1 Against 63: Where is the Alley to Peaceful Coexistence؟ By Peter Lokarlo Ngrimwa*

04:13 PM Jan, 08 2016

Sudanese Online
Peter Lokarlo Ngrimwa-Australia
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It would however be fair to assert that a sizeable public opinion in South Sudan acknowledges that a significant contributory factor in the escalation of the turmoil that ushered in the harrowing development in the country is manifestly the handiwork of the Jeng Council of Elders (JCE) alongside some opportunistic South Sudanese individual elements, accommodated on government’s pay list and who may or may not necessarily be aligned to the JCE. This incontrovertible assertion is premised on the perceptible unconstructive practices and unconscionable conduct of this tribal entity in its plain role as the de facto Parliament and government of South Sudan.
A closer retrospective shufti and analyses of the reprehensible mayhem that occurred in Juba on the 15 December 2013 and the consequent poignant sagas that coalescenced into the civil war in the entire South Sudan reveals a clandestine calculation of the JCE whose preoccupation is to entirely domination and subjugate the people of South Sudan and rule them via a tribal iron fist. Those innocent souls that have paid the ultimate price at the massacres and genocide in Juba in 2013 will indelibly be remembered for handing out the highest ransom in exchange for nothing other than their affiliation to Nuer ethnic group.
The JCE’s twisted logic seems to suggest that as long as a Dinka is involved in crimes against humanity, justice would not be permitted to take its natural course. Ironically, the butchery in South Sudan has never held compassion in the hearts of those tyrannical and despotic JCE assemblages because those suffering are non-Dinka who should be forcibly dispossessed via an orchestrated policy of land grab. Today, if anyone utters a word about accountability for those systematic murders conducted by the government with JCE blessings they are instantly castigated and threatened with further severe repercussions. I am quite conscious that the point I am make will be completely lost in the miasma of outrage, however, for any South Sudanese to have done nothing by way of exposing the subterranean façade of this malevolent Jeng tribal outfit in such woeful settings in a country awash with misery is morally reprehensible.
The JCE had both authored and ordained the format and design of the 28 states in South Sudan, and simply handed to the President who runs the show to read out in a decree. The covert scheme has been designed with a three-pronged vindictive intention as follows:
1. The first vindictive intention or gambit is to diminish or effectively erode the historical name of “Equatoria” from South Sudan’s political lexicon. In accordance with the professed twisted philosophy of the JCE’s tribal flag-wavers, the elimination of the legendary designation “Equatoria” would essentially sever the umbilical cord of Greater Equatoria and the cohesion existing among the people of this vast region, so that no one state of Equatoria would get concerned with the affairs of the other two states during the process of divide and rule. Perhaps the JCE’s fear stems from the old aphorism of the 1980s that says “when Equatoria coughs the whole Southern Sudan catches cold”. Thus, the formulation of the 28 states remains the most single majestic ploy and the last JCE’s Roulette to realize Dinka hegemonic ambition. It has been anticipated by the tribal jingoists in Juba that this strategy would furnish the tribal bigots with both the wherewithal and instrumentality to begin the formal process of subjugation, not only of Greater Equatoria, but the entire South Sudan through the execution of divide and rule approach.

2. The second manoeuvre pertains to the possibility of JCE’s domination in a future democratic ambience in the country after the expiry of the transitional government of National Unity.
Juxtaposing the map of South Sudan under the 10 states mandated by South Sudan’s interim constitution and the current controversial 28 states designed by the JCE would quickly reveal the underlying sinister intention. A cursory glance at the map of the so-called 28 states shows that 12 of these are curved out of others’ territories that were originally possessed by either the Nuer or Shilluk in Greater Upper Nile region or a number of tribes in Greater Bahr El Ghazal and are now fraudulently and brazenly awarded them to the Dinka. In the South Sudan rubber stamp Parliament that is overwhelmingly packed by the aficionados of SPLM Juba-faction, it would be easy to pass a piece of legislation that links voting systems and exercises to a number of states in South Sudan, and such a move would probably lend a golden bridge to the JCE to accomplish one of their majestic dreams of legitimately ascending to power and implementing their remaining programmes on the checklist, which includes among others, the imposition of Dinka as an official national language of South Sudan.

3. The third ploy is the control over the oil territories that belong to the Nuer people. The JCE is sentient that in order to manipulate and retain power, there must be a clearly defined access to the control of resources, namely the oil that remains the mainstay and oils the wheel of the country’s economy. More than 5 billion US dollars’ worth of oil money have been stolen from state coffers since 2005 and no culprits have been brought to account for this staggering loss. A large number of these miscreants and reprobates who are linked to the JCE have stashed away the stolen money in foreign countries and are still shamefacedly determined to rule South Sudan for eternity by hooks or by crooks.
It is thus, the duty of every peace stakeholder to understand that the sinister calculation of the JCE on the imposition of the 28 states is a real menace that portends an ominous, murky and bleak future for the world’s newest country, unless something is done to halt the tribal outfit from progressing further towards the execution of its nefarious scheme. Regrettably, the government in Juba, buoyed by the JCE’s arcane dealings is bracing up in justifying the need to impose the 28 states decree in the country, in utter disregard of the stipulations of the Peace Accord that the vassal regime in Juba had promised to abide by. The conflict now appears to be between 1 ethnic group – the ruling class of the Dinka (Not all Dinka) against the other 63 ethnicities that live in South Sudan, as all the 10 states have been engulfed in what could accurately be described as seething war with sporadic and coordinated assaults launched by government troops who are more often accompanied by tribal groups of armed cattle keeping militias affiliated to the JCE, against non-Dinka tribes living in Greater Equatoria; Upper Nile and Bahr El Ghazal regions. Today the news emanating from Korokanda in Momoye area in Western Bahr El Ghazal is dire. Civilians have been killed; houses torched; rape sprees freely conducted as well as looting by SPLA government army in an apparent blatant disregard for the Peace Agreement on the table. There appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel unless the haywire JCE and President Kiir altogether abandon their myopic, crackpot and unidimensional cogitations that do not have a counterpart in the real world and instead opt to work along the dimensions that create positive correlation and high degree of cooperation among all contending parties in the country in order to usher in an atmosphere of serenity and prosperity far divorced from the current ambience of lunacy created by the JCE that has utterly failed to put its finger on the pulse of South Sudanese public opinion.
Accordingly, I call upon the Chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), Mr. Festus Mogae to take up the gauntlet and address the issue of the implementation of the Peace Agreement more resolutely before the country relapses back into another cycle of extreme violence. South Sudan is yearning for the Halcyon days expected to arrive after a comprehensive and candid execution of the Agreement in its entirety.
Peter Lokarlo Ngrimwa*
Former lecturer,
Graduate School of Business and Law (GSBL)
RMIT University
Emily McPherson Building 13,
379 – 405 Russell Street Melbourne
VIC 3000 Melbourne
Australia.

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