The brutal Jonglei State massacres and the rampant bloodbath are ramifications of bad governance

By Laila Lokosang, SOUTH AFRICA

SEPT 28/2009, SSN; The mounting incidences of civilian and Southerner-to-Southerner mass killings in Jonglei State, which are repeatedly blamed on the NCP-led Government of National Unity, are disgusting and tell how directionless and uncommitted our authorities really are!

It is unimaginable that such atrocious acts could occur in the watch of a government proclaiming its number one priority is security and that allocates about 40% of its annual budget to security and defense! 

It is dumbfounding to know that such ethnic clashes were not even envisaged, not strategized for and not well intervened to! It is mind boggling knowing that the wanton fratricide is occurring despite a government having in its executive structure the so-called Peace Commission, which has been in existence for four years!

It is frustrating to know that a big portion (70-90%) of the security budget goes to salaries and personal emoluments than field operations for civilian protection. Yet, it was seen no brainer foretelling the explosive situation even before the signing of the CPA, by a body that has accorded for itself the responsibility of protecting, and yes, liberating its people! How appalling to discover that the word ‘liberation’ is fast losing its saltiness!

How responsible and far-sighted can we see in a ministry of interior that sees as priority erecting kilometers of perimeter fences around the Bulluk Police Training Ground in Juba – an amenity that has been there for years – instead of conducting those military trainings in a location far from civil facilities such as schools, churches, hotels and residential locations?

How prudent can we imagine in a police force that bought hundreds of delicate Toyota double cabins for its heavy duty patrolling operations, which cars are now off-road in a matter of months?

How conscientious can we hold a security authority that sees as priority recruiting thousands of prison warders; a force far outnumbering convicted criminals, without even putting courts and judicial structures in place?

What virtue can we find in a government that opts to spend millions of dollars on hundreds of forces guarding former warlords’ houses, when an entire county would hardly have a squadron of police? 

How would you hold a government accountable when it opts to construct a hero’s mausoleum costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, when the bulk of its vital infrastructure is left wanting? 

What wisdom can we see in an administration that sees as of top importance putting a multi-thousand dollar massive brick enclosure on a public arena with only one gate (as if it does not anticipate risks of stampede and mass deaths) ahead of police units in over 95% of the counties? 

Lastly, how concerned is a government about the wellbeing and protection of its people, when it sees sense in allocating multi-million dollar contracts to foreign contractors, just to erect fences instead of pouring that huge sum of money on working to prevent deaths among its traditional hostile communities?

Indeed the evidence of poor or bad governance is quite telling. Many observers, concerned friends and jealous foes of South Sudan have written about it. Hence, it is not only the author of this article who is blowing the trumpet and neither is he blowing the trumpet out of cue just for the sake of it. Far from it, what is quite baffling is that a good number of our political analysts tend to brush off our internal factors to concentrate only on external causes of the armed tribal fights.

It is puzzling that nobody in position of authority has seen the problem brewing and that there is a time-bomb lying beneath certain territories of South Sudan with well documented history of traditional belligerence over cattle. Instead, we naively rush to conclude that the tribal fights are the sinister work of the ruling National Congress Party, instead of examining our own weaknesses.

The danger of undermining internal factors does not only expose you to making fool of yourself, but in fact detracts you from working to prevent the potential crisis from occurring. Moreover, the persistent allegations labeled against the Sudan Armed Forces of Al-Bashir are not investigated to any public satisfaction, reported to the country’s peacekeepers (United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS)) and appropriately taken action of. It would therefore make it look the enemy is an enigma and indeed some form of phantom that we feel but cannot catch.

Lest we forget, it must be pointed out that the current streak of fratricide in South Sudan could have been avoided from day one of the six-year Interim Period, had we been more genuine with studying the feasibility and viability of advice on peace building and working to implementing  it. The word ‘building’ should be understood to be implying a process and that it requires some planning, resources and commitments for the efforts to bear lasting fruits.

Alas, the leadership of SPLM, which carries the brunt of administering South Sudan, opted to ignore the advices volunteered to commit to genuine peace building! During the peace negotiations in Kenya (2002-2004), some political grouping came with a resolution in Oxford UK urging the movement (SPLM) to set among its top priorities the so-called South-to-South Dialogue. The former Kenya-based New Sudan Council of Churches started to broker this process. When all current leaders were still public volunteers and not public servants, and there were no constitutional and executive jobs, it was easy to engage them in the discussions and the idea seemed to gain ground.

However, sooner the CPA was inked the initiative went to deep sleep! Rumor had it that late John Garang, who had the habit of slipping any seemingly bright idea under the cover of his desk, apparently to remain as the only champion and hero in the public eye, was reluctant to accept the initiative.

It is also plausible that Garang thwarted the idea because it came from another group that challenged or, according to him, undermined his authority and, well, legacy. Of course Bona Malual by then was already becoming a thorn in Garang's ribs, no doubt about it. The former claims he fell out because Garang felt threatened by respectable international image and had to get rid of him in order not to steal the show. True or not, the public will one day find out.

Interestingly, even the voices that spoke so fearlessly about the South-South dialogue, including non-governmental organizations, are manifestly watching the situation unfold with deafening silence. 

If we had duly complied with the advice and went for the South-South Dialogue (and I am sure the international community was willing to sponsor) many antagonistic communities would have buried their hatchets and the unnecessary South-South killings would have been tremendously reduced, if not completely done away with.

Unfortunately we have self-seeking, recycled old-timers posing as people's representatives and legit politicians, who are sitting around the President and telling him only what they imagine he loves to hear. Something deep inside me is telling me that President Salva Kiir really is the true "Joshua" of South Sudan. Only two elements are tarnishing his innocent image. Those “cockroaches” I have just mentioned and his inexperience in government and political affairs, are the factors letting him down and the whole South Sudan with him. For the latter factor, he is simply taken advantage of.

It would be improper concluding this article without examining the role of the Government of Jonglei State. Many observers had openly assured me that Governor Kuol Manyang Juk was the right man in the right place, given his track record as SPLA commander in the war days. However, as amateur policy makers that we are, we forgot to take into consideration that in the bush the gentleman served voluntarily and that he was a ‘one-eyed man among the blind’ (sorry to anybody with this form of disability), as the old adage goes. He was a commander probably answerable only to God.

Nobody ascertained that now, with salary and position under his belt, the humanness in him could reveal itself and he could inadvertently mutate. And mutation it seems to be taking effect. Nobody is talking of the ‘infallible’ Lt. General Kuol Manyang Juk anymore, except his avid admirers of course.

The antagonism between Lou Nuer and Dinka in Jonglei dates back to decades, if not centuries. Even before taking his oath as governor he should have anticipated that, without any foreign security expert advising him to do so, trouble was looming over Jonglei State and that blood letting is brewing under its soil, just like the unexploited oil. For one fact, the 1991 atrocious era of ethnic blood bath in Jonglei has its putrid smell still oozing and filling every nostril in that turbulent land.

It was red bloody and tales of Dinka vendetta on Nuers in the SPLA officers and men is all dirty and nasty. It was a Hutu-Tutsi affair. Surely, a government responsible enough to work for the welfare and protection of its citizens, would have gone extra lengths to do something to deter a predictable crisis from happening, instead of buying Toyota Land Cruisers VX'es for its ministers, under-secretaries and advisers, when these people have already gotten used to walking longer distances on their feet than all ministers, advisers and under-secretaries in the rest of the world. Those people have walked, sweated and knew no air-conditioned cars; so they do not need these luxuries by any logic and conventional wisdom.

Moreover, when these people go to visit their families in Nairobi, Kampala, Australia and Canada, they move on ordinary cars like any one of us. But you can easily tell why these people are worse than those bourgeoisies the French proletarians guillotined during the famous French Revolution of the Mesopotamian era.

In conclusion, poor governance, whether at the central (South Sudan) or the state level, is entirely to blame for the rampant and recurrent occurrences of violence in the so-called post-conflict South Sudan. The expression ‘post-conflict, by the way, is relative in the case of South Sudan, since conflict is still raging and I dare say with some degree of confidence, that South Sudan is experiencing more death in the six-year Interim Period of the CPA than it did during 20 years of war.

Although there are no official statistics to that effect, it can be conjectured that the rate of death (including that due to disease prevalence and hunger) is simply higher than it was during the war. This said, I dare warn our government that the blood letting will remain to haunt us all and that the implications of inaction to stop the carnage are that it (the government) is involved in committing war crimes, having failed to fulfill its constitutional mandate to stop it.

Lest we forget, the almighty United Nations is today battling with the haunting castigations, by human rights organization and the Government of Rwanda, for having watched the ugly scenes of the genocide in Rwanda unfold, when there were enough early warning signs in the air.

Having pointed out this, a question is also asking itself here. Has the UN Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) prepared for itself an explanation to exonerate itself, when the current ethnic warfare in Jonglei, Lakes, Warrap, Unity State, Eastern Equatoria and Central Equatoria states explode to a full-fledged war?

It is common sense that like in disaster preparedness and early-warning system, our authorities, and our international development partners, have the awesome responsibility of putting in place a system for conflict prevention. 

Just to emphasize, it is common knowledge that South Sudan is infested with all factors that give rise to war: hot-tempered pastoralists, severe poverty, the worst illiteracy rate in the world (which affects over eight million population living in a single territory), a tradition of ethnic killings, a culture glorifying violence (it is customary to see a South Sudanese man carry some form of arms when moving from place to place), war trauma, and above all lack of system of jurisprudence and arbitration. 

The factors are all out there that can turn South Sudan into Somalia in a matter of a week.

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