We Have Returned To Juba Without Fear or Hesitation, We Were Not Part of Dec 15, 2013!

By Hon. Timothy Tot Chuol,

Jan 07, 2016(Nyamilepedia) —- We have returned to Juba without hesitation or fear because we know that we were never part of what happened on December 15^th 2013 in Juba. Those who were involved know themselves and have been backtracking and hesitating to come to Juba until recently when they realized there was no alternative left of their tricks. They drag their feet when it came to coming to Juba despite the fact that they were the first who hurriedly rushed to the high table to sign the comprehensive agreement.

We left Juba for fear of our lives when we realized that there was a complete “shut down” of our governance and security systems. There was complete chaos and lawlessness in that one week since the crisis started. The resultant vacuum was then exploited by real culprits who committed revenge killings and criminals who kill to rob and loot.

But as we said in our press releases in Nairobi Kenya, the incident of December 13^th 2013 was an internal SPLM power struggle gone wrong. Although the majority of the victims of December 13^th were from the Nuer ethnic group, the incident was never a Nuer-Dinka conflict as some people would wish it to be for their own selfish political interests. Those who died were victims of circumstance created by some people.

As I mentioned in an article published here in Juba and titled “An appeal to the leaders and elders of South Sudan”, it is us the leaders that can resolve our problems, and it is us who can put our country back together in unity and harmony. No foreign peace-maker or foreign magicians can succeed to solve our problems because those foreigners will not know how we solve our problems. They have their own cultures and traditions. They will attempt to bring their traditions and cultures and try to apply them to resolve our problems. But these foreign traditions and cultures will always be incompatible and inappropriate to our situation. They will also try to force them down our throats but we can’t swallow them because they are bitter pills.

In our view, the CPA2 is a product of foreign intimidating arrogance and illusion that they know everything. The dominant role of the Troika in the peace talks brought a lot of confusion and this leads us to conclude that the AU policy of “African problems for African solutions” has become a propaganda hoax and rhetoric only. As South Sudanese we should now think twice before we invite these “lords of conflicts and poverty” to indulge in our internal issues. Moreover, we are independent and free people and should resolve our problems and should not allow foreigners to fester and pressurize us sometimes humiliatingly. It is time to borrow what Colombia and Libya have done and that is resolving their own conflicts without foreign influence.

Conflicts are natural and are some of the dialectics of life and death. When they occur, we should resolve them through our traditional and cultural methods of conflict resolutions handed down to us by our fore fathers. So Let us develop them and use them whenever conflicts occur in our midst.

While we may not throw away the CPA2 in its totality, we should work hard to improve it and make it more a South Sudanese agreement by putting on it the last touches. I mean involving our traditional leaders like the chiefs, community leaders, religious leaders, the women and youth. These groups constitute the fabric of our society and it is they who influence how our communities live in harmony or in conflict. IGAD Mediation Team conspicuously excluded them from the peace talks and the failure of the CPA2 can be attributed to this mistake. Of course, the role of our government under President Salva Kiir is also very important. The next stage of the peace implementation will need financial resources and more importantly a political will from our political leaders that will make the peace implementation to move forward.

So let us all work together to bring about a viable and durable peace in our young nation. Our people need peace and security so that they could begin their lives once again. Let us remember that they just came out from war and could not do much to build their lives when this conflict caught them unexpectedly.

In this festive season let us allow our people to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ in Peace.

Thank you very much and we wish all South Sudanese a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.

Signed by:

Hon. Timothy Tot Chol

On behalf of FDP/SSAF Delegation

This article was written and obtained by the executive team of Nyamilepedia in December 2015 before the SSAF/FDP advanced team travels to Juba in January 2016.