UK lauds South Sudan leadership on reconciliation initiative
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September 6, 2011 (JUBA) – The United Kingdom’s top diplomat in South
Sudan, Alastair Mcphail, has lauded the leadership of the newly
independent state for the initiative to reconcile communities and
groups, assuring that his government would support the process.
On 28th August, South Sudan’s Vice President, Riek Machar Teny,
confirmed that he apologized to the Dinka Bor community on 9th August
where he was invited at the residence of Rebecca Nyandeng, the widow
of the late founder of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A), John Garang de Mabior.
In 1991, Riek Machar, the then SPLA Zonal commander in charge of
Western Upper Nile front, together with Lam Akol and Gordon Koang,
split from the main SPLM/A on 28th August, exactly 20 years ago and
called for the right to self-determination for the people of South
Sudan instead of Garang’s call for a united secular new Sudan. The
bloodless coup a year later resulted to killings in Bor community by a
combined force of elements from the Nasir faction and armed civilians.
Many other communities in the three greater regions of Bahr el Ghazal,
Upper Nile and Equatoria were also affected by inter community
violenceand direct clashes with the SPLA since the formation of the
SPLM/A in 1983.
Machar said he apologized for the incidence that occurred in the area
of DinkaBor in 1991 even if he was not directly responsible for the
killings. “I didn’t tell anybody to go and kill the Dinkas or Dinka
Bor. That was not our policy (of the then Nasir faction),” he said
while addressing citizens in Unity state a few weeks ago.
On Tuesday Machar and the British diplomat discussed the importance of
kicking off a national reconciliation among the various communities
affected during the war.
He told the diplomat that though self-determination which was one of
the core reasons behind the split is achieved, he said respect for
human rights needed to be tackled.
He said the society in South Sudan still carry the trauma of the war
and remains violent, adding that the police should also refrain from
involving in violence and respect human rights.
(ST)
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