The identity crises and failure to condemn wanton killings on Equatoria lands
5 min readYesterday, October 8th, a bus with over 200 passengers traveling to Juba from Yei came under attack near Lainya. Eyewitnesses say the gunmen, after capturing the vehicle, separated Dinkas from other passengers and killed 21 of them and 20 wounded, including 4 children among the dead. The incident comes after 14 Dinkas were killed in a similar ambush a week ago just few kilometers outside Juba.
By Emmanuel Ariech Deng, Juba, South Sudan
October 9, 2016 (SSB) — What goes round come round, this is the simple wisdom the perpetrators of the wanton killings on Equatorian soils should take as they coordinate the killings of other ethnicities. Anyway, it is due to this current scramble for the country leadership and its politically affiliated tendency that has poised into the history of struggle being undermined to the extent of even those who did not actually participate in the two decades war with the northerners that culminated to the proclamation of South Sudan Republic.
The same SPLA who marched to Juba over decorated bed-sheets in 2006 is now being spitted at now a days because of the dangerous enemy among us and is preaching hatred day and night to the inside our hearts. I think those who are up to this hatred should stop and regret their actions before it goes deeper.
Why has the government, Equatorian Community leaders gone silence over the condemnation of cold blood killings along Juba-Nimule, Juba-Keji-keji, Juba-Yei and Yei-Kaya roads? Is the killing of innocent civilians on an ethnic-based about Kiir’s Presidency or a technical organized action to achieve something else? What is the panacea to this identity crisis?
Equatorians, the regional name now more preferable after the freedom, should make themselves clear on these roadside killing of the travelers whether it is a funded insurgency or Kiir’s presidency, because the victims on the roads do not know their fate. It is ridiculously astonishing to see the community where the capital city is allocated turning into ethnic rag-tags causing fear to foreigners and Dinka people on the roads.
It is crucially imperative to mention that, if there are capital city benefits, then nobody else has benefited more than Equatorian communities especially from Central Equatoria. Can’t you agree with me that freedom is good that now we are conducting expensive marriages in Juba on Saturdays and Sundays, can’t you agree with me that freedom is good that we are driving expensive cars, selling lands for investments, building concrete buildings, running lucrative businesses and renting houses in hard currencies: things we never dreamt of during the Arabs unjust oppression in the South.
Anyway let me not mention the bad things the Arabs did here in Juba during the war; you know better! If you do not need the capital city here in Equatoria region, make it clear and the government can improvise with the relocation than allowing beheadings of innocent lives on unrealistic claims. If it is a rebellion, announce it officially so that the men in uniforms handle it once and for all, as military to military confrontations. People are tired of the on roadside murdering by Equatorians (the new tribe name). Don’t you think you are even provoking the non-beneficiaries of Kiir government! If that is the case!
Please! If you are an opinion leader in Equatoria especially the then Central Equatoria, come out and condemn the killing of Dinka women and children on the road, tell the perpetrating youth to refrain from doing the killings before the provoked groups are forced to revenge. If the foreign organizations are the ones involved into these ethnic killing schemes and funding of the tribal hatred, then do not accept for they will not remain in South Sudan for a hundred years to come. It is we the South Sudanese who will live generations after generations in this land. The Foreign Organizations would one day leave the country if the objective (s) of their presence here is accomplished but we as South Sudanese will live forever.
Those of us who might have left the country for one reason or another will still come back because home is home from east to west. This political season will not remain permanent and what might have sparked the current ethnic targeting will also subsequently shake the next political replacement if these actions have to fall in-line on tit for tat or an eye for an eye.
As facts exist as facts, nobody wants his/her children to grow up with these political hatreds that have just emerged from 2013 to 2016 and beyond. It is not the intended future for our children and the country. The intended future for our country and the next generation is peace, education, development, modernized agriculture and the rule of law to say the least. Let us put our efforts together to fight this corruption and anti-peace elements to reclaim the positive future we all need for our next people to advance the country now on brink of collapse.
The continued finger pointing of blame on ethnicities would not solve the problems standing right at our doorsteps, instead, it will prolong the conflicts especially with politicians who achieve their political ambitions relying on ethnic support but not ideas. Let us point our fingers of blame on individuals corrupting and failing our country from rapid development of basic services and from catching up with the region and the rest of the world.
The road ambush of innocent travelers in Equatoria region should stop immediately and the ringleaders along their action implementers to join the rest for a viable solution: the peace, reconciliation and forgiveness so that we can forge a new dawn for this country we fought to obtain its freedom of her people from all the directions. I think generalization of an entity and the drawing of conclusions from smaller area of the failure of the fewer individuals is a bombshell to our affairs as a nation. Otherwise, I continue as your part-time contributor for concrete issues.
The writer is a citizen of South Sudan and can be reached via ariechemmanuel2015@gmail.com
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