South Sudan: Another Rwanda in the making
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By Stephen Par Kuol
December 27, 2013 - Having come to terms with the embarrassing truth
that genocide in Rwanda could have been prevented, the world leaders
under the leadership of Bill Clinton of the United States in 1994
vowed: “never and never again shall there be another Rwanda in the
21st century”, but in many other betrayals to humanity, it happened
again and again in the watch of the United Nations and its founding
supper powers!
It is now happening in South Sudan again and the UNIMISS in Juba is
doing exactly what the French troops and the United Nations
Peacekeeping Mission did in Kigali during that time of Rwanda
genocide. Hilde Johnson in her diplomatically unacceptable exotic
miniskirts is still praising Kiir and his killing machine (Dootku Beny
or rescuing Kiir brigade) for bringing the situation back to normal in
the national capital.
What Ms. Johnson’s mission has managed to do in this tragic time of
calling is setting up an open concentration camp around UNIMISS
compound in Juba where they are providing nothing to save lives from
other natural hazards such as Juba’s blazing sun, hunger, disease and
thirst as the door to door lynching of Nuers continued until
yesterday, December 19, 2013 when I narrowly escaped the reddish eye
bolt of the ongoing onslaught.
I therefore, write to inform New York and the entire international
community that UNIMISS’s mandate under the United Nations Resolution
Number [S/RES/2109] underscoring UNIMISS’s role in protecting
civilians, improving security and supporting peace building efforts is
administratively abandoned exposing the civil population to genocide
in South Sudan.
Just like the deadly complacency in the case of Rwanda, the United
Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has left the crisis to Kiir’s
genocidal operatives and the rebels to figure it all out. It goes
without informing the records that there were many feasible steps to
prevent the genocide that would have been taken in the case of Rwanda
but they were all ignored and the genocide happened.
The history is repeating itself and genocide is happening once again
in South Sudan. Those who argue against this assertion must consult
the book for correct definition of genocide. Genocide is a Greek word
for killing a race or an ethnic group. Geno is the race or an ethnic
group and cide is the act of killing. Modern international criminal
justice has defined it as a systematic plan of a political authority
to eliminate a specific ethnic group.
In political terms, the targeted ethnic group is politically convicted
of a collective guilt by the state with jurisdictional authority in a
given state territory. This is how it happened in Rwanda and that is
how it is now brewing in South Sudan. The Nuer Community from which
Riek Macher hails is currently lynched to collectively punish them for
Riek’s alleged coup and rebellion.
Even if we accept it for the sake of argument that Dr. Riek Machar and
his armed rebels still pose danger to Kiir’s government, but do we the
unarmed civilian pose that threat now in Juba? Why should my
colleagues like Lam Chuol Thicuong , Honorable Jal Thiech, Brigadier
General Martin Kueth Peat and Ustaz Reath Thoan who have nothing to do
with the mutiny named coup lose their lives because of their ethnic
identity if this is not a genocide?
The preliminary stock of the Nuer civilians killed so far between the
December 16 and 19 makes more than half of the death toll reported so
far in Juba. According to eyewitness report from the battle field, the
real casualties of the military confrontation were 27 soldiers only.
These other casualties were cold blood victims of Dootku Beny
Brigrade, a private armed force of President Kiir in akin to Hutu
ENTERAHAMAWE composed mainly of Dinka boys from Greater Bahr el Ghazal
states of Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Warrap.
The Dinka language meaning of “doot” is rescuing or reaching. It was
privately and specially equipped to protect Kiir from perceived threat
posed by the Nuer elements in the SPLA proper. In their genocidal
operation, Dootku Beny and Kiir’s security operatives have turned the
national capital into a festive heaven for vultures and other
scavengers as the corpses begin to decompose around the city suburbs.
Many innocent victims have been murdered in 107 township, Jabel,
Gurei, Gudella and Manga residential areas where those butchers hunt
only for those who speak Nuer language. Many of the Kiir supporters
including family members of Kiir’s cabinet ministers have been killed
even in ministers’ residents.
Being the nature of the beast, genocide knows neither maverick nor
moderates! That is why Nuer ministers and intellectuals who are Kirr’s
strong supporters had to be evacuated to safer enclaves within the
city where they are either protected by armed relatives or people
closed to the president where they are compelled against their own
conscience to condemn the so called attempted coup in the media. Other
than that, they have no other use for this rogue regime.
Retrieve the last Presidential Press Statement declaring a curfew and
the ongoing state of emergency which General Kiir declared in his
sub-conscience thorough a slip of the tongue but was politically
corrected by his shivering chicken ministers before the press. This
secretly declared state of emergency has made it a nightmare to be a
Nuer now in Juba.
Evidently, there are few moderate Hutus among our Dinka cousins in
Juba to protect their Nuer cousins at the time of this writing. With
the deathly news from Juba, the SPLA forces are now confronting one
another along ethnic line in various barracks across the country.
Events on the ground have their own dynamics and should this continue
unabated, revenge killing will ensue plunging the entire nation into
the abyss of genocide that could be worse than that of Rwanda.
Let us face it; we are at the apex of genocide by all legal and
political meaning of the word. The International Criminal Court (ICC),
which has the jurisdiction to prosecute crimes of genocide has legally
defined it to mean any of the following acts committed with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious
group, such as:
(a) killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated
to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
While many cases of group-targeted violence have occurred throughout
history and even since the Convention came into effect, the legal and
international development of the term is concentrated into two
distinct historical periods: the time from the coining of the term
until its acceptance as international law (1944-1948) and the time of
its activation with the establishment of international criminal
tribunals to prosecute the crime of genocide (1991-1998).
Preventing genocide, the other major obligation of the convention,
remains a challenge that nations and individuals continue to face.
Lack of preventive diplomacy at the United Nations has rendered
advocacy against genocide futile. Preventive diplomacy is practiced
only where there is a vital interest of the supper powers in the
balance. A nascent landlocked fragile state like the Republic of Sudan
South is nobody’s business.
So, only South Sudanese intellectuals, civil society and political
leaders must rise to the occasion to reverse the unfolding catastrophe
by doing the following:
Bringing pressure to bear on Kiir and his henchmen to release all
prisoners of conscience and stop the ongoing genocide in the country
Urging the United Nations and the African Union to intervene with
all the powers they have as quickly as possible.
Appealing to our SPLA gallant forces to stop repeating the 1991
fratricidal killing. They must protect their comrades from other
ethnic groups to avoid more revenge killing.
Convening a serious national peace conference to seriously discuss
the unfolding despicable situation.
Urging Dr. Riek and his group to accept dialogue as the only way
to avoid escalation of the situation. South Sudan is a traumatized
nation without another mental and physical gusto to fight another
civil war especially the brewing tribal war. Dr. Riek must avoid
commanding genocide like what Kiir is doing now. He must also practice
the peace and reconciliation he was calling for before Kiir sidelined
him.
Finally, I personally urge my fellow Nuers in South Sudan uniform
to avoid genocidal revenge to honor their own struggle and blood of
our martyrs which delivered us the independence we are now
dismantling.
Honorable Stephen Par Kuol is a former Deputy Ambassador of the Sudan
to the United Republic of Tanzania and the State Minister of Education
in the recently overthrown Government of Jonglei State by Dr. Riek
Machar’s forces. He is also a researcher and freelance writer on
academic topics pertinent to Human Right and Post-conflict Criminal
Justice Administration. He can be reached via [email protected] /
[email protected]
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