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By Abraham Deng Luth
December 25, 2013 (SSNA) — Dear my fellow citizens, please, pray for Jieng people in Malakal! I am hearing very disturbing news! To my fellow citizens from Nuer, urge your people in Malakal to refrain from killing civilians. Do your best to stop this war and urge Dr. Riek to accept dialogue; it is not a good idea to overthrow President Kiir but he can step down if his conscience tells him so or the parliament can act. Otherwise, let’s wait for 2015. So, our current issues have several solutions but overthrowing Kiir by force is not one of them.
This is because if one of your own, a nuer, comes to power today, you will not want the Dinkas or the Equatorians to do what you are doing today? Overthrowing an elected president is not a good precedence for a nation that wants to develop itself.
This unwarranted war is a waste of our national resources in terms of its countless lives and economic apparatus! The aggression has gone wild and people are killing each other like they don’t want to live with each other again at all! This is sad! More Jieng people are being killed. This is evidence in Akobo, Bor, Bentiu, and now in Malakal. So, please, stop the killings. You have made your points and you are heard. So, let’s sit down and talk.
President Kiir may just call it a quit to save lives and let the Nuers take over! There seems to be several forces acting on the Nuer militia and their aggression seems to be nonstop (suicide mission i.e. The Nuers vs. The Nation) These forces, as one of my Nuer friends told me, are successive marginalization policies (that the Nuers are treated like a second class citizens), president kiir’s dictatorship styles, Juba Killings and Ngundeeng’s prophecies!
To my Nuer brothers and sisters, I do not know much about Ngundeng’s prophecies but from what I heard, one of them was that many people will die before South Sudan can be a better nation for all but I think enough have died. The president is calling for dialogue. Ngundeeng’s prophecies can also be achieved through dialogue. So, please, stop the violence and let’s try to sit down and talk ourselves to peace and the nation we want to build together.
The president needs to see this violence with a new frame; it has nothing to do with what or how it started! It has taken a form and life of its own! Addressing it needs a new thinking, a fresh look!
The President can do the following things to help create viable conditions for dialogue:
Dr. Riek will need to do the following things on his side as well:
NB: If these are done and a peace is achieved, the South Sudanese people may support the pardoning of criminal charges.
Abraham Deng Lueth is a Community Support Specialist at Truman Behavioral health Emergency Department in Kansas City, Missouri, United States; he is the President of Greater Bor Community-USA. He previously worked as a critical care laboratory technician and conducted an independent undergraduate biomedical research project which was published in the Plant Science Journal in 2007.