Justice Heals Wounds: Let’s Embrace the Rule of Law in South Sudan
Capt. Manyang Chol
By Majak Kuany Alier, Juba, South Sudan
Monday, June 8, 2020 (PW) — Justice serves everyone regardless of one’s social satisfaction, that is why it is called the rule of law, whether regular people or opposed privileged elite the law is supreme to our status, and it is everybody fortification.
As a peace-loving citizen, I would like to put down these thoughts in a transparent manner as much amid the reality call for justice to be served to victims of Sherikat tragic incident.
As a strong-willed advocate of good governance, I must remain focus on the subject mattertenet as a means to develop these views to create empathy on why we should adhere to justice as we strive to become law-abiding citizens.
In serving justice, facts and truth synchronously toil together and in the absence of the other, the desired accountability can never be achieved without an effervescent rule of law in the country, and good governance is considered to be the vehicle for attaining sustainable justice in any given country on earth planet.
As South Sudanese, we should know that justice anchorages forgiveness and reconciliation hence we much shrug off this culture of revenge killings and allow the law to be our armor and guard to protect each of us instead of using physical violent means as a solution to solving our human errors.
Fellow citizens, I believe many of you share the same sense of being peaceful members of our society as I do, but the culture of inculcated tribalism and hatred in us by the past history years of devastating conflict has made majority to deviate from that harmonious and social cohesion we palisade together.
Let’s find time to ask ourselves simples guiding questions that can make us sways justice into our war-torn communities’ heart. This critical objective and provoking question is; can we make sense of a restorative approach to justice in the absence of either forgiveness or reconciliation?
To answer this question, we must rethink as to why we fought more than two decades of the then Sudan civil war to have an independent state called South Sudan.
The incident that was sparked by wrangles over a disputed piece of land as reported in the media has led to the loss of nine lives which include seven civilians and two army officers. May their souls rest in eternal peace!
The slaying of civilians on June 3 in a broad daylight was an act of inculcated privilege assumed by an individual that claimed to have more rights than others in the face of the law.
I believe that majority of South Sudanese in their infinite thinking might be having rambling questions as to why well-trained army officers could spark a wrangle over a disputed piece of land violently?
The answer to this is exactly the reason why our President has swiftly constituted a fact-finding seven high-level investigation committee to give the country their findings within a seven-day timeframe.
People and government know that perpetrators didcommitted the crime out of their ignorance of the law butnot because anyone was necessarily a President Kiir’snephew or a distant cousin.
Someone who is not even related to the president in any way can commit a crime as a result of how our nation has been fixed to since theinception due to the absence of fair and just law.
In a nutshell, Sherikat incident should never be politicized and use as a Bhar el Ghazal orchestrated plan to maimed Bor community’s civilians. It is purely a felony punishable by law. Therefore, ignorance of the law is not a defense!
It is a right time for South Sudanese to stop resolving every grievances violently. If we need our nation to proposer and communities to live peacefully for centuries to come, then we must respect and live to value human life.
In conclusion, justice should be served instead of threating and sternly warning citizens from expressing their displeasure to the system that has not been protectingthem enough from the hands of unknown gunmen formore than nine years of our self-governance as an independence state.
The writer is an executive director for Sustainable Agency for Empower (SAFE), a youth-led organization that empowers nomadic children with literacy and numeracy. Majak is also a professional journalist with a lean focus on peace journalism, and also a strong-willed advocate of youth empowerment. He can be reach via kuanyalier@gmail.com
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