Date: Wed Nov 26 08:19:55 2014
South Sudan: the impact of war and the importance of peace
While South Sudan peace talks continue in Ethiopia and Tanzania, bitterly
divided communities look for solutions closer to home
<http://www.theguardian.com/profile/james-copnall> James Copnall
Wednesday 26 November 2014 07.00 GMT
When John Riek was 12, he was forcibly recruited into the Red Army, the
youth wing of the rebels who would eventually take
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/south-sudan> South Sudan to independence
after more than two decades of conflict and an estimated two million deaths.
Many years later, after he was reunited with his parents, the former child
soldier decided to fight for peace. "I was away from my family for 15
years," he says. "I know the impact of war and I know the importance of
peace."
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/south-sudan> South Sudan sank into civil
war last December, less than three years after gaining independence. Riek,
who now heads an NGO, knows his work is only just beginning.
<http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/aug/04/s
outh-sudan-peace-talks-famine-conflict> Negotiations in Ethiopia continue,
and may bring about a peace agreement. However, this is likely to be a
power-sharing deal between the warring parties, which would be perceived by
many South Sudanese as rewarding the aggressors without resolving the
underlying issues. There are
<http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/oct/23/south-sudan-peace
-deal-salva-kiir-riek-machar> talks in Tanzania too, between three factions
of the governing party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), aimed
at resolving some of the political tensions that created the civil war.
Beyond the negotiations, South Sudan will need a genuine national
reconciliation process to bring together the different communities that have
been set against each other by this conflict.
If the triggers for the fighting were the tensions and outsize ambitions at
the top of the SPLM, the war itself has often taken on an ethnic dimension.
President Salva Kiir is a Dinka, the largest of 60 or so ethnic groups in
South Sudan. Many of his supporters are Dinka, coming from the president's
home area of Greater Bahr el Ghazal. The rebel leader, Riek Machar, is a
Nuer, the second largest group, and many of his followers are Nuer.
When fighting broke out in the capital, Juba, in December, government
soldiers killed hundreds of Nuer, including many civilians, because of their
perceived loyalty to Machar. This provoked Nuer military units to defect,
and they, with Nuer civilian militias, make up Machar's army. Machar's
rebels, too, have carried out ethnic massacres, including in Bor, Bentiu and
Malakal. Although political leaders often insist this is not an ethnic
conflict, the ethnic power bases of each leader are a significant part of
their strength. Many Dinka and Nuer, and people from other communities
directly affected by the conflict, such as the Shilluk in Upper Nile,
believe the hardest task will not be to stop the fighting but to repair the
damage done to the relationship between the different communities of South
Sudanese society.
Efforts to bring the nation together have started. John Riek is now working
with the <http://www.reconciliationsouthsudan.org/> Committee for National
Healing, Peace and Reconciliation (CNHPR). More than 80 peace activists
spent most of last month in Yei, a town on the border with Uganda and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. The participants were taught theoretical
and practical approaches to reconciliation, with the idea that they would
use these skills in their home region. The first challenge, however, was to
overcome the suspicions many of the participants had of each other. The
tensions in South Sudanese society are now so deep that they infect even
peace-builders.
Yet, two religious men - the Reverend Thomas Chalgor Paul, a Nuer, and John
Alier Maluk, a Dinka church leader - managed to build an unlikely
friendship, not an easy matter in Bor. The town changed hands several times
in the early days of the war, and it is here where Nuer soldiers stand
accused of killing large numbers of civilians, and where residents
<http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article50690> attacked the Nuer
sheltering in the UN camp, believing many of them to be former rebels.
Maluk realises true peace will not come from the negotiations in Addis
Ababa, "but we hope to bring peace from our own community". Since their
return from peace training in Yei, however, he has not spoken to Paul. The
reverend is now back behind the barbed wire at the UN camp in Bor, and,
while he would like to venture into town, he is too scared. "If I don't
speak to John Alier to help me, maybe they will kill me."
Despite the difficulties, the practical benefits of bringing representatives
of divided communities together are obvious, and vital. Nevertheless, the
CNHPR also has problems. It was set up by President Kiir in April 2013 to
replace a body deemed too close to the then vice-president, Machar. The
CNHPR is thus seen by Machar's supporters as the president's tool, despite
the inclusive, unifying work it attempts to carry out. The fact that a
reconciliation body was needed even before war broke out indicates the
extent of South Sudan's problems.
Reconciliation is only one of the elements needed to restore South Sudan to
peace. The
<http://www.sslawsociety.org/public_html/Transitional_Justice_Strategy_for_S
outh_Sudan_%28Sep%202014%29.pdf> South Sudan Law Society (SSLS) believes the
country needs a truth commission to bring to light the many atrocities
committed, and a hybrid local-international court which would try those
accused of the worst abuses.
"The culture of impunity and so many problems are linked to a lack of
accountability. People hold grievances for so long," says David Deng of the
SSLS. "It's a fundamental issue for South Sudan." Illustrating the long
history of the problem, the SSLS's proposed truth commission would examine
abuses going back to 1972, after the first north-south civil war, but
including the second war which led to South Sudan's independence, as well as
the current conflict. John Riek, who was press-ganged into the rebels, would
be able to tell his story, and so would South Sudanese from all over the
country. Every community has a grievance.
The peace-builders agree, however, that the first priority is to stop the
fighting. Riek lost relatives in the war. He says his message to others like
him is that "we should forgive one another. If we don't choose forgiveness,
the fighting will cause more harm. The way forward is to say let us stop."
South Sudan president Salva Kiir (left) with Tanzania's president Jakaya
Kikwete and South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar at peace talks in Tanzania.
South Sudan president Salva Kiir (left) with Tanzania's president, Jakaya
Kikwete, and South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar at peace talks in
Tanzania. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
(image/jpeg attachment: image001.jpg)