President Kiir should personally intervene in the Apuk and Aguok communal conflict
6 min readBy Kuach Garang Deng, Calgary, Canada
June 6, 2017 (SSB) — What we the citizens of South Sudan do not know about this long standing hostile between two most interrelated and intermarriage communities of Apuk and Aguok? Is it a pure communal conflict or a political motivated played by dirty politicians in Juba? What is the position of South Sudan government in this terrible bloodletting tribal conflict? What makes it so hard for members of one community to continue to destroy themselves even though the nation is facing economic constraint, starvation, insecurity and many multiple political problems.
What President Salva Kiir Mayardit did about this as a son of the area since he came to power? I think the conflict is older than Kiir’s leadership but he did not do enough to midget this community conflict as a part of making South Sudan as a peaceful nation? Does the President counts Apuk and Aguok as oppositions to his government since their conflict undermine peace and stability of South Sudan or he treat them differently?
There could be endless and million questions to be asked about this fishy conflict.
But hey! Charity start at home and therefore, President Salva Kiir Mayardit should unite his backyard before moving up to govern the whole nation. In fact, since he is unable to have a say in his community conflict that is eating up the social fabric and is destroying future generations of Gogrial as state and as people of South Sudan in the first place, he should be concerned.
If not, he should be nudged with the fact that his community conflict would paint a big hole on his long history and legacy of his heroism. President should count support of his family, community and Gogrial state if he want to continue to rule South by intervening to bring lasting peace.
In most tribal nations in Africa if not the whole World, when one comes to power, his/her most supporters are and always his own people before being backed by the whole country and then come the vulture opportunists who are only there to grab! Indeed, that did not happen since the president came to power? Even during recent fierce civil war between rival rebels and the government of South Sudan, Aguok and Apuk were busy tearing themselves up day and night without given regards that the president of the nation is their biological son who need their support to win the war.
President Kiir himself was after all busy in protecting and maintaining his power without paying little intention to his communal conflict. In the last few months, Present Salva was lucky enough to receive a great support from regional powers, International Community headed by US in sending his main rival Machar to exile for him to put his house in order. Unfortunately, he was unable to do something significant with this abundant time but he created more problems to keep himself busy with problematic decrees and gossips as a way of ruling South Sudan for longer years to come.
My question is: where would the president go in his retirement if he does not want to solve this problem now as the president? Would he go to retirement in exile with this giant legacy he always brag about in the public or go home to join the fight or be ready to run at old age when Apuk his in-laws attack his village? What do family of president discuss at the dinner table that does not mention this ugly affairs at home?
Since they both come from these warring communities, do they visit families of wounded or victims of Apuk and Aguok conflict in funerals or they play unaware game? What these families tell them if they attend funerals? What happen when the first Lady Mary Ayen Mayardit received bad news of victims killed by Aguok community where her husband comes from? That is a mind boggling situation for a leader with conscience to bury his head on sand in this volatile situation.
As a leader, one should create a peaceful community where families live in peace of mind and where they also retire comfortably. However, Kiir Mayardit and other Gogrial leaders fail to do this and act as spectators in a fenced yard. One of the characteristics of a leader is to have influence around his surroundings but if you find yourself in hard position where your people do not respect your views, then you should think twice what kind of leadership you leading.
I believe Gogrial leaders have all it takes to solve this social and cancerous problem but I think no one takes it seriously since most of these well folks do not have their families in battlefields where Apuk and Aguok butcher themselves.
Peaceful Solution!
If Salva Kiir and Gogrial leaders opt for peaceful Gogrial, they will see olives and doves hovering on the Rek land tomorrow! Indeed, nothing is impossible as long as it is created by human, it can also be solved by human beings as well.
I do not know what is so painful that Apuk and Aguok cannot forgive themselves and live as brothers and sisters in no separable communities. I believe if good peaceful approach is used, their conflict could be solved. These two communities have a lot of interests than conflict. They have plenty of things to gain if they live in peace than conflict.
Tit for tat will not allow them to achieve anything good but destruction of physical and self-loath and wound. That war can destroy a long relationship that exist between them for thousands of years. If Kiir takes these approach home as a prince of peace and does not work for both warring parties, he would resort to other alternatives of social and political control.
Using Stick as peaceful Solution
Kiir should use a decree as the president of the country as a hard fist to control the border between Apuk and Aguok to save innocent civilians from harming themselves. If the constitution empower him as does issue it daily, then the first thing president should do with this power should be the safety of citizens rather than security of his power. Therefore, President Kiir should use a military, and legal solution to make sure that this bloodletting conflict must and should come to an end. Use police forces to investigate, arrest suspects. If someone is found guilty, then justice will deal with them heavily as a deterrence for next instigators. Military can be used to suppress and intervene in active combat between communities. Indeed, there are so many ways Kiir Mayardit can arrest this ugly war if he has a political will but I think Kiir Mayardit has tradeoff his community for power.
Finally, I would like to send my heartfelt condolences to victims and wounded families of the recent and past year’s conflict. May God bring physical and spiritual healing so that a lasting peaceful comes to your state. I am really sorry for the continuation of this unfortunately and unwanted self-wound in intra-communal conflict. I ask you all people of South Sudan especially people of religious background to pray for Gogrial to have inclusive peace.
Kuach Loch Garang Deng is a South Sudanese Canadian concern citizen. He can be reached at lochdit2002@yahoo.ca
The opinion expressed here is solely the view of the writer. The veracity of any claim made are the responsibility of the author, not PaanLuel Wël: South Sudanese Bloggers (SSB) website. If you want to submit an opinion article or news analysis, please email it to paanluel2011@gmail.com. SSB do reserve the right to edit material before publication. Please include your full name, email address and the country you are writing from.
About Post Author
