A Conflict Transformation Approach to Sustainable Peace in South Sudan

This position paper by Onyango Oloo examines the ongoing crisis in South Sudan from a holistic, multi-dimensional, historical analytical framework. The author, a Kenyan researcher, policy analyst and commentator well known in African blogging circles, rejects the notion that the South Sudanese conflict is tribal or merely a tug of war between two power hungry politicians. The position paper calls on its discerning readers to soar above the reductionist, simplistic and often racist dismissal of South Sudan as yet another Third World basket case, yet another “failed” African state. By drawing out the complexities of the unfolding tragedy in the world’s newest state, Onyango Oloo indicts a host of actors-local, regional and international-as being deeply complicit in the outrages bedeviling contemporary South Sudan-from the undemocratic and corrupt culture prevailing within the ruling circles of the SPLM, to neighbouring East African despots with their expansionist agendas and the myopic technical and bureaucratic donor fixes of powerful Western nations and their attendant bilateral and multi-lateral agencies who unfortunately view South Sudan as the newest Third World laboratory-along with countries like Haiti-to try out neo-liberal concoctions to fix so called “fragile and transitional states” who need quick direct foreign investment injections and World Bank/IMF vaccinations to survive and thrive. The position paper dissects the nefarious geo-political and hypocritical national interests of emerging global giant China which seems to be more pre-occupied with securing cheap sources for oil and other natural resources and a market for its goods rather than playing the altruistic partner it touts in its PR and foreign policy pronouncements in regards to Africa. Taking a comprehensive human rights and social justice vantage point, Onyango Oloo boldly and baldly (if not badly) states that the recent violence in South Sudan, which has left tens of thousands of innocent Nuer, Dinka and other ethnic groups/nationalities dead; hundreds of thousands more displaced, destitute and maimed; is completely unacceptable and demands that those South Sudanese leaders found, after thorough, independent and forensic investigations, to be the main perpetrators for these atrocities against their own fellow citizens should be held accountable for their heinous crimes of commission and omission. The author further excoriates despots from neighbouring states like Uganda for their needless selfish meddling into the internal affairs of South Sudan and throws down the gauntlet to the East African Community, IGAD (two regional bodies tethered and beholden to the US and her EU partners in terms of donor funding) and in particular, the African Union, to back up their so called “anti-imperialist” raucous rhetoric of seeking African home grown solutions to issues of conflict, violence and human rights atrocities in the region by walking the talk and implementing community-based appropriate African mechanisms to grapple with myriad challenges in South Sudan revolving around transitional justice, sustainable peace, national cohesion, harmony , people-centred democratic processes and transparent institutions. In conclusion, Onyango Oloo calls for a customized Made-in-South Sudan Conflict Transformation paradigm as a step up from the often stultifying outmoded threadbare models of conflict resolution and conflict mediation in coming up with lasting, viable solutions in ensuring South Sudan evolves into a peaceful, united, prosperous democratic society within the foreseeable future.