The Longer Peace Takes, the Worse it Gets for South Sudanese
Published on February 3rd, 2014
Written by: Andrew Green
JUBA, Feb 5, 2014 (IPS) - South Sudan is taking the first steps in what
promises to be a long process of healing the fractures that prompted more
than five weeks of fighting, potentially leaving thousands of people dead
and wounded and displacing 863,000 others.
But tensions remain high, following reports of continued fighting in some
areas of the country and the government's decision to move forward with
treason charges against four remaining political detainees. And the longer
the process stretches on, the worse the situation will become for the
hundreds of thousands of displaced across the country.
As the numbers of internally displaced continue to grow, the U.N. and
humanitarian partners are struggling to provide enough food, clean drinking
water and shelter for all of them.
Upper Nile State Information Minister Philip Jiben Ogal told IPS there was
gunfire last week outside of Malakal, the state capital. The fighting is in
contravention of an almost two-week-old
<
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/01/south-sudans-ceasefire-brings-hope-half-mill
ion-displaced/> ceasefire agreement between the government and rebels.
Martin Ojok Karial lives in Malakal, working in the Ministry of Finance's
taxation office. Malakal suffered two waves of fighting and was temporarily
held by government forces. The town's central market is destroyed and at
least 27,000 people have sought refuge at the United Nations base on the
outskirts of town. Karial is one of them.
The humanitarian medical group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also announced
Jan. 31 that ongoing insecurity had forced thousands of people to flee into
the bush in Unity State.
Karial sees the fighting as a political feud that was allowed to get out of
control.
"A lot of people were dying without any reason," Karial told IPS. "Because
the clashes are between two people. The president of South Sudan and the
vice president. This is no reason for people to fight and kill themselves."
The fighting here first broke out in a Juba military barracks on Dec.15 and
spread quickly - first throughout the capital and then across central and
eastern South Sudan. President Salva Kiir accused his political rival and
former deputy Riek Machar of launching a coup against the government. Machar
has repeatedly denied the charges, though he acknowledges he is now in open
rebellion against the government.
Following weeks of negotiations in Addis Ababa, the two sides inked a
cessation of hostilities agreement Jan. 23. Just hours after signing the
document, they began accusing each other of
<
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/01/south-sudan-ceasefire-far-conclusive/>
violations.
Karial said people have now lost faith in their political leaders. Even if
the two sides strike a peace deal, he said, they would be hard-pressed to
convince people like him that it will last.
The government released seven of the 11 political prisoners it had held
since mid-December, flying them to Nairobi, Kenya's capital, late last week.
And on Saturday Feb. 2, an advance wave of regional observers arrived to
begin monitoring a ceasefire agreement signed between rebels and the
government.[related_articles]
While acknowledging there was not enough evidence to charge seven of the
detainees, Justice Minister Paulino Wanawilla announced treason charges
against the remaining four.
Wanawilla accused them of helping Machar and two others - all of whom are
still at large - orchestrate a coup against the government, prompting the
outbreak of fighting.
"I think there is enough [of a] case to take them before the court,"
Wanawilla said.
Despite the government's latest refusal to accede to the rebel demand,
neither side has backed out of peace talks, which are scheduled to resume
this week in Ethiopia.
"The parties are committed and they are ready to resolve the conflict in a
peaceful way," Ethiopian major general Gebreegzabher Mebrahtu said after
arriving in Juba. Mebrahtu heads the monitoring efforts organised by the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, a regional bloc.
It is unclear whether the two sides can strike a bargain that will bring the
divided country back together again.
In a pastoral exhortation released late last week, Cardinal Zubeir Wako
called for "better governance across the nation and an end to the
personalised political power."
Until people feel safe and they have some control over their political
leaders and the events in the country, they will not leave the U.N. bases,
the churches and the mosques where they sought shelter from the fighting.
Valerie Amos, U.N. Humanitarian Affairs chief, visited Malakal last week and
talked to a handful of the more than 64,000 people displaced in the county.
"Even when I said, 'We need to work on reconciliation, we need all the
communities to come together, the leadership to come together. We need to
make sure that people's safety and security is guaranteed.' Even then,
people were not convinced," she said. Instead, they asked to be moved to
other parts of the country or to leave entirely.
It is a tenuous situation. As the numbers of internally displaced continue
to grow, the U.N. and humanitarian partners are struggling to provide enough
food, clean drinking water and shelter for all of them. They are also
contending with the risk of disease outbreaks.
Aid workers are also starting to draw attention to the long-term
implications of the situation.
"We're coming up to the hunger gap and it is very likely because people have
been forced to move as a result of the insecurity, that they won't have the
same food reserves that they had before," MSF general director Arjan
Hehenkamp told IPS.
The U.N. has announced that while 3.2 million people are at risk of
immediate food insecurity, more than seven million people may become food
insecure this year.
And as the two sides continue discussions, the situation is only going to
get worse.
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Received on Wed Feb 05 2014 - 18:56:38 EST