June 18, 2015 (NAIROBI) – Elders from the Nuer community who fled the conflict in South Sudan are calling for justice and accountability as the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) seeks solutions to end the ongoing violence in the young nation.
Nuer dancers from Unity state during Sunday’s declarion of cultural activities in Bentiu Independent Stadium 10 November 2013 (ST)The Nuer Cuncil of Elders, at a meeting in Nairobi advised IGAD to “put aside their personal interest” and consider peace as the only initiative to restore regional stability.
The group urged mediators to put more pressure on the South Sudanese warring sides.
Yoal Dok, the Nuer council of elders’ chairperson, questioned the legitimacy of IGAD, saying the current situation could have been avoided, if issues of accountability for the massacres were on table.
“IGAD should first address root causes to the conflict before coming to power sharing on interim formation of the government of national unity. If the cause of this conflict is not addressed, it is hard to achieve lasting peace in South Sudan,” Dok told Sudan Tribune.
He said elders submitted several letters to the IGAD mediators to first do accountability for those who allegedly murdered innocent civilians in Juba in mid-December 2013.
Dok, however, said the mediators are yet to respond to their request.
EX-KENYAN LEADER MEDIATES
Last week, ex-Kenyan president, Daniel Arap Moi, has urged Dinka and Nuer elders of the rival major communities in South Sudan to put aside their tribal differences and take the lead in the typical African elders’ role to end the ongoing deadly war in the young country.
“What are the elders from all sides advising the South Sudan leadership or have you taken sides,” Moi told Dinka and Nuer elders.
“In your African culture, elders are the pillars of the society and we believe that where there are elders things do not go wrong,” he said in a statement Sudan Tribune obtained.
Moi made the remarks during a joint meeting with rival elders from the Nuer and Dinka communities whom he invited in Nairobi for consultations on a new initiative on role the elders should play to end the war.
He told the elders of his support to the initiative, saying there was need to address the root causes of the conflict which erupted in mid-December 2013 and plunged the country into civil war.
The former Kenyan president also challenged the South Sudanese leadership to be “brave enough” to let go power ambitions in order to save the country from collapse.
Moi, who was instrumental in bringing to an end the 21 years of war between Sudan and South Sudan, said he felt pain seeing the country he helped created yet to go back into deadly violence and not development.
He pledged to facilitate the rivals elders in their joint efforts to mobilise for peace in the country and urged them to do it by forging a joint platform with one united voice for peace, pursue the way of dialogue instead of fighting, establish the root causes of the conflict and how they can be addressed as well as mobilise respective communities to support peace and initiate a process of healing and reconciliation.
President Salva Kiir’s community, the Dinka, had formed what they called Jieng [Dinka] council of elders which many critics said were anti-peace and responsible for many negative actions the president might have executed per their advice.
The Nuer community, from which the opposition leader Riek Machar hails, also reciprocated and formed the Nuer council of elders which significance and influence on the rebel leadership is not yet measured.
War erupted on 15 December 2013 when internal political debates on reforms within the ruling SPLM leadership turned violent. The fighting pitted rival Dinka and Nuer communities when president Kiir’s guards and ethnic Dinka militia groups turned against Nuer civilians in Juba reportedly killing thousands of their members in cold blood.
(ST)
