The definition of genocide: “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group”
Australia, December 21, 2013 (SSNA) — The Nuer Communities Council of Australia (NCCA), Inc, hereby conveying our heartfelt and condolence to the Nuer families who lost their loved ones from the barbaric killing in Juba, South Sudan. The NCCA believe that a crime against humanity is being committed by the Sudan People liberation Army (SPLA). Therefore, we wish to inform UN and the regional partners especially IGAD and AU clearly about the Nuer massacre committed by the presidential guards which compose mainly of Dink, in Juba.
Having followed the situation in Juba closely in the last 7 days, we the Nuer Communities Council in Australia hereby inform the world that “Operation Units” –a security arm guards loyal to President Salva Kiir, have approximately massacred 10,000 innocent Nuer civilians in Juba. The Operation Units which carry out the massacre were all recruited from the President’s clan, Dinka. How did they carry out this coward acts?
Since this genocide occurred in Juba, they (the army loyal to president) have been using different tactics to murdered Nuer in their respective residential areas throughout Juba. The security organs and soldiers loyal to President Kiir:
• Searching homes in Juba targeting Nuer, hand cape them and takes them away and shot them. The Kiir soldiers are now killing Nuer ethnics group based on their tribal identity and language. Burns their bodies or cut their heads so that they will not be identified.
• Searching homes of all Nuer Politicians, civil servants and shot their families and destroyed their homes with army vehicles.
• Recently cease shooting at Nuer at night but still silently killing them with knives so that no one knows what they are doing.
• Kiir ordered mass burial of the deceases in a secret places and where he don’t allow UN and media to know what happening and how many people died.
• Continue raping Nuer women before killing them.
The consequence of the inhumane acts committed by the Presidential guard’s lead to the following scenarios:
• 10,000 of Nuer being massacred in Juba,
• Over 70,000 of Nuer were wounded,
• More than 30,000 Nuer people flew to UN and UNMISS compounds in Juba and various places without basic necessities (i.e. shelter, food, water and other sanitation measures). Where to take them is yet to be decided by UN.
We the NCCA rejected and condemned Kiir’s claims that the Nuer killed involved in an attempted coup. This claim is a baseless allegation and it is not justifiable because the Nuer that were killed particularly women and children are not even loyal to Dr. Riek Machar. Why were they killed?
Therefore, we anticipated that this was an intended massacre against Nuer planned by Dinka mainly the president’s clan. Since this incident occurred, the South Sudan leadership has been denying that no genocide was committed by Dinka against Nuer in Juba rather projected a false claimed on media.
On 18th December 2013 the president Kiir acknowledged and alleged that criminal with soldier’s uniform went and killed Nuer people at their homes at night in Juba.
Mr. President, How/where did the criminal acquired guns and uniform from?
Who is in control for the security in Juba?
Furthermore, we acknowledge that about 13 members of SPLM from various tribes of South Sudan had differences with the president on the functionality of the party, SPLM. For that reason, we assumed that this issue was going to be resolve peacefully by the party members at the party level because it was/is not an issue between the Nuer and Dinka.
If so, How come the security organs and the presidential guard soldiers were targeting and killing only Nuer civil servants, women and children even Nuer who are loyal to Kiir?
These questions remain to be answer by the Kiir’s leadership and the SPLA leaders so that those who involved in this indiscriminate attack on Nuer can be brought to justice. Thus, we appeal to UN organs in Juba to provide protection to the Nuer civilians. We strongly believe that the Presidential guards who mass killed Nuer in Juba operated under Kiir’s command to kill Nuer in cold blood. This week, we learned that the President Yuweri Museveni was approached to mediate the situation in South Sudan. However, today it happen that the
Uganda President starts bombing on South Sudanese in Jonglie State.
Will the Uganda President still be approached to carrying on with the mediation task between the President Salva and Dr. Riek Machar? Disaster.
How will the Ugandan President solve the problem while acting partially towards killing innocent South Sudanese?
• South Sudanese do not want Uganda troops any more in the land of South Sudan.
We know that the Uganda president has the same leadership characteristic to General salva Kiir Mayardit ; therefore, we are calling for UN to advice Uganda president to play a peaceful card in this problem not the interest of Uganda. We also call for UN to pressure Kiir’s leadership to:
• Disclose in full the number of Nuer people killed in Juba
• Provide people who are starving at UNMISS and other UN compounds with water, food and protection as they are in need of security and humanitarian assistance in Juba.
• Establishing committee to investigate the genocide of Nuer People carried by Kiir’s clan and brought them to justice.
• Cooperate with IGAD investigation process and shown transparency by not preventing media freedom.
We encourage the international Medias to continue on informing the world about the current situation facing the South Sudanese, particularly the Nuer who have been targeted and oppressed by the SPLA authority so the cause of the problems is revealed.
Our thoughts and feelings went to those who lost their lives in this indiscriminate attack. May the lord our God rest their souls in peace. Stay tone!!
The Nuer Communities Council of Australia