solidarity”, although he conceded that he “can’t blame them for trying to show how they practice, envision and know ethnicity”.
Musa Abdallah, a 22-year-old student activist, believes that the conflict has had a devastating effect on social relations.
“When I am watching TV and I see the display of pictures of people killed, I feel extremely hurt by the violence because this is not what our people fought for. I feel none of these leaders are worth my vote. I don’t feel any relation to them because I don’t feel any connection to their political ideologies,” Abdallah said on Tuesday.
“I want our people, regardless of our tribes, to get to the point where we see an act of abuse and act in accordance with the law and don’t have to think [what] tribes we come [from],” he added.
STRONGER LEADERSHIP NEEDED
He admits that it could be beneficial for South Sudanese to forcefully condemn the “extremists and tribal bigots” given that the pivotal role the negative views of certain leaders played in the conflict.
“There’s a fine line between apologising for mistakes as individual leaders and proactively correcting false narratives about the conflict,” said Abdallah, who serves in various capacities at several peace and conflict resolution committees for the student union at the University of Juba.
“Our leaders should show leadership and accept that the country is at a point in time where those in authority should have to bear the burden of wide-scale fear and misinformation about the cause of the current conflict,” he said, adding that the current leadership’s unwillingness to listen to the people was a significant failure on its part.
(ST)