INEQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF JUSTICE FUELS ETHNIC CLEANSINGS IN SOUTH SUDAN

By Dr. Bior Kwer Bior

When Gadet and his defecting army descended on Bor and maimed the unarmed civilians, this barbarism was invariably excused on the ground that the Nuers were avenging the death of their people who were allegedly slaughtered in Juba. Then the Lou Nuer white army came and killed the churchgoers, the patients on their hospital beds, and a score of other UNARMED civilians, and that too was excused on the ground of vengeance on the killings in Juba. The SPLM-7 didn’t raise a condemning voice, and nobody accused the Lou Nuer politicians in the government of instigating the violence. The 700+ Bor civilians killed will never get justice; their killing didn’t bother anybody’s conscience, not even in the highly conscientious UN circle.

When the unfortunate incident happened in Bor, which was largely provoked by the UNMISS’s lack of effective mechanisms to disperse a crowd, I see a change of attitudes. All of a sudden, the killing of UNARMED civilians constitutes war crime, and the SPLM-7 came out loudly looking for someone to hang. There are insinuations, especially from the DISGRUNTLED group, that the happening was somehow instigated by the Dinka Bor intellectuals in the government. This is presupposing, quite absurdly, that those people on the ground, the ones whose relatives were maimed by those rebels masquerading as IDPs in the UNMISS compound, aren’t pissed off about the fact that the killing of their relatives has virtually been swept under the rug of political expediency.

This war is messy, and I think nobody doubts this. More of these unfortunate incidents will continue to characterize our people’s troubled co-existence unless something drastic is done to speedily bring this war to an end. But if we’re going to be picky on the atrocities to condemn, we’ll keep missing the point, and justice will continue to elude us. We need to get our asses off this Orwellian world in which we believe, without a shred of qualm, that all unarmed civilians are important but some unarmed civilians are more important than others.

It would be more just if the people who are now bent out of shape by the Bor incident come out in pull force and condemn the killings which took place in Bor, Bentiu, and Malakal in which the Nuer armed youth attacked and butchered unarmed civilian from the other ethnic groups. These incidents ought to be collectively investigated so that justice is served equally.

If we don’t do this, then we are still sleeping and we will surely be jolted off this prolonged bout of sleep by the loudest bell of the unfortunate Rwandanization of our country.

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PaanLuel Wël

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PaanLuel Wël is the founder and editor-in-chief of PaanLuel Wël Media Ltd, a news website that covers news, opinions, analysis, history, culture and literature of South Sudan and the world. Founded in July 2011 by PaanLuel Wël to create a platform for free expression and constructive dialogue, the website features articles from various contributors, including columnists, commentators, poets, authors, activists and academics. PaanLuel Wël believes that media can play a vital role in informing, educating and empowering the people to participate in nation-building and social transformation. He also believes that media can foster a culture of dialogue, tolerance and diversity among different communities and groups, and hopes to inspire and mentor the next generation of South Sudanese writers and journalists.

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