By Daniel Juol Nhomngek, Kampala Uganda
Aug 25, 2017(Nyamilepedia) —– The government should not act like a human rights defender but it should be practical in dealing with issues of crime.
This implies that the government should not treat those people who keep on attacking others lightly. It should strongly warn them to stop reckless behaviour or shoot at them to kill if they keep on attacking other clans or stealing cows and attacking the owners of those cows or property.
Burning schools and houses should be treated as serious crimes. This means that those who burn houses should be hunted down and brought to court. But if they do not accept to be arrested and instead start shooting at law enforcement agencies they they deserve to be sent to heaven earlier.
In addition, those who had burned other people’s houses and those who had killed others previously and recently should be arrested and arraigned before the court.
The blood compensation and fines should no longer be used in Gok State but those who are proved guilty in Court of law should either be hanged or given life imprisonment.
Life imprisonment in this context should be 25 years or a number of years as provided in the law of South Sudan with hard labour and intensive training so that if they come out from the prison alive, they they should be the ones to teach others how to respect the law.
It is good that now there is a large number of the army which is brought to Gok State. The government should instruct these soldiers to respect those who are not trouble makers because criminalizing everybody will make it hard to get the suspects. Hence, cooperating with citizens in fighting crimes is one of the best policies of staging successful war on crimes.
Moreover, those who have been cited in inciting the civilians to kill each irrespective of their status and background, whether they are within South Sudan or abroad should be brought to book.
The question is how is it going to be done for those outside South Sudan? This can be done if there is evidence that he or she has been inciting the people on the ground in Gok State to kill each other.
If it is proved that such a person has committed a crime the country of residence will decide whether to try that person or extradite him or her to South Sudan in order to be tried under the South Sudanese law. But if there is no extradition treaty between South Sudan and that particular country then that country will still try that person under its criminal law provided the crime he or she committed is not political in nature.
For those who are not within Gok State but within South Sudan they can be arrested with order of Court and transported back to Gok State to be tried. This means that there must be courts of law established in Gok State presided over by competent judges.
In addition, as there no law and order, the role of the army is to make sure that law and order is restored and all suspects are arrested. Thus, the role of the army should be to maintain law and order until the investigation is done and all the culprits are arrested.
Those who have killed but hide in the bushes should be called upon to surrender themselves to the authorities and if they don’t give heed to such order, then they should be hunted down and if they are found but not ready to be arrested and opted to fight the authorities then they must be treated as terrorists and dealt with in accordance with terrorists law. Terrorists are not brought to court but they are shot to kill.
Finally, I call upon those whose relatives have been killed not to revenge but put more pressure on the government to arrest those who killed their relatives and bring them to court.
The warning is that revenging while the government is trying its best is also a crime and if a person is killed through revenge then that killing can be treated as a murder, which deserves death penalty.
The government has a duty to do justice to the victims.Those who revenge by killing other innocent persons commit an independent crimes from the one they are revenging. They should instead hold the government to accountable if they government fails to do justice to their relatives killed.
In summary, the unity and peace in Gok State does not depend on talking or persuading the criminals to stop committing crimes since they have chosen to commit crimes, but it depends on how fairly the criminal law is enforced in punishing criminals. This means that how government deals with crimes committed by communities against each other determining the respect for the law by all the communities.
In order to bring peace and unity in Gok State they government should not treat crimes lightly but it must punish crimes heavily to act as a deterrent measure to ensure that those who take the law into their hands are scared off since they will be fearing of their own lives.
In the State like Gok State where citizens have lost morals and respect for humanity, it is futile to appeal to the morals. The only way to control such people and crimes they commit is treat them in the same way they treat their victims.
In doing that they will always be thinking twice before committing any crime so the respect of law and order is assured. Not because they respect lives of others but they fear of their own lives hence the peace prevail.
The author can be reached through juoldaniel@yahoo.com
