Date: Fri Nov 21 12:43:21 2014
Situating transitional justice in the context of South Sudan
Wani Mathias Jumi
2014-11-21
<http://www.voanews.com/content/uganda-playing-a-critical-role-to-solve-sout
h-sudan-conflict/1834648.html>
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Africa's newest nation has been engulfed in violent conflict for a year now.
It is sad that the freedom struggle that lasted so long has not translated
into quality life for the majority of the citizens. The root causes of this
must be addressed - and they have everything to do with failed leadership.
Superficial and politically massaged transitional justice processes for
South Sudan cannot bring lasting peace and co-existence in the country that
is tribally and ethnically fragmented. The recent fighting among civilians
even in UN camps in Malakal, Juba and Kakuma Refugee shows clearly how angry
the people are against one another. Any form of prescribed mechanism must be
based on a clear understanding of the root causes of the mistrust amongst
the communities of South Sudan. The country presents its own unique features
and historical facts that cannot be ignored in a meaningful transitional
justice process.
The indicators suggest that a copy and paste prescription of any
transitional justice mechanism from the globe will not only fail but may
even exacerbate the problem further. The people of South Sudan have been at
war with Sudan since 1955 because of bad leadership and marginalization. It
is not different today as corruption, lawlessness, tribalism and blatant
disregard for institutional processes are now threatening the very existence
of the new nation. It is a nation where many illegally acquired small arms
are in the hands of civilians. About 70 percent of the people are illiterate
with no capacity to hold government accountable.
Instead of focusing on nation building that should have been founded on
reconciliation and unity to advance the aspirations of the people, the
leaders forgot all the injustices, human rights violations that the people
went through for over 50 years. They chose to build the nation on a false
cohesion, which proved illusory. Apart from mere rhetoric, there has never
been any genuine commitment to nation building and reconciliation even in
the face of apparent disunity and misdirection of the country by the
leaders.
Visionary leaders such as the late Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia expressed
concern about the plight of the people of South Sudan when he noted that the
government of South Sudan and the ruling party had lost its vision in 2009.
The country was ranked for two consecutive years by the Fund for Peace as a
failed state but these early warnings were politically resisted, with the
leadership branding such indicators as originating from people who were
meddling in the affairs of a sovereign state and those who did not wish the
country well.
It is shocking that in the 21st century where everybody is busy fighting
terrorism, Ebola, tsunamis, mudslides and earthquakes, South Sudan is busy
killing her own people. Life is destitution for many people in South Sudan
as there are no functioning hospitals, no schools, no food, no clean water
and above all no security of the person. The people have nothing to lose in
a country described as very rich in resources. The leaders of South Sudan
should know that even in the Bible, Jesus made it clear that they are to
"serve not to be served".
Politicians have lied to the people of South Sudan about the war and
continued to incite them along tribal lines without examining the extent of
damage their actions and inactions cause to the people. For those of us who
are Catholic, when we confess, we are required under our faith to confess
"what we have done and what we have failed to do" for us to be forgiven by
God. This confession is a sign of guilt and remorse. Our leaders must boldly
come up and apologize to our people for all the wrongs they have committed
through their actions and failures.
To achieve genuine reconciliation which safeguards peace, those tasked with
the duty to mend the broken communities must go and camp in those
communities for the period these issues are being resolved. It should not be
a fly in and out process that keeps breaking in the middle. Unity of leaders
must be exhibited and any process of reconciliation must begin with
informally talking to the people. The leaders in government and the
communities must go for a serious retreat, reflection and prayer led process
by all faith leaders in the communities to bring a sense of admitting sin
and remorse. They must go beyond their selfish interests and think about the
people that the nation is greater than an individual.
Government must commit resources to purchase "only tents" and if anything
the dialogues can be held under trees and leaders must go and be seen by the
poor people who have not seen some of them since 1983. The leaders of South
Sudan must regain trust of the people or else they must be ready to rule a
fragmented nation.
Transitional justice is the only way to healing wounds, rebuilding trust,
forgiveness, justice and satisfaction. It offers opportunity for the victims
to speak to their tormentors, and opportunity for leaders to be held
accountable and to genuinely apologize and ask for forgiveness from the
people of South Sudan for introducing an unjustifiable war because of poor
leadership and bad management of politics. It will all be meaningless unless
transitional justice mechanisms are identifiable with the victims who must
be the point of focus.
* Wani Mathias Jumi is an advocate and Secretary General of South Sudan Law
Society
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