Sydney, Australia, January 11, 2014 (SSNA) — We, the SPLM YOUTH LEAGUE members in NSW Australia have been worryingly witnessing and watching the current unfortunate conflict which has already cost us great number of our beloved citizens in vain. We are deeply saddened by this conflict and condemn it in the strongest terms possible.
We are calling for all those involved in this war to immediately halt and completely cease hostilities in order to spare the lives of our citizens and to help those who are already displaced and disadvantaged by this senseless war. We are a nation too young and quite diverse to afford any war with ourselves.
Any loss of a citizen be it a soldier or civilian is directly crippling our nation in many ways resulting in complete despair and failure of nationhood. Why nip ourselves and the nation in the bud? We have seen what we built up in several years destroyed in days; villages and towns burned, health facilities, banks and markets looted and destroyed completely, all but effectively dragging our nation back a few years.
We would like to remind all the parties involved in this conflict that this is a country very much loved by her citizens and are willing achieve meaningful political, social and economic progress in the absence of violence. We need peace and unity, democracy and sound nation building initiatives not wars. We are proud of our diversity and do not want people who engage in distorting and exploiting our diversity to gain their personal ambitions.
We need the delegates sent to Ethiopia on both sides to focus on national interests and bring this war to an end immediately in order to stop killing, destruction and displacement of our citizens. If your disagreements stemmed from ways of improving this nation and the livelihood of her citizens, you can for sure agree on stopping more casualties as the first sensible thing to do if you are real nationalists.
Once we have complete cessation of hostilities, we appeal to all SPLM authorities to seriously deal with SPLM and National issues and find lasting solutions. The government should also be ensuring accountability to the nation and sincerely engage citizens in national tribal reconciliation and healing.
We appreciate and urge our neighboring countries, international community and UN to continue to support efforts aiming to bring peace and stability to the republic of South Sudan. We also urge all South Sudan authorities to accommodate any help offered by external authorities especially international community in resolving our issues as a nation.
May God bless the citizens and the Republic of South Sudan.
Thank you,
Signed by SPLM Youth Executives: