The Rebuttal Press Release against the article entitled “Lou Nuer in Canada and U.S.A support white army in South Sudan”

For immediate Release

“Let it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness made us fail to live up to the ideals of humanism which the Nobel Peace Prize encapsulates. Let the strivings of all of us; prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism, ethnic conflicts and war.” Nelson Mandela

February 26, 2012 (SSNA) — In recent days, there were several articles and many press released in Media regarding the Jonglei tribal fighting and insecurity. Most of these articles claimed the Lou Nuer community logo and the name of the society but the leadership of the Lou Nuer organizations in diaspora (Canada-USA) and in South Sudan did not authorized those individual Media propagandists that claims their personal interest on behave of the community. We are regretful that the community in which we belong did not authorize any one beside the Lou Nuer emergency team in Canada and USA to represent the interest of the community when need be.

We as a community have learnt with disbelief, the continued misinformation in various online media claiming to speak on our behalf. If we were to monitor and response to their propagandas in daily bases, then it would be a great waste of time and energy for us to rebut any message they send to Media on behave of our community. We want to unequivocally state that we are not a political organization and do not speak for any political party in South Sudan. We are a community-based organization looking after and advocating for the welfare of our members both at home and in the Diaspora. To this end, we want to reiterate that we are for peaceful resolution of all conflicts involving our community. While we understand the difficult predicament our community is facing at home due to the intertribal conflict taking place in our state; anticipated self-defense has been their only battle cry and the world knows that this is a universal right of any living person (reference to international treaties and articles of the international laws).

For so long, the Lou Nuer community is a community where many leaders come from, reference to our struggle and the movement (SPLA/SPLM). We have one ways systems that we are distinguished from other members of the Sudanese community and anything that lead to violent has to be endured first, negotiated and justified before such an act take place. Although we knew that the insecurity within the Jonglei does not stop in Lou Nuer community; we regret that any groups within the Nuer community or South Sudanese community could not claims whatever they thought is good through the name of the Lou Nuer society. We know that our community is a part of the biggest umbrella of the Nuer community, and anything that aim to destroy our family may matter to the other side of equation of the Nuer community but using the name of the Lou Nuer community as to justifies their aims without permission is a violation of community’s principle and bylaws.

The Lou Media team is here to attest on behave of the community, and to assure the web readers that our role is to work collaboratively with those who work to bring peace and tranquility in Jonglei and South Sudan at large. We considered ourselves to be part of peaceful solution in Jonglei as our partners wish us to be. We seriously rejected anyone representing our community interest to support violent that continuously promotes crimes against people and insecurity in the Jonglei State wide. We believe that “words like freedom, justice, and democracy are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply.” The Lou Nuer people, Dinka community, Anyuak and Murle have a role to play in this regard like all the other communities members that had brought an end to injustice and undemocratic activities. We are qualifies enough in our region and we thought that we should bring this problem to an end as long as dialogue is opened to the State citizens.

The latest Internet political propagandas, like the rest of them, are from the same source (one legal prostitute advisor) and are a work of those who want to topple the government in Juba. That is the reason we keep telling these people to leave our community’s name out of this because our community is neither a rebel movement nor an opposition party. For this, it should not be used for those purposes. For your assurance, the latest series of propagandas entitled “Lou Nuer in Canada and U.S support White Army in South Sudan,” and “Lou Nuer In Australia Support The White Army And Oppose To Disarmament; Accuse The Government Of ‘Incompetence” may not sound like a community-based rhetoric even to the average English reader, that is because they are not. These are political propagandas meant to mislead those who are not familiar with realities on the ground in South Sudan, and we are here to help this category of readers. A closer look at the tone, the style, the legal arguments and the rhetoric gives a clear picture of not only the source, but the agenda. It does not matter how many names, logos and locations are forged, this fact will never change.

We wanted to emphasize that Lou Nuer community wants to work collaboratively with those who are working to bring peace and tranquility not only to our state but to our country as a whole. We want to be part of a solution rather than a problem, and we adamantly reject anyone using the name of our community to promote violence either in diaspora, Jonglei state or South Sudan as whole. Failure to heed to this warning could result in legal actions being pursued against the culprits. We have been patience enough and we are now on the brink of exploring every option to stop these people, if reasoning is beyond their capacity.

An interesting and new pattern, that worth sharing with the readers or audiences, though insignificant because the language gave it away, is the use of the Lou Nuer names in these latest propagandas. While we cannot deny the membership of those whose names appeared on the latest press releases, their use of forged titles that can easily be verified by calling the Lou Nuer community leaders, elders and pastors in the South Sudan and cities of residence in diaspora, show the level of desperation these people will stoop to achieve an end. The case of Gatluke Chuol Reat, who falsely claimed to be a spokesperson of the Lou Nuer community in the US and Canada is not only interesting but laughable because the Lou Nuer community elders and pastors in Canada have been asking the members in various community meetings to save this young man from hurting himself so that he can stops self-destructing behaviors, but to no avail. And for the record, he holds no office at any level of the community, not even a sub-committee member, leave alone being a spokesperson.

The Nuer community members once witnessed that Gatluke created the South Sudan Nuer International Advocacy for Human Rights (SSNIAHR) in 2010 with some of his groups from the Nuer community in which honourable Peter Gatkuoth Wadar Kuel is chairman while Gatluke is the Secretary General of the organization. Fact and evident of such an organization still exist and Gatluke’s emails is [email protected] while the organization website is www.southsudanadvocates.org. You can also find the link to their press release here http://pachodo.org/latest-news-articles/pachodo-english-articles/2196-press-release. This is just to inform the audiences that if Gatluke is willing to be the frontline media fighter for any groups he wishes to represent; he should use this organization to reach his main goal and political interest. We ask him to use his position in such an organization as the Secretary General of International Advocacy for Human Rights rather than signing that he is a spokesperson of the Lou Nuer community in USA and Canada. We have no problem with him if he uses the name of the Lou Nuer community appropriately such as signing that, Gatluke is a member of the Lou Nuer community in diaspora but we have a problem when he signs that he is a member of the Lou Nuer community leaderships (spokesperson), for being a spokesperson will always meant that he is delegated to send an agreed message to the Media on behave of the Lou Nuer community.

In psychological term, the fact that South Sudan is facing tribal conflicts cannot be disputed and this fact may influences people who are far in distant. Perhaps some individuals who lost their families may have use options of their interest to destabilize the region but they should be careful not to use the name of the community. This conflict may have influence them automatically and made them mad and crazy to preach violent as a ways of encouraging continue intertribal conflict in the State. Such a case could not be disputed and therefore, we are in fear that our brothers who are using such a hate speech to gain certain media merits and encourage young people in the region may have gone through difficulties of coping with the situation. We caution audiences, and media members to be patient all the time and dig out where the sources of any articles/press release come from before the audiences discuss and act upon it. 

Finally, and to erase any doubt about the authenticity of what we are saying, any article from the Lou Nuer community should always use its website and the name as well as the email to reach us back. The Lou Nuer Media group would also like to demand an apology from Gatluke and his invisible legal advisor! The team will end this addendum by informing the readers that all the Lou Nuer Press Releases will contain the link of the Lou Nuer Community website and email address. If you cannot reach us through email, call any Lou Nuer elders or any senior pastors from the Lou Nuer pastoral team in America and Canada. They will help you for any questions you wanted to ask. We thanks the audiences, the South Sudanese and we thought that “civilization will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless a very large majority of mankind unite together to defend those principle and show themselves possessed of a constabulary power before which barbaric and atavistic forces prevail.”

God bless the readers and the public at large!

The Lou Nuer Community Media Team – Diaspora!
Please reach us at [email protected]
http://www.lounuer.org/Peace_Committee.html, www.lounuer.org
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