Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy On South Sudan

. . . . Congressional Record

https://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/statement-of-senator-patrick-leahy-on-south-sudan

Mr. LEAHY.  On January 6, 2022, I made a statement about the extreme hardships and insecurity that are a daily reality for the people of South Sudan, despite independence ten years ago that held so much promise and hope for that country.  That independence came as a result of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which took years of negotiations facilitated by the United States, Norway, and the United Kingdom, and it provided a roadmap for political stability, economic development, respect for human rights, and justice. 

Since then, two former warlords, President Kiir and Vice President Machar – who were never elected – have dominated the political landscape in South Sudan.  It is they, throughout these critically important formative years, who have had the executive power, and the responsibility, to transform the aspirations of independence into tangible improvements in the lives of their people.  Ten years later it is fair to ask a simple question:  What have they done? 

I would answer that question with these questions:

After ten years, is South Sudan a country at peace where the rights of the people are respected and their basic needs, such as safe water, sanitation, food, shelter, and health care are being met? 

Has South Sudan’s vast oil wealth been invested wisely in public infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, public transportation, roads, and bridges after decades of civil war? 

Is the country’s agricultural economy expanding and reaching new markets? 

Are children in school and are teachers receiving a decent salary? 

Are South Sudan’s youth, who make up a majority of the population, able to find jobs?

Do the security forces have the training, equipment, food, and barracks they need to maintain the peace, and are soldiers and officers receiving adequate pay? 

Are government ministries led and staffed by trained and honest professionals? 

Is the Parliament defending the people’s interests?

Is the judiciary independent, and the courts accessible and trusted by the people?  Have those who committed crimes against humanity and other gross violations of human rights been prosecuted and punished?

Have the many thousands of South Sudanese refugees and internally displaced been able to return home to rebuild their lives?

Is civic space being protected so civil society activists and independent journalists can function without fear of harassment or threats?  

Has the necessary work been done to create the conditions for transparent, free, and fair elections in which candidates from all political parties can participate?  

Has sustained progress been made in any of these areas?

I think the answers are obvious, and the people of South Sudan know the answers.  Despite billions of dollars in international aid and billions of dollars in oil revenues, the government of South Sudan has failed every test. 

Today, South Sudan ranks as among the world’s most corrupt country and, despite its oil wealth, one of the hungriest country in the world.

We should remember that the Republic of South Sudan would not exist were it not for the sacrifice of millions of South Sudanese who gave their lives in the fight for independence.  But it is also a fact that had it not been for the support of the United States, South Sudan would not be a Republic today. 

I have been a United States Senator for 47 years, so I remember when South Sudan existed only in people’s dreams.  I remember when John Garang would visit the U.S. Congress seeking support.  He was an inspiring leader and we supported him.  I supported him.  And we welcomed South Sudan’s hard-fought independence.   

But since John Garang’s tragic death in 2005, we have seen how greed and personal ambition can thwart the aspirations of an entire population.

The January 21^st response of the Office of the President of the Republic of South Sudan to my statement of January 6^th was as revealing as it was predictable. 

The Office of the President accuses me of calling for “regime change through uprising and violence.”  Anyone who read my statement, as the author of that accusation surely did, knows it to be absurd on its face.  There is not a single word in my statement that remotely suggests what the Office of the President accuses me of.  Their resort to fabrication and intimidation is the all-too-common tactic of governments to deflect attention from their own failures.  We have seen it even in our own country.

The people of South Sudan have experienced far too much war, far too much violence, far too much displacement, far too much insecurity, and far too much hunger and misery.  The last thing they need or want is more violence, and nothing I have said would suggest otherwise.

There are countless examples.  Just a few days ago, on January 23^rd, five kilometers from Bor, the capital of Jonglei State, armed militia reportedly slaughtered 35 and injured 17 civilians, including women and children.  Property was looted and huts were burned down. The people of South Sudan know too well that these violent acts are orchestrated or condoned by the country’s leaders.  In a letter dated November 25, 2020, addressed to the President of the UN Security Council from the Panel of Experts on South Sudan, they reported the following:

“Political and security disputes within President Kiir’s coalition have contributed to conflicts that have killed and displaced civilians in Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area. Rival factions within the Government supplied weapons to various ethnic militias from the Government’s stockpile. Between May and August, eight humanitarian staff were killed, humanitarian facilities were looted and destroyed, and thousands of civilians were displaced at a time of widespread flooding in Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area[1].”

The killings on January 23^rd were part of the same pattern, yet those who bear responsibility for these attacks accuse advocates for peaceful change of promoting violence.

Rather than falsely accuse me and South Sudanese civil society organizations that have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to non-violence, the government should put a stop to these attacks and ask itself the questions I have posed. 

It should also reflect on the fact that U.S. Senate Resolution 380 passed unanimously – with the support of 100 U.S. Senators, Democrats and Republicans – less than two months ago.  I remind the Office of the President what we said:

“Whereas despite years of fighting, widespread suffering of South Sudanese civilians, punitive actions by the international community, and 2 peace agreements, the leaders of South Sudan have failed to build sustainable peace, and critical provisions of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict [R-ARCSS] . . . remain unimplemented;

Whereas the leaders of South Sudan have consistently failed to uphold their responsibilities to create the conditions for peace and prosperity, have prioritized self-preservation and corruption over the needs of the people they represent, have acted in bad faith in the implementation of cease fire and peace agreements, and have betrayed the cause of freedom, resulting in the loss of millions of lives; and

Whereas South Sudan has not held an election since its independence and the current leaders of South Sudan were appointed or installed through transitional arrangements based on peace agreements.”

That Resolution also urged the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury:

“(A) to prioritize investigations into illicit financial flows fueling violence in South Sudan;

(B) to work with the Secretary of State to update, on a regular basis, the list of individuals and entities designated under the South Sudan sanctions program, including individuals at the highest levels of leadership in South Sudan and from within the National Security Service; and

(C) to coordinate, in cooperation with the Secretary of State, with the United Kingdom and the European Union on South Sudan-related sanctions designations and enforcement.”

So rather than make up falsehoods about those asking such questions, including me, the People’s Coalition for Civil Action, and other South Sudanese activists and organizations that want nothing more than for the promise of the R-ARCSS to be realized so the people of South Sudan can enjoy the security and prosperity they are entitled to, I urge President Kiir and Vice President Machar to put their country first.

Rather than falsely accusing others of violence or resorting to provocations to create a pretext for persecuting and silencing them, they should listen to them.  They should listen to the voices of the people, expressed in the National Dialogue, that South Sudan needs a new beginning.  

Rather than claim to have taken significant steps to put South Sudan’s failing economy on a solid footing, which fools no one, they should open up the government’s books so people can see the receipts and expenditures. 

Rather than hide behind the R-ARCSS to preserve the status quo, they should implement it in letter and spirit, including by unifying rival security forces, by promulgating a new constitution, and by opening up the political space in the country.

Rather than make excuses to delay elections as they have repeatedly done before, they should set a date, in accordance with the R-ARCSS, for national and parliamentary elections, and they should support a road map for creating the necessary conditions for the refugees to return and for multi-party democratic elections to succeed with the support of the army.  And without delay, they should declare their unconditional commitment not to contest the next election and to relinquish power as soon as South Sudan’s newly elected leaders take office.   

The sad reality is that while the South Sudanese people won their independence from Sudan, they remain captives of the same ruthless and corrupt warlords who created so much ethnic conflict, bloodshed, and misery during the civil war and who have not been held accountable. 

They simply reinvented themselves as political leaders, with a stamp of legitimacy from the international community, while continuing to act like the warlords they are and always were. 

They have shown no interest in implementing the R-ARCSS or any other peace agreement. 

They have shown no interest in the welfare of their people.

They have shown no interest in anything except holding onto power, avoiding justice, and enriching themselves. 

It is time to listen to the people of South Sudan, and for the United States to reassess its policy toward South Sudan.  The White House and the State Department need to recognize that the status quo in South Sudan has been a dead end for years and consult with Congress on a new way forward.  As a first step, the U.S. should use the authorities that already exist, including the Global Magnitzky Act, to sanction key officials in South Sudan’s National Security Service, which has long functioned as a criminal enterprise that engages in extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, torture, and other heinous crimes. 

Real peace requires justice, and it requires respect for fundamental rights regardless of ethnicity, race, or religion.  It requires free and fair elections, and equitable economic development.  These should be at the heart of our policy.

# # # # #

R-TGONU embracing massacre of 7 Murle civilians in Jonglei State Capital, Bor

R-TGONU embracing indiscriminate massacre in Bor Town of (5 men and 2 women) innocent Murle civilians

Jonglei State authorities have not apprehend the armed culprits identified as Anyidi Payam’s Youth

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Press Statement for Immediate Release                                    November 28, 2021

Equatoria Peoples Alliance (EPA[1]) is deeply alarmed that (5 men and 2 women) unarmed, defenceless innocent Murle civilians from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) were attacked and murdered in cold blood in Bor Town, Jonglei State Capital, apparently by armed Anyidi Payam’s Youth and they were not apprehended. The lives of another (9) Murle civilians were also put at risk and escaped the massacre.

The Murle civilians who are in Bor, Jonglei State Capital are insecure and left to fend for themselves in the face of a lawless State Capital ruled by a defiant armed, unruly and lawless youth, while the corrupt and failed R-TGONU stands unconcerned, embracing indiscriminate massacre of Murle citizens without being held accountable! Repeatedly on countless occasions in recent times, the failed R-TGONU stands  a witness and silent to a whole population of the GPAA Murle communities whose existence is being constantly threatened by those who declared a No-Fly zone over GPAA last year in a genocidal march to forcibly displace the Murle from their ancestral homes, as is the current situation in Equatoria where over 1.8 millions were forced into refuge since 2016, which constitutes the single largest refugee exodus in Africa since the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

The Republic of South Sudan has become a failed state, not a republic and nation bound by peoples’ Constitution, and without the people, the country can not be a nation. The tyranny of SPLM hegemonic elites who are unelected and who are without a vision and legitimacy to rule, cannot be the substitute for the broken social-fabric in the country.

The failed SPLM state and dictatorial rule by hegemonic and corrupt ethnocentric elites uninterrupted since the onset of CPA in 2005, has completely destroyed the country’s social fabric and cohesion, posing the greatest menace and existential threat ever to our peoples’ otherwise peaceful co-existence in their ancestral homes in GPAA, Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal predating the Republic of South Sudan and the SPLM hegemonic state.

While EPA condemns in the most uncertain terms the massacre of (7) Murle innocent civilians in broad day light in Bor, Jonglei State Capital, the permanent solution to these vicious, perennial and endemic massacres of our innocent civilians is in the hands of our people in Equatoria, GPAA, and Western Bahr el Ghazal, and who are faced with existential threat by the nature of the collapsing and failed ethnocentric SPLM State, the slaughterhouse that they now live in, which existence is without preservation of their fundamental and inalienable Human and Natural Rights as a people.

The peoples’ of Equatoria, GPAA, and Western Bahr el Ghazal in particular are called upon to unite for peaceful co-existence and preservation of their inalienable and sovereign right to exercise political power by our peoples over affairs of their independent existence and governance in their ancestral homelands, and through a Transitional Peoples’ Shared Sovereignty Union[2] as a legitimate state formation mechanism to transition out of the current tyranny of the failed SPLM ethnocentric state.

EPA is conscious that there is no preservation of the Rights of the people of Equatoria, GPAA, Western Bahr el Ghazal against violations or infringements by the current Jieng Council of Elders regime in the failed Republic of South Sudan that has so often chosen to repress by the use of force the inalienable Rights of the Peoples of Equatoria, Western Bahr el Ghazal and GPAA. The existential threats to our people remain unresolved, unmitigated until you are united with a vision to exit the failed SPLM state and put the people and their interest first. There is no hope that the status quo would ever change under the R-ARCSS and R-TGONU leaders, who are unelected by our peoples and are without a mandate from the people of Equatoria, GPAA, and Western Bahr el Ghazal for legitimate permanent constitution-making on our behalf in the state formation process.

The IGAD imposed R-ARCSS has no protection of the inalienable rights of the Peoples of Equatoria, GPAA and Bahr el Ghazal against infringement and violations by the ruling ethnocentric and hegemonic elites to make their own SPLM constitution by unelected representatives in the Republic of South Sudan.

In right of Equatoria Peoples’ Declaration and Charter of Rights of 18^th July 2020 (https://epauf.wordpress.com/), Equatoria peoples are obligated to realize by free self-determination the unity and freedom of Equatoria in a Federal Democratic Republic, for the preservation of the Human and Peoples’ Rights against infringement or violations by any group(s) of people, including the incumbent government of the Republic of South Sudan if it so choses continuing to repress, by the use of force, these rights contained in Equatoria Peoples’ Declaration and Charter of Rights.

EPA unreservedly condemns these massacres of unarmed civilians, and holds R-TGONU SPLM leaders Salva Kiir and Riek Machar responsible for the blood-letting and unwarranted death tall of innocent unarmed civilians in Jonglei State Capital, Bor.

The R-TGONU abjectly failed to save lives, failed to put and end to the spate of lawlessness in the country, and left the local vigilante heavily armed violent communities to roam the streets to kill and murder any civilian in their sight with impunity. The Murle population of GPAA are facing a fresh spate of violence which intensifies across the country.

The Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM) is the key problematic, which succeeded to seed and entrench a model of impunity and violent tyranny that is without a parallel in its oppressive nature in the neighborhood. The carriage of this oppression, against innocent civilians, and which has covered the country with blood and violence, is made systemic by an ethnocentric hegemony and dictatorship of the army Generals and security operative in the country. This has aided the complete destruction of the Republic’s and the peoples’ social fabric beyond tolerable peaceful co-existence in a collapsed state under which our people now live.

The SPLM, whatever its suffix, has betrayed all our people, bred violence, corruption, unknown gunmen and death as a common currency to our otherwise long-lived peaceful communities in our country.

The freedom to possess and exercise political power by the people over affairs of their existence and governance, is non-negotiable and solely contingent upon the peoples’ of Equatoria, GPAA and Western Bahr el Ghazal unity of purpose, in a struggle for a shared sovereignty governance in the failed state of South Sudan, and one which guaranteeds a union of peaceful co-existence and Equatoria peoples’ right to self-determination of their future status in a sovereign state of their own. as it was under Governor General of Equatoria, Charles Gordon before annexation of Equatoria to the Sudan as a province by the British in 1910.

Equatoria in particular, has seen enough of SPLM hegemonic rule of the last more than 16 years of misrule, which littered the country with theft in billions of dollars and counting lost to endemic corruption, war crimes and crimes against humanity by SPLM leaders who care less about their people, and do not see the country’s future without SPLM and them the ever enduring liberators leading it. This SPLM arbitrary political playbook in which the people of Equatoria, GPAA and Western Bahr el Ghazal are being held hostage to hegemonic rule of tribale elites, has to end, and without which there would be no change and hope for Equatoria’s future posterity to live in peace in their ancestral homelands.

Equatoria Peoples Alliance (EPA)

28^th November 2021

http://epauf.wordpress.com

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[1] Equatoria Peoples’ Alliance – https://epauf.wordpress.com

[2] https://epauf.wordpress.com/2021/10/24/equatoria-the-journey-to-self-determination/

No to military dictatorship in Sudan

Equatoria Peoples’ Alliance (EPA) strongly condemns in no uncertain terms the coup d’etat and new military dictatorship by the army Generals in Khartoum, Sudan, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the Commander-In-Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces.

Equatoria Peoples’ Alliance stands in solidarity with the people of Sudan against military dictatorship in any shape or form, and extends its support to the revolution of the people and youth of Sudan to end the cycle of politicking by the military to usurp power from the civilians. The Sudanese people and their youth throughout history paid a high price and made heroic sacrifices in lives lost in resistance to dictatorial rule to bring revolutionary change and democratic reforms in their country.

Victory is certain for the heroic struggle of the Sudanese people who never failed to resist and overcome military dictators and their enablers in the Arab world or internationally. The Sudanese people have, time and again, taught the world that there is no dictatorship in Sudan that would withstand the people’s power and will when they rise against oppression by enduring dictators of more than 30 years in power!

EPA seizes this historic opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Sudanese people in their honourable resistance to oppression, their fight and sacrifices for freedom, democracy and the rule of law in this day and age. Their stand serves a notice and a powerful message to the dictators in the neighbourhood, including President Salva Kiir’s and SPLM dictatorship in South Sudan, that their days too are numbered to find that they alone are the last relics of military dictatorship by the army Generals in the vicinity, in the region and in Africa. The people will prevail.

The peoples’ victory for freedom and democracy in Sudan and South Sudan is certain.

Equatoria Peoples’ Alliance – https://epauf.wordpress.com

Gondokoro is bleeding in the latest shelling of civilians by South Sudan People’s Defence Forces after Mangalla

Equatoria and the world needs to know why and who in the chain of command ordered the shelling of Kondokoro civilians by the Dinka militia forces; the tribal South Sudan People Defence Force (SSPDF)

Press Statement for Immediate Release Sunday 26th February 2023

Equatoria Peoples’ Alliance (EPA) is deeply appalled by reports of fresh, vicious and relentless continuing SSPDF shelling of innocent Bari community civilians in Kondokoro village outside of Juba in their latest campaign of violence after Mangalla in Equatoria. EPA holds President Salva Kiir responsible for the spate of relentless violence by the state against innocent Bari community civilians in Kondokoro and Mangalla. A systemic, unabated string of massacres against civilians in Equatoria perpetrated by state agents and SSPDF sponsored, armed and supplied militia is now long established as President Salva Kiir’s undeclared policy of Dinka occupation of Equatoria. The monumental failure of state and so called national Government leadership in Juba to protect civilians in Equatoria from massacres, rests squarely with President Salva Kiir and he has failed to condemn the massacres in Ngangala, Kajokeji, Agoro, Lokiliri, Lobonok and Abara in the course of last and this year and counting.

EPA expresses its profound appreciation for the immense burden of responsibility that the members of our Bari and Equatoria community in Juba have shown in taking lead to speak out against unspeakable crimes and massacres of our innocent people in their ancestral villages and homelands in Equatoria. They have shown courage in the face of vicious and callous hegemonic and tribal Dinka Government that knows no bounds in committing endless atrocities against our innocent civilians in Equatoria and Bari land.

EPA are informed about the scheming and machinations that are being hatched by enemies of Equatoria and Bari to divide our people and undermine the legitimate voices of our people in legally instituted representative body such as the enduring Bari Community Association. EPA reiterates in no uncertain terms that no power can write off the existence of Bari Community Association, nor question its existence, let alone talking of contemplating shutting it down at the behest of the unknown political gun men in Juba!

Equatoria collectively have started on a journey to free our people of Equatoria from massacres, and assert their inalienable right to existence and exercise of full political power and control over affairs of their existence, livelihood and governance. EPA stands in solidarity with and commend the courage of those men and women who have taken the lead to shoulder the responsibility to stand for and represent our Bari community at their time of need for leadership and courage to speak up for their rights and sovereignty over affairs of their existence and livelihood in their ancestral Equatoria lands.

EPA is particularly cognisant of ongoing violations and land grabbing in Kondokoro, and the SSPDF stands indicted and accused of shelling villages in Kondokoro with intent on causing displacement of local communities at gunpoint.

EPA wish to state in no uncertain terms once more that Equatoria is not to be and will not become the destination to host large migrations of all and every community and people from Upper Nile and Bahr el Ghazal to Bari land and Juba in particular. and Equatoria in general. The ‘failed state’ officially undeclared policy of silence and complicity over massacre of civilians in Equatoria constitutes a Dinka state strategy and policy of occupation, of Equatoria, the effects of which are manifest in unspeakable string of massacres in Ngangala, Mangalla, Lokiliri, Lobonok, Kajojeji and counting whilst the state and so called national Govt in Juba looks the other way, unhinged and failing its duty to protect, but instead continuing deployment of SSPDF to shell Kondokoro and Mangalla civilians and local populations.

EPA summons Equatoria to get its act together, set its priorities right and take action to determine its future status in the failed hegemonic tribal state of South Sudan.

Our people are bleeding, Kondokoro is bleeding and Equatoria is bleeding to death under the oppressive and hegemonic Dinka state that the country has become under Dinka President Salva Kiir Mayar. Freedom is not free and the burden is on Equatoria to unite and get its act together for its liberty, and put once and for all, an end to President Salva Kirr’s impunity in Equatoria. EPA further reiterates, any attack on any single Equatorian community is an attack on all Equatorian communities.

Dr Hakim Dario

Equatoria Peoples’ Alliance (EPA) – https://epauf.wordpress.com

Kondokoro local population displaced by shelling

South Sudan is finished! Central African Republic, DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan & Uganda be warned

South Sudan is finished, Central African Republic, DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan & Uganda be alerted!

BY MARGARET AKULIA, CANADA

“So, what happened is that the people of Mangala have never celebrated Christmas or New Year simply because the illegal occupants, the invaders from Dinka Bor who came with their cattle and went marauding with their cattle to the farms started also shooting at people, burning villages. This caused a serious devastation of our people in that area” (https://youtu.be/R05xsIy_YqE).

Those are the words of Kalisto Lado, a former Mayor of Juba the capital of South Sudan which seceded from Sudan on July 9, 2011, but now resembles a lawless jungle! Lado was referring to yet another killing spree by militia from the Dinka ethnic group who maraud as lowly cattle herders when in actual fact they are armed members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, a purported liberation army that duped the entire world when its members presented themselves as angels of light and liberators fighting for the right to practice Christianity in a predominantly Muslim Sudan among other rights but turned out to be criminals, disciplines and agents of Lucifer, another name for Satan (https://vimeo.com/ondemand/southsudantalks). The attack Lado was talking about at an impromptu Press Conference occurred around Christmas 2022 and the slaughter continues with impunity despite a visit to South Sudan by Pope Francis, revered head of the Catholic Church from February 3, 2023 to February 5, 2023 (https://youtu.be/OcrutIffDzk); (https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/pope-wraps-up-congo-visit-heads-volatile-south-sudan-2023-02-03/); (https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/02/03/south-sudan-rights-abuses-overshadow-popes-visit).

“So, what happened is that the people of Mangala have never celebrated Christmas or New Year simply because the illegal occupants, the invaders from Dinka Bor who came with their cattle and went marauding with their cattle to the farms started also shooting at people, burning villages. This caused a serious devastation of our people in that area” (https://youtu.be/R05xsIy_YqE).

As if to wave fingers dripping with human blood at God Almighty and dare Him to judge them, on Thursday, February 2, 2023, the eve of the visit by the Supreme Pontiff to South Sudan,“local authorities and the clergy reported that 21 civilians were reportedly dragged out of their homes and gunned down in Lire Payam in Central Equatoria State’s Kajo Keji County by armed pastoralists suspected to be from Bor in Jonglei State” (https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/archbishop-of-canterbury-horrified-over-kajo-keji-killings). Totally oblivious to a rare visit by the head of the whole Catholic Church, the haughty murderers and interlopers continued to commit genocide for their master Satan during the visit by Pope Francis instead of repenting to the Holy Father of the Catholic Church (https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/index.htm). Imitating the December 2013 door to door massacre of members of the Nuer ethnic group, some among the fake pastoralists were the same ones who killed members of the Nuer ethnic group in December 2013. These phony pastoralists have clearly been given permission and immunity by South Sudan’s professed government to kill for purposes of attaining Dinka “ethnic supremacy and genocidal conquest”.

The “cattle herders” who are homicidal members of the purported Liberation Army in actuality are determined to implement a nefarious and Satanic Dinka plan to dominate the rest of the ethnic groups of South Sudan through terror. Trained and permitted to kill by design, the emboldened so-called cattle herders are always armed to the teeth with sophisticated rifles supplied by South Sudan’s self-styled government. The felons roam about robbing and murdering unarmed civilians. They go about systematically raping women, men, and children.  After decades of fighting a very bloody war that cost millions of lives, the so-called liberators continue to commit the most abhorrent forms of human rights violations! Long after their self-styled revolution came to an end and the territory currently called South Sudan became a sovereign state according to international law, they are still using terror as a premeditated tool against the supporters they duped (Reformed Rebels? Democratization, Global Norms, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army).

“My president is Salva Kiir Mayardit,” Lado asserted in pidgin Arabic, the lingua franca of South Sudan and the Equatoria region in particular. It is a lingua franca developed over centuries through contact with a predominantly Arab northern Sudan. Accepted as a shared language among speakers whose Indigenous languages are diverse, this pidgin Arabic is now embraced as a common language especially in the Equatoria region. Former Mayor Kalisto Lado was paying homage to Kiir, the incumbent president, but critics were quick to reassert that South Sudan has collapsed as a state, and it no longer has a head of state presiding over all the sixty-four plus ethnic groups of the territory but a Dinka chief masquerading as a sham president.

They brazenly refer to Kiir as the head of a criminal cartel and village chief looking out for only his Dinka ethnic group. The pundits allege that the incumbent government is a self-appointed Dinka government that is aiding and abetting the rampant lawlessness for purposes of grabbing ancestral lands belonging to the other ethnic groups of South Sudan and illicitly gifting these lands to the Dinka ethnic group. Many cite Dr Carol Berger’s well researched paper titled “Ethnocide as a Tool of State-building: South Sudan and the Never-ending War” (https://martinplaut.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/ethnocide-in-south-sudan.pdf) as authoritative proof that many people among the Dinka ethnic group are actively participating in the evil plot to capture state power and apparatuses for purposes of stripping non-Dinka ethnic groups of their ancestral lands and endowing all these lands to the Dinka.

In her paper, Dr Berger outlines the tactic of the Dinka-led government of South Sudan to implement the perverse scheme. She names destabilization of areas neighboring traditional Dinka lands and forced dislodgment of non-Dinka populations as some of the ways the Dinka-led government aids and abets the dispossession of other people’s ancestral lands that are then given to members of the Dinka ethnic group. In “Ethnocide as a Tool of State-building: South Sudan and the Never-ending War”, Dr Berger declares that ““ethnocide” has been employed as a tool of state-building” (Berger n.d.) and “this ethnocide, led by the country’s “organized forces” (the national army, police and irregular militarised groups) is characterised by the indiscriminate killing of civilians based on ethnicity and the systematic use of rape against women and men” (Berger n.d.). Dr Berger names a number of ethnic groups among the victims of the ethnocide she discusses. The Nuer and the Shilluk of Upper Nile, the peoples of Equatoria, the Fertit, the Balanda and Luo peoples of Bahr el Ghazal form the bulk of peoples that are being victimized with impunity, along with the other tribes.

“You cannot talk of peaceful co-existence with somebody when you want to kill him. If you want to peacefully co-exist with someone, you have to come and first of all see how they live and request to live with them peacefully and again this issue of migration of all the people of one village to another village. This is occupation. You cannot come and kill these people with the intention of occupying the area. So, what happened in Mangala we call it invasion. This is invasion” (Lado n.d.).

Many people have been consistent in repeatedly echoing the allegation that the self-styled Dinka led government is actually the one orchestrating the murder of members of the other tribes and stripping them of their ancestral lands. They declare that the self-appointed government is using a section of the Dinka tribe known as Dinka Bor as proxies. They are adamant that the Dinka Bor are doing the bidding of all Dinka; that they are doing what they have been told or ordered to do by people in positions of power, to expedite Dinka supremacy, state capture and dispossession of other people’s ancestral lands but Former Mayor Kalisto Lado had a contrasting view.

“The president has issued an order for people to return cattle to their original places, but the Dinka Bor refuse. He has instructed people not to grab anyone’s land illegally, but the Dinka Bor refuse to heed to the president’s instruction”. Lado continued paying tribute to Kiir as his president while imploring him and his government to stop the bloodshed by intervening. He suggested that the Dinka Bor, a section of the Dinka ethnic group is the problem, but many people brazenly declare that Dinka Bor are just a “Trojan Horse” for all Dinka, a diversionary tactic intended for secretly accomplishing the evil Dinka plan to capture state power and systems for purposes of taking the ancestral lands of non-Dinka ethnic groups. In other words, they assert that this section of the Dinka ethnic group is just heading the agenda of Dinka occupation and they are being aided and abetted by the self-styled government of South Sudan; that Kiir himself is involved in implementation of the nefarious plot, along with Dinka ministers, government officials and other elites.

The conspiracy to murder people with the sole purpose of dislodging them and then taking over their lands is a perversion of “the Roman legal concept of res nullius (things without owners), or the related concept of terra nullius (land without owners)” (Benton and Straumann 2010 ) (Acquiring Empire by Law: From Roman Doctrine to Early Modern European Practice, 1). A Latin expression meaning “nobody’s land”, the perverted version of terra nullius is now being abused to justify members of the Dinka ethnic group seizing ancestral lands belonging to ethnic groups that have been purposely disenfranchised, destabilized and dislodged through “indiscriminate killing of civilians based on ethnicity and the systematic use of rape against women and men” (Berger n.d.). The trend of Dinka people forcefully taking the lands of other ethnic groups after the lands are vacated because of their brutality is now uncontrolled throughout the failed South Sudan State. The rightful owners are often killed or dislodged from their ancestral lands and prevented from returning to these lands through unending threats of murder and rape.

In addition to occurrences in parts of Upper Nile and Bahr el Ghazal, in Equatoria, what is now commonly referred to as illegal “land grab” has included the violent occupation of lands in Nimule, Lulubo, Magwi, Mogali, etcetera. Other malevolent tactics to dispossess the other ethnic groups of their ancestral lands involve security organs falsely accusing and labelling unarmed destitute peasants as rebels. In Equatoria, these poor peasants have been falsely accused of being members of the National Salvation Front (NAS), a group fighting for all the sixty-four plus ethnic groups of South Sudan. Upon supporting the lie with planted evidence, the neglected peasants are then shelled out of their ancestral lands using the full force of the so-called national army which is dominated by the Dinka ethnic group. This professed national army is augmented by individuals recruited from the dehumanized ethnic groups of South Sudan for purposes of “window dressing” only. This deceptive exhibition was brazenly depicted when the terrorist Sudan People’s Liberation Army renamed the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces to elude the label of a terrorist organization, flaunted a recruit from the Nuer tribe as spokesperson.

The professed spokesperson proclaimed “victory” over unarmed poor peasants from the Bari tribe that were framed and falsely accused of being members of the National Salvation Front (NAS) (https://youtu.be/GvIRQ3CcA8c). The self-styled spokesperson also contested denials and proclamations made by leaders of the Bari ethnic group as well as Former Mayor Kalisto Lado’s assertions.  During his impromptu Press Conference, Lado had told of burnt villages and dead bodies that lay around because anyone who tried to bury them was killed on sight. Of the condition of Mangalla located northeast of Juba after the vicious and premeditated attack, Lado reported hopelessness.

“The killing is continuing. The burning of the villages is continuing. The raping of our women is going on. They cannot leave the island. If they come out from the island to the villages outside, the women will be raped. The youth will be killed by the armed people who are outside there” (Lado n.d.). The town of Bor is located north of Mongalla. It is where the Dinka Bor, the alleged current violent implementers of the ethnocide thoroughly researched by Dr Berger (Berger n.d.) and the twisted version of “Terra Nullius” hail from.

“Let us leave tribalism. Let us peacefully co-exist. Let us not be killing ourselves. Let us not be favoring cattle” (Lado n.d.) Former Mayor Kalisto Lado counselled. It is counsel that is also echoed by a few individuals from the Dinka ethnic group who detest the status quo. These Dinka exist but their voices have been muffled by the enduring chaotic din! The ones who raise their voices risk being ostracized, murdered, tortured, and imprisoned on trumped up charges. Others have been kidnapped from neighboring countries like Kenya and handed over to the lawless so-called government of South Sudan (https://thejubamirror.com/govt-critic-extradited-from-kenya-handed-over-to-national-security-service/). Notwithstanding the “conspiracy theory” that has beleaguered the Westphalian territory currently known as South Sudan, commentators now increasingly and repeatedly assert that South Sudan has failed as a state, and like the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which collapsed violently and catastrophically in 1992 (Coulson 1993) (Looking behind the Violent Break-Up of Yugoslavia), its total collapse is imminent. “Aljanub antahaa” (the south is finished) is now a common declaration inside and outside the Westphalian territory. In 2021, the International Crisis Group (ICG) declared that the country’s donors are shocked by the magnitude “and ferocity of the country’s epic collapse” (International Crisis Group 2021); (Toward a Viable Future for South Sudan: Tortured History, Troubled Present).

Genocidal mass rape against civilians by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and affiliated militias has been very pervasive (Pinaud 2020); (Genocidal Rape In South Sudan: Organization, Function, and Effects) with Kiir allegedly goading his rag tag so-called liberators to rape women as their salary (South Sudan soldier’s salary: License to rape n.d.) (https://youtu.be/IqD1P5zvFRI). The savagery currently unfolding in the lawless jungle called South Sudan will undoubtedly spill over into the region and the international arena in the form of terrorism if it is not checked. In other words, South Sudan has become a global security threat because the progressive penetration and use of its collapsed state as a launch pad by terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Ex- Séléka, Boko Haram and other terrorist groups that are determined to commit acts of terror globally and to spread their version of Islam in the entire African continent and the rest of the world is looming.  Consequently, the neighbouring countries of the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda must stay alert!

Inhabitants of the territory currently known as South Sudan in Westphalian nomenclature have been victims of ethnic cleansing by the rag-tag so called government army since the country collapsed. The United Nations has failed in its much-touted “Responsibility to Protect” leaving victims with only one option, to establish a professionally trained Protection Force themselves. It is a force that will secure the territory and protect its citizens from the homicidal Sudan People’s Liberation Army, the so-called liberators. The inhabitants of the failed South Sudan State need to be safe to exercise their democratic rights in mapping a different way forward that is devoid of intimidation, exploitation, and oppression. They require protection by a professionally trained Protection Force. Consequently, any objection to such a force by and for the inhabitants of the Westphalian state currently known as South Sudan must be condemned in the strongest possible terms and considered a crime against humanity.

Protection of Civilians in the Failed South Sudan State

https://www.facebook.com/liveEBC

A PROFESSIONALLY TRAINED PROTECTION FORCE FOR THE FAILED SOUTH SUDAN STATE

In international law, the principle of Westphalian state sovereignty accords every state absolute sovereignty over its territory. The principle is codified in Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, and it prohibits the use of force by a UN member state against another state. However, what happens when a state has failed categorically and reverted to a lawless unregulated territory like the failed South Sudan State? Should the tyrants who are passing themselves off as the leaders of the lawless territory and have monopoly of arms be allowed to claim territorial integrity to continue raping, murdering, and looting citizens of the failed state at will? In other words, does the principle of territorial integrity still have binding power, or validity when a state has no professional army but a genocidal government militia? The peoples’ answer is a definite no. Among several topics, the virtual conference will introduce and discuss the idea of a “Homegrown Professionally Trained Protection Force” constituted “by the people, for the people.” Defined as a “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” as uttered by American President Abraham Lincoln during his Gettysburg Address of November 19, 1863, Democracy necessitates vesting supreme power in the people which is what this project aims to do. As communicated by Halle JØrn Hanssen, Norwegian television correspondent, development aid administrator, politician, writer, lecturer, democracy building advisor and author of “Lives at Stake: South-Sudan during the liberation struggle”, the people of South Sudan “deserve something very different and much better” (Hanssen 2017) (https://www.amazon.com/Lives-Stake-South-Sudan-Liberation-Struggle/dp/0648242226); (http://sudansupport.no/2019/02/12/book-review-lives-at-stake-no-peace-in-sight/). There will be very high-profile attendees at this event as observers, to listen attentively to the peoples’ ideas and wishes about a homegrown protection force and to take notes for their ambassadorial roles. They include 1) Halle JØrn Hanssen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halle_Jørn_Hanssen) 2) lawyers who will share expert legal opinion and professional advise about how to challenge and contest the repressive and genocidal status quo in the failed South Sudan State using the law 3) some professionally trained soldiers who will share their experiences on the subject of a homegrown protection force and 4) many others. Come one come all because “change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek” (Barack Obama). 

REGISTER FOR THIS VIRTUAL CONFERENCE AT:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/does-the-failed-south-sudan-state-need-a-homegrown-protection-force-registration-541799235097

Five (5) civilians again perish at the hands of Dinka Bor cattle militia forces in Lokiliri

EQUATORIA: A NEW NORMAL, NOT TO BE THE SAME AFTER LOKILIRI GENOCIDE

Press Statement For Immediate Release                                             14^th November 2022

Equatoria Peoples’ Alliance (EPA) and the entire people of EQUATORIA are in disbelief at the speed of yet another repeat spate of violence and genocide visited upon the innocent and unarmed civilians in Lokiliri by heavily armed and seemingly invincible Dinka Bor cattle militia forces that are freely roaming in Central Equatoria State for a second and a third time this year. On the 11^th November 2022, the Dinka Bor cattle militia forces shot and killed 5 innocent, unarmed and unsuspecting civilians in their village and homes in Lokiliri. Neither the Government of Central Equatoria State, nor R-TGONU has dispatched any law enforcement agents to follow, disarm and apprehend the invading Dinka Bor militia forces in CES. The state government seemed to be quick at only issuing dubious ultimatums like that repeatedly declared by Governor of CES, Emmanuel Adil, who is contemptuously ignored and dismissed by the cattle militia forces.

The unceasing, targeted atrocities by Dinka Bor cattle security forces against civilians in Equatoria have become systemic, unprovoked and vicious, declaring war on all of Equatoria, and have shattered every hope for peace in what was once a peaceful Equatoria. Not anymore, as this year’s Lo’bonok, Aru Junction, Agoro and Nimule recent atrocities still resonate fresh in mind of the vicious and barbaric trail of blood letting that is visited upon unsuspecting civilians in their villages by the invading heavily armed Jieng militia in Equatoria.

EPA condemns in no uncertain terms the spate of violence by Dinka Bor cattle security and militia forces murdering of 5 innocent Lokiliri unarmed civilians in cold blood, and holds R-TGONU and its failed leaders responsible for the continuing gross Human Rights violations in Equatoria and elsewhere in the country on their watch and abject failure of the state to provide security and protect civilians from massacres by Dinka cattle security and militia forces who are armed by army Generals in SSPDF.

EPA urges the TROIKA, EU partners, UNSC and AU to withhold lending of any support to R-TGONU’s extension in office by another 2 years, and which would risk the EU, AU and TROIKA Governments becoming direct or indirect accomplices to continuing unabated gross Human Rights violations under the watch of R-TGONU failed leaders.

EPA calls upon the peoples of Equatoria to stand ready to exercise the right of self-defense, to protect innocent civilians against vicious, continuing unabated Human Rights violations in Equatoria by the invading Dinka Bor cattle security militia forces.

EPA extends its deepest condolences to all the families who lost their loved ones in the atrocious attacks on civilians at Lokiliri, and EPA holds leaders of CES and R-TGONU responsible for their failure to protect civilians.

Equatoria Peoples Alliance Chair

Hakim Dario PhD

Email Contact: EPA.Int@epauf.blog

Transitioning out of South Sudan Failed State

EPA presents Democratising Sovereignty and Self-Determination proposition:

UK and Troika Support to the peace process in South Sudan and way forward

EQUATORIA PEOPLES’ ALLIANCE

– EPA-

UK AND TROIKA SUPPORT FOR THE PEACE PROCESSS IN SOUTH SUDAN AND WAY FORWARD 

Press Statement For Immediate Release                                             26^th October 2022

Equatoria Peoples’ Alliance (EPA) met on the 25^th October 2022 with HM Government of the United Kingdom’s Special Envoy for South Sudan and UK TROIKA representative; His Excellency Robert Fairweather, and Dr. Anna Butchart, Deputy Head, Sudan and South Sudan Unit in the Foreign, Common Wealth and Development Office, London, to consult on the current UK and TROIKA ongoing support for the peace process in South Sudan and the way forward.

EPA welcomes assurances of the UK Government and TROIKA (UK, USA, Norway) commitment to supporting the peace process for the people of South Sudan to end the vicious cycle of violence, conflict and humanitarian crisis in the country, and to bring a truly just and lasting peace to the Failed State that South Sudan has become one under the current fractious, tribal and corrupt SPLM leaders of R-TGONU who led the country to being a failed state.

EPA commends the UK, TROIKA and the EU action to abstain on a vote to endorse the South Sudanese Government’s recent extension of the peace process by a further 2 years.

President Salva Kiir and his Jieng Council of Elders haven’t changed and lack political will to build and lead strong institutions, neither can these unelected leaders of R-TGONU be entrusted with the peace process, nor expanding political and civic space, and them holding free, fair and credible democratic elections for the people of South Sudan in another 24 months transitional period. President Kiir publicly proclaimed that the R-ARCSS was not designed or made to be implemented and did everything in his power to obstruct its implementation.

Thus UK, TROIKA and EU partners’ lending of any support to R-TGONU’s illegitimate extension in office by another 24 months, risk the UK and TROIKA Governments becoming direct or indirect accomplices to continuing unabated gross Human Rights violations by R-TGONU in the failed Republic of South Sudan.

EPA therefore, representing voices of the peoples of Equatoria and Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) in particular, stands ready to work in partnership with the UK, TROIKA Governments and EU as our peoples’ strategic peace and development partners, to transition out of the current failed State of South Sudan into a new Transitional Peoples’ Shared Sovereignty Union State and Government, without the failed President Salva Kiir, and Riek Machar in power, including all corrupt and sanctioned individuals occupying a position in public office.

 In this new political dispensation for transitioning out of the Failed State, and drawing on lessons learnt from past history, the Transitional Peoples Shared Sovereignty Union State shall be consisting of either 3 or 6 autonomous self-governing entities of social groups or regions as follows:

1. Equatoria (35 social groups with their ancestral lands and one social group identity as Equatorians)
2. Greater Pibor (Murle, Jie, and Anyuak ancestral lands with strong cultural heritage to Didinga/Laarim/Tenet, Toposa and Acholi social groups in Equatoria)
3. Western Bahr el Ghazal (Fertit ancestral lands with strong affinity/cultural heritage to Azande and Balanda social groups in Equatoria: Balanda, Keresh, Jur, Bongo, Ndogo, Banda)
4. Eastern Bahr el Ghazal (Dinka ancestral lands and social groups)
5. Western Upper Nile (Nuer or Naath ancestral lands and social groups)
6. Eastern Upper Nile /Fashoda (Chollo, Apadang and Maban ancestral lands and social groups)

The peoples of each region will be free, autonomous and self-governing during the transitional period and vested with necessary political autonomy and its own peoples army to protect the region and its people against encroachment by another region or by the peoples of another or other region(s) or by the Union state or any other external entity or power.

The people of each region shall, at the end of 5 years transitional period, exercise the right for self-determination to either confirm the permanent Constitution of the Union State or opt out of the Union to form their own independent State or with another region(s) voluntarily and without coercion or compulsion to remain in a Union with another region or regions.

However, to succeed in this new Transition, a paradigm shift in the peace process is required and away from the current failed elites-centric model to a peoples’-centric approach to drive the Constitutional making process by elected representatives of the people into the Constituent Assembly, Legislative and Executive organs for building and driving strong Transitional Institutions.

Equatoria Peoples Alliance Chair

Hakim Dario PhD

Email Contact: EPA.Int@epauf.blog

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EPA and way forward in The Republic of South Sudan

Uploading A PROPOSAL ON THE WAY FORWARD FOR SOUTH SUDAN BY THE EQUATORIA PEOPLE’S ALLIANCE (EPA) PART 1 – AUGUST 6, 2022

Government of Equatoria to fill the vacuum after Ngangala’s massacre

As Equatoria continues to bleed from the actions of heavily armed Dinka Bor militia and invading cattle security forces, their latest massacres and atrocities in Eastern, and Central Equatoria seem unstoppable. In Ngangala, Bishop Santo Laku of the Catholic Church presided over the burial proceedings of 9 civilians who died at the hands of Dinka Bor militia.

The Bishop was at pains to recount killings that inundated Equatoria, which started in Lowoi, in Agoro, in Lokiliri, in Lo”bonok, Kajokeji and Ngulere and seem unstoppable. Brothers cannot kill brothers, sisters cannot kill own sisters in the same country, only enemies do that, Bishop Santo Laku said.

Bishop Santo Laku presiding over burial proceedings for 9 civilians massacred at Ngangala village of Central Equatoria, Republic of South Sudan

There is no Government in Equatoria to provide security and protection to civilians from the murderous campaign of invading Jieng cattle security and militia forces from Dinka Bor. The Governor Adil of Central Equatoria is impotent to intervene and apprehend or disarm the marauding Jieng militia forces. The Central Equatoria State has failed its obligation and responsibility to protect civilians, and this is the new normal in all Equatorial states, East, Central and West. There is a clear absence of leadership and Government not just in Equatoria, but in the country as a whole.

The country is at a crossroads, a Government of Equatoria, for Equatoria is beckoning.

Details of Ngangala atrocities:
Casualties:

1. Luciano Tombe killed
2. Sisto Legge killed
3. Lauterio Wani Primo killed
4. Simon Jada killed
5. Osfaldo James Lado killed
6. Henry Lado Sikondo killed
7. Helen Ile Victor killed
8. Norah Wani killed
9. Clementina Ile Yona killed
10. Tulio Wani wounded
11. Anna Modi wounded
12. Sebit Kurado wounded

Properties destroyed and looted:

1. Houses burnt 12
2. Goats looted, more than 100
3. Shops burnt 3

Children abducted: 3

No to further R-TGONU extension in the Republic of South Sudan

This is audio statement FAO Excellencies:

William Flens, Charge’ d’ Affairs, U.S. Embassy

Siv Kaspersen, Ambassador of Norway

Johnny Baxter, Ambassador of the United Kingdom,

Dear Excellencies,

Please find attached an Audio Statement by Equatoria Peoples Alliance (EPA) in English which summarises our position on the way forward and new Transitional mandate that is people-centric and people driven.

It elaborates on substance of our recent Press Statement on 4th August 2022.

We appeal to the Troika countries to stand with the people of South Sudan and help them exit being held hostage to President Salva Kiir and his Deputy Dr Riek Machar who are without legitimacy and mandate of our people to continue the status quo.

Kind regards

Hakim Dario PhD

Equatoria Peoples Alliance (EPA)

Email: EPA.int@epauf.blog

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No further extension to R-TGONU in the Republic of South Sudan, neither Technocratic Government

No further extension to R-TGONU in the Republic of South Sudan