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December 15, 2014 (ADDIS ABABA) – 15 December, which is referred to as the beginning of the ongoing violence in South Sudan and the consequent ferocious atrocities against thousands of civilians, was commemorated on Monday around the world.

South Sudanese refugees fleeing violence in their home country wait to be transported to Uganda’s Arua district settlement camp on 6 January 2014 (Photo: AFP/Isaac Kasamani)

The first anniversary of the incident saw memorial services in countries in the five continents of Africa, Europe, Australia, America and Asia.

Thousands of people gathered in halls and open spaces, lighting candles and holding placards, banners and wearing black T-shirts with different messages written in condemnation of what they said was a "genocide" administered by the South Sudanese president Salva Kiir Mayardit against an ethnic group.

The violence occurred when what seemed to be a political debate on critical reforms within leadership of the ruling party, the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM), turned violent pitting president Kiir, chair of the party, against his former deputy president, Riek Machar, also deputy chair of the party.

The violence was sparked when members of president Kiir’s Dinka in the presidential guards allegedly attempted to disarm their Machar’s Nuer colleagues in the unit.

United Nations and international human rights bodies confirmed that a massacre of unarmed civilians unleashed when Kiir’s regular forces and tribal militias conducted a door-to-door search of Nuer tribesmen, killing an unconfirmed big number, particularly in the first three days of fighting.

MOURNERS SPEAK OUT

Peter Marial, one of the survivors who continues to reside in the United Nations protection site in Juba, described 15 December as the darkest day after the country gained its independence from Sudan in July 2011.

Marial, who lost two members of his family, called on president Kiir to step down, saying he had lost his legitimacy after turning his gun against the very people who elected him in 2010.

“I voted for him [Kiir] in the 2010 elections. But from 15 December I have withdrawn my vote after his guards killed my relatives and nearly killed me. I have casted a vote of no confidence against him. He is no longer my president and therefore he is no longer legitimate. He is a murderer of his own people and voters and should step down,” Marial, a Nuer member, told Sudan Tribune on Monday while dressed in black T-shirt.

Another victim Mading, a Dinka, however said president Kiir’s “militias” did not only kill members of the Nuer ethnic group but also members of the Dinka community particularly those who came from Lakes state and carried the same facial identity markings like the Nuer.

He said even though his people might not have been intentionally targeted like the Nuer, they equally suffered in the hands of other Dinkas.

“So many people from my community in Lakes state were killed by the same militias of president Salva Kiir in Juba. They killed a lot of them, telling them that they were also Nuer. When they spoke in Dinka they were told that they only learnt the Dinka language,” he lamented.

He accused president Kiir of allegedly having hatred towards the people of Lakes state, saying his militias who carried out the targeted massacres were exclusively recruited from the states of Warrap and Northern Bahr el Ghazal because he didn’t trust those from the third Dinka dominated state of Lakes.

Samuel Gai Kuiynin, a Nuer community chairman in Uganda in his address to thousands of mourners who turned up for the commemoration in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, said the 15, December remained the darkest day, during a prayer organised at Saint Francis Catholic Church located at Makerere University.

Kuiynin told Sudan Tribune on Monday that the "Juba massacre" needs a clear stand from the international communities and both warring parties.

He said leaving out such disturbing atrocities will not grant a lasting peace within the communities of South Sudan.

"Kiir is a real perpetrator on killing civilians in Juba. He trained private army who ended up killing our beloved brothers and sisters because they are Nuer, and we don’t understand why [the] international community is beating around the bush without laying responsibility on the South Sudan leader," said Kuiynin.

Stephen Waat Bipal, chairman of Phow community of Greater Fangak counties in Jonglei also blamed president Kiir’s government for unrest and killing of civilians in the country.

"The Juba regime does not want peace; look what is happening now in Fangak, Ayod and other areas they [are] still on aggressive with rebels. They do not want peace because they knew they have committed crimes against humanity and this is why they keep on fighting rebels to cover up the ill-killing of civilians," said Bipal.

Buay Keke, the deputy chairman for the rebels SPLM chapter in Kampala advised the mourners against laying blames on all the Dinka tribe, saying it is a certain section of them who led the killings and the responsibility of messing up the nation.

"Never put blames on all Dinka who have killed Nuer but it is president Kiir who instigated the genesis of the crisis with his gastronome ministers and his clan," said Keke.

He told Sudan Tribune the objectives of SPLM/SPLA-In-Opposition are fighting for democratic state to install the rule of law and justice for all.

He urges on South Sudanese to give peace a chance calling on them to work toward ousting president Kiir from power, who failed to unite the country after independence.

Pastor James Ruot, in USA, said tens of thousands of South Sudanese communities were also conducting the memorial service in different cities and states in their adopted home, adding that they were praying for peace to return and killings to stop in the home country.

Thalage Wal, leader of the Nuer youth group in Australia and organiser of the memorial service in Melbourne, commended the unity shown by South Sudanese in commemorating the day.

“I also appreciate all South Sudanese who stood side by side and acknowledge the massacre and killings of innocent Nuer civilians in Juba by dictator Salva Kiir…We are stronger when we are together and we prove our unity in this first anniversary,” he said in his Monday message.

15 DECEMBER SADDEST DAY


A senior official in the armed opposition movement led by former vice president, Riek Machar, has described 15 December as the saddest day in the post independent South Sudan.

Professor Peter Adwok Nyaba, who heads the reorganisation committee of the SPLM in the rebel controlled areas, in an article he published on Monday, 15 December, said the day “triggered the worst animal instincts” in those that perpetrated the killings.

“Today, December 15, 2014, marks the first anniversary of the Juba massacre of ethnic Nuers ordered by President Salva Kiir Mayardit. It remains the saddest day in the history of South Sudan for it triggered the worst animal instincts, dehumanised us, that in a matter of moments we began to discriminate and decimate ourselves on the basis of ethnicity,” he wrote.

“December 15, 2013 is the day for which, we must invariably lower our heads in shame to deflate our individual inordinately enlarged ego. For that day imperceptibly exposed our five decades pretence and collective self-deception that we were one people fighting for liberation, equality, freedom and justice.”

A senior member in the ruling party and former minister of higher education until July 2013, Nyaba, who hails from Shilluk tribe, also acknowledged that not only the Nuer suffered from the brutal killings in the hands of the perpetrators, saying the militia group known as ‘dutku beny’ in Dinka language and loyal to president Kiir, did not spare members from other ethnic groups.

“Initially, the Nuers alone were marked for death at the hands of ‘dutku beny’ or the auxiliary presidential guards recruited specifically for that purpose at the behest of President Kiir by Paul Malong Awan. Nevertheless, any Dinka with facial marks as the Nuers suffered the same brutal fate. The village boys from Warrap and Awiel did not know that other Dinka people existed in Upper Nile or Jonglei. They also murdered a Chollo judge because they wanted to possess the Toyota V8 he drove,” he further lamented.

The senior rebel official added that the situation spread to other states and towns in which other tribes were turned against one another.

He accused president Kiir of inviting foreign troops, such as UPDF of Uganda and Khartoum rebel groups including Darfuri rebels of Tora Bora, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to fight against what he said Kiir believed to be Riek Machar.

He however pointed out that there was need to address the root causes of the recurring conflicts within the ruling party and now the nation.

Earlier, opposition top leader Machar blamed the crisis on historically unresolved accumulating “contradictions and structural causes” within the ruling party since its inception in 1983.

He criticised president Kiir for refusing to learn from the past mistakes by frustrating healthy ideas on reforms for the past eight years when the two had been working as a team.

The conflict started as a healthy constitutional debate within the SPLM on needed reforms led by Machar, in which he also expressed his desire to contest for party chairmanship in a national convention which was supposed to take place in May 2013 in accordance with the constituted five-year plan.

The last party convention which confirmed the incumbent chairman, Kiir, was conducted in May 2008.

President Kiir however accused Machar of allegedly attempted a military coup, an accusation the latter denied saying it was only a baseless ploy used by the president to eradicate reformists and democratic challengers from the party.
(ST)