Press Statement,
May 11, 2017 (Nyamilepedia) —— Since 2015, the Collo Community Council has written many complaints to the world bodies against the Government of Salva Kiir in connection to atrocities, and ethnic cleansing committed by his tribal militias and mercenaries. But those warnings received no attention from the international community except on only one occasion; when unarmed citizens were killed in Malakal PoC by the government forces in the present of UNMISS. The then UN General Secretary, Ban Kim Moon, visited Juba. The issues we have been expressing in those complaints have now become clear to the entire world. Nobody can deny that reality on the ground. Salva Kiir uses whatever weapons to wipe out people in their ancestral land. In recent aggressive and offensive war against innocent civil in Tonga, in Upper Nile Region, the forces of the government used chemical weapons that led to the death of many civil from asphyxia.
All the criminal acts employed by Salva Kiir are aimed at eliminating as many people as possible and assimilating the few who survive from other communities into Jieng, in order to accomplish Jieng dynasty in South Sudan as it was proclaimed by Bona Malwal worldwide that South Sudan is Jieng nation. All hiding places in Collo kingdom, from Tonga to Kodok, are destroyed by Kiir army and the people were forced to run for safety, but on the way, many lives perished from bullets, hunger, thirst and asphyxia of chemical weapons used by the government soldiers and mercenaries.
Majority of the people are still in the bushes and no one can determine who is still alive or dead and those who reached Sudan look exhausted, pale to the point of death and their conditions are unpredictable between survival and death.
The war monster, President Kiir, has grown immune to voices advising him to stop killing his own citizens and doesn’t feel the pain of tribulation, agony and suffering of other communities. Encouraged by the Jieng Council Salva Kiir is ready to kill anybody in the interest of his Jieng tribe. On many occasions, the International Community advised Salva Kiir to desist from war but their advice fell on deaf ears because it was not followed by concrete punitive action. We hereby enumerate a few cases in support of our claims.
On 15 April 2016, Peter Lokarlo Ngrimua wrote a letter on behalf of South Sudanese living in Australia to H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn, warning that ‘the South Sudan’s Peace implementation process was most likely doomed to failure due to lack political will on the part of the regime in Juba to ensure its timely execution coupled with indifference and the clear lookluster stance adopted by the IGAD and Troika partners.
According to Ngrimua, the peace process was hanging by a fingernail, because the tribal regime in Juba continues to infringe on and obstruct the peace execution process on a consistent basis. That letter was in a way an eye opener for the world body to see clearly what was happening in South Sudan. But nobody was ready to listen and that led to the demise and collapse of the Compromise Agreement they toiled for.
On July 12, 2016, the Moderator of South Sudan Advocacy Action Forum wrote an urgent letter to Ambassador Donald Booth, the US Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan with this assertion ” There is a sense of failure and profound regret, we must acknowledge that South Sudan is a failed state. South Sudan’s leadership – fueled by greed, nepotism, incompetence and ethnic pride – has failed the people of South Sudan. The result is starvation, anarchy, corruption, death and unending conflict. While we held out hope for the Transitional Government of National Unity, to the extent that it actually exists, it seems to have made no progress and must also be recognized as failed. Thus the entire Agreement on Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan which was negotiated by IGAD+, but never fully accepted by the protagonists, has failed. The African Union in its work in Sudan has demonstrated that it is unable, even in partnership with the U.N, to effectively end the genocide in that nation. The IGAD nations have national interests that supersede their concern for the people of South Sudan. Thus another entity must rescue the people from their leadership”.
On December 19, 2016, the Ambassador Samantha Power gave sympathetic remarks at a UN Security Council meeting stressing that ”The Council asked for an arms embargo and targeted sanctions but had never delivered anything tangible”. She asserted that if the Council failed to act, South Sudan would be on a trajectory towards mass atrocities, and we have known that as a Security Council- each and every one of us”. She expressed her disappointment on the fact that ‘despite the terrible experiences, testimonies and dozens of accounts from the region, yet some members of the Council were saying things were getting better’.
Ambassador Power reiterated that ”the situation was not getting better, it’s getting worse – and we’re sitting on our hands as a Council. We have to try to stop atrocities in South Sudan. And the question was not whether we should do that, but how quickly. She urged the Council to adopt an arms embargo, targeted sanctions, because violence was tearing South Sudan apart, and the government undermined virtually all international efforts to help. She lamented that “and I say this much more in sorrow than in anger, given how closely the United States works with that government and has wanted to work with that government, even throughout this crisis. Three million people are displaced inside and outside South Sudan, and more than half the country faces food insecurity”.
That humane and sorrowful appeal made by Ambassador Power fell in deaf ears of the world body due to conflict of interests. Some members of the Council rejected the proposal because they were more concerned about oil benefits (China) and not in people. Other members rejected the proposal because South Sudan was a dumping ground for their weapons of mass destruction that were not being used for decades (Russia). The United States must also accept the blame because they were not keen in dealing with the mad son they were midwives at his birth and later they enthroned in South Sudan.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, called on the government and all armed opposition movements to immediately desist from fighting, arguing that “renewed fighting in the country continued to negatively impact on the security, safety, and life of civilians”. This was a powerful word from a concerned leader but it will always remain ineffective if the leader failed to follow-up his words with action. The African Union has become toothless to respond to any problem occurring in continent due to financial constraints and selfish interests of its leaders, especially East Africa countries. To avoid generalization the West Africa countries are better because they act immediately in case there was trouble in one of their countries.
Sudanese President Omar El Bashir has reiterated that his government is ready to intervene in South Sudan in order to avert what he describes as “war and famine.” Famine was declared in parts of the former Unity State in mid-February. President Bashir said Sudan is concerned about the situation and his country has a responsibility for ensuring that there is peace in South Sudan. First of all, we very much appreciate President Bashir’s decision to open the border for South Sudanese refugees who are now living in relative peace in Sudan. This later stance is further proof that President Bashir really cares about the situation of the people of South Sudan. It is our wish and hopes that the President forges ahead with his humanitarian plans without being hindered.
UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has urged parties to the conflict in the country to cease hostilities and uphold responsibilities of protecting civilians. Mr. Guterres described the escalation of violence and subsequent suffering of civilians in the country as disturbing.
The International body must draw lessons from the unpleasant fact that unarmed civilians were massacred, on several occasions, in front of the so-called UN civilian protection forces. The first incident took place in 2013 where innocent civilians were massacred for three days in Juba. Again, displaced citizens were murdered in Bor PoC in the present of UNMISS. The same thing occurred in Malakal PoC. All the same unarmed civilians were massacred in Wau Bahr El Gazel and in the same killings have been happening in the whole of Equatoria regions ever since. The UN force has failed to apply Chapter Seven within in its mandate. We, as well as the communities being killed, have difficulty in understanding why those forces are there on the ground? We thought they were there to protect people from whom they took the blue helmet. Are they there just to keep count and take pictures of the dead bodies of people murdered in front of their eyes? Are they pleased to be witnesses of murder cases they could have prevented?
Like their forces on the ground, the higher UN officials are inactive or may be complacent towards the government in Juba. How many times did the UN Secretary General urge parties to the conflict in South Sudan to desist from war? The parties didn’t respond to such feeble requests. Knowing that it was rhetoric as usual the parties continued doing their evil acts of killing civilians in mass. Out of frustration the communities being targeted imply that the United Nations has become part of the perpetrators of violence against civilians in South Sudan. We strongly believe that putting the chapter seven mandates into action, even once; will be enough to make President Kiir feel that there is a world power that cannot allow him to get away with every crime against humanity.
The midwife, as Ambassador Power called the United States of America, has allowed Salva Kiir to kill his people using prohibit chemical weapons against targeted communities, which Kiir wishes to eliminate. The USA is known for taking appropriate punitive action against rogue regimes around the world. Recently the United States decided to strike certain areas in Syria that used chemical weapons to kill innocent people without approval from UN Security Council. Why is the United States failing to apply the same strategy against Salva Kiir? As Ambassador Power stated the United States, like the rest of the world, must accept her part in the problem. To us giving relief to South Sudan without addressing the root causes of the conflict is a great waste of resources and bidding time for President Kiir to remain in power longer. And that means more murders and misery. We know that the USA has ample power to make Salva Kiir stop what he is doing now.
Finally, we strongly feel that the only viable solution left to stop the genocide in South Sudan is to remove Kiir and his entire government machinery from power. The International Community must compel Salva Kiir to leave the government peaceful or by force as they did in some countries around the world. In fact, warning, and urging the tribal entity in South Sudan will not work anymore.
Thanks,
Signed:
Samson Oyay Awin
Chairman of Collo Community Council
CC: Security Council of the United Nations.
CC: The Secretary-General of the United Nations, New York, USA.
CC: Troika member Countries (USA, NOWAY and UK)
CC: Chair Person of European Union, BRUSSEL, Belgium
CC: Chair Person of Human Right, Geneva, Switzer land
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