Bearing arms is a commitment to protect the country, not a privilege for committing crime
6 min readCarrying arms is not a privilege and a recipe for committing crimes at will; it is a commitment to protect the country, its people and their property.
By Deng Ajowk, Juba, South Sudan
September 3, 2016 (SSB) — It said the army that respects the civil population during war or peace time will be respected by the same population comes war or the silent of the guns; and the respect between the two must be based on the golden rule: treat others as you would wish them to treat you.
During the outgoing conflict that that saw the comrades of yesterday in the struggle for freedom turning into enemies to massively make use of deadly weapons available to kill themselves, in a senseless war in which many precious souls were lost on both sides, the civil population went through horrendous crimes committed against them by the freedom fighters, who were supposed to protect them in such hard times.
The atrocities inflicted on the civilians during the conflict could not matched those the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) had inflicted on the people in government held areas during the 21 years of the war with the successive oppressive regimes of Khartoum in the former Sudan. The fighting forces on both sides of the conflict, the SPLA in the Government, SPLA/IG and the SPLA in Opposition, SPLA/IO, have inhumanely unleashed heartbreaking unbelievable act of aggression against the people who had been looking up on them for protection of lives and property, not merciless hacking to death in the hospitals, places of worships and along the roads and highways.
The two sides reportedly got involved in looting belongings and destroying property in the name of fighting the enemy. By committing the atrocities mentioned above, our sons and daughters in uniform have destroyed the social fabric, created a wide gap of mistrust between them and the civil population and worse enough, they (fighters) have killed the spirit of belonging to an independent country which the other nations across the globe refer to as the Republic of South Sudan.
Some of our population have opted to seek refuge and protection from our yesterday’s foe and some voted with their legs, walking long distances to seek safety in countries in the region that were hopefully looking on us for economic prosperity. The situation in which we have brought our country to, fits the description that the former Congolese Prime Minister, Patrick Lumumba, had described the horrible conditions that the people of the Congo were going through during the dark days under colonialism.
Lumumba was quoted as saying that: “We have seen the atrocious sufferings of those who have been imprisoned for their political opinions or religious believes; exiles in their own country. Their fate was truly worse than death itself.”
Although we are a nation that is proud of giving its political prisoners glamorous names and status that catapult them to the positions of power, we can also pride ourselves to be a country that has no political prisoners. Religiously our peaceful coexistence with our Mohammedan brothers is commendable, because we have never heard of a Muslim being denied praying in the open or going to a Mosque.
We also could be a country where anyone can create a Christian Church and preach the Gospel at will not necessarily in accordance with a well-defined Christian Doctrine and Theological Study. As long as you shout the name of Jesus, the congregation grows fatter. Despite this good image in the field of politics and religion, many of our people have lost their lives in the senseless war that has nothing to do with the wellbeing of the country or a tribe.
Some section of our communities are in self detention cells in the so called protection of Civilians Sites (POCs), while nearly half a million has opted to flee the country due to misbehavior of and inhumane treatment to the civilians by our armed men and women in uniform on both sides of the conflict, and not necessarily as a result of an intended policy of the authorities under which they (armed men and women) fall. How many times have we heard stories of people in uniform looting and stealing in towns and villages at gun point?
Why should the country’s citizens and the other nationals seeking their fortune in South Sudan be subjected to misery and made afraid of its sons and daughters in uniform? Why don’t well placed people in the authority do something to show to the civil population that there is a system in place capable of providing them with protection in order to live in peace of mind and not in despair? Are the people of south Sudan, unworthy of leading a dignified life like the rest of the humanity on the mother earth planet?
In order to restore the lost confidence between the civil population and uniformed gun bearers in this country, some decisive punitive measures must be urgently put in place and transparently implemented to bring any offender to the book to account for his or her actions. Going on the media declaring that we had done this and that to the wrongdoers, without the civil population seeing tangible results with their naked eyes, would not hold water as far as restoring confidence in the uniformed citizens is concern.
Bringing culprits of any offence to the freedom Squares in our states capitals and to the Dr. John Garang’s Memorial Ground in Juba for punishment in front of everybody, will greatly contribute to the levelling the ground for the restoration of the much needed mutual trust between the two sides of our country’s division of labour. Being in uniform and carrying arms is not a privilege and a recipe for committing crimes at will. It is a commitment to protect the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the country, its constitution and above all its people and their property.
As our country is embarking on reforming the security sector based on the implementation of the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS), and based on the commitment of both sides to the agreement to unify the army, the author would want to emphasize the importance of putting in place and executing an extensive educational programme to educate the army and the other organized forces on their duty and obligation to protect and respect the civil population.
Let every commanding officer instill in his soldiers the spirit of good soldering and respect to the civilians. One of the best soldiers in history by the name General George Smith Patton Jr. a senior officer of the United States Army, who commanded the United States Seventh Army in the Mediterranean and European theaters of World War II once said that “It is a proud privilege to be a soldier, a good soldier … with discipline, self-respect, pride in his unit and his country, a high sense of duty and obligation to comrades and to his superiors, and a self-confidence born of demonstrated ability.”
The author, Deng Ajowk, is an Independent Opinion Writer, Journalist and Political Analyst based in Juba. He is reachable at ajowkdeng@gmail.com
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