Fwd: [sudans-john-ashworth] S Sudan not facing 'genocide', but violence is constant
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Elisabeth Janaina
Feb 8, 2017, 12:07:50 AM2/8/17
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From: "John Ashworth" <ashwor...@gmail.com>
Date: 8 Feb 2017 07:10
Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] S Sudan not facing 'genocide', but violence is constant
To: "Group" <sudans-joh...@googlegroups.com>
Cc:
S Sudan not facing 'genocide', but violence is constant
Constant talk of genocide blurs more prevalent forms of violence that
are prolonging the bloodshed in the country.
by Zachariah Mampilly
Al Jazeera 07/02/17
On New Year's day, I boarded an Ethiopian Airlines flight from
Entebbe, Uganda. Formally dressed members of the South Sudanese
diaspora crowded the propeller plane alongside businessmen from
Uganda, Kenya and South India.
We were headed to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on one of three
different flights that leaves for the country every weekday. Arriving
at the ramshackle airport, we shuffled into four different lines
housed in a makeshift structure before entering a scrimmage to secure
our bags.
South Sudan has again been in the spotlight with warnings of a looming
genocide voiced by everyone from the former US Secretary of State John
Kerry to most recently, the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Yet, leaving Entebbe that Sunday, the banality of our departure scene
made me believe that such ominous warnings were mere hyperbole. I was
right and wrong. South Sudan is not heading towards a genocide. But
the spectre of violence is omnipresent, even as it resists
categorisation within easily comprehensible notions of genocide.
Talk of genocide, in fact, serves to obfuscate more prevalent forms of
violence that are slowly squelching the country's freedom dreams.
Debate about whether violence in South Sudan is genocidal or not
echoes debates in Darfur in the early 2000s. Those frenzied debates
produced only inaction, as the international community wilted in the
face of the complex configuration of internal and external political
forces that defined the fighting.
Stories of daily violence and insecurity
During my week in Juba, I spoke with numerous members of the local
Equatorian community. They recounted stories of daily violence and
insecurity at the hands of government soldiers.
One middle-class woman told me of a domestic worker being raped at
gunpoint by army soldiers in the daytime. A young man spoke of being
beaten and robbed by soldiers twice in the past month. Another claimed
to have lost his father, mother and brother at the hands of government
supporters.
Such violence has become normalised in many parts of South Sudan. In
July, fighting broke out between forces loyal to Vice President Riek
Machar and the government, controlled by the former rebels of the
Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), setting off the latest crisis.
For three days, armed groups fought for control of the city. Hundreds
of civilians were raped and killed as government supporters went door
to door searching for members of the Nuer community who share their
ethnic origins with the former vice president.
So why not refer to this situation as genocide? If you speak with
government officials and local community members, it is surprisingly
not the government that employs genocidal talk. Rather, it is members
of the Equatorian community who speak of expulsion and extermination
of government forces.
Though forced to hide in their homes for three days as the fighting
continued in the streets of Juba, the local Equatorian population was
not the target of either side, at least initially. Since then,
however, as many Nuer have fled, it is the Equatorians who have come
to view the Dinka-dominated SPLA as a conquering army to be expunged.
Talk of a revenge is omnipresent. I spoke with a member of a local
defence militia, one of many groups being organised independently by
young Equatorian men. He detailed for me the plans being put in place
- weapons stockpiled, oaths sworn, women and children moved across the
border to refugee camps or private homes in northern Uganda.
Later, I travelled by road across that border and was told about camps
swollen with women and children while the young men return to Juba to
protect their lands. These young men believe that Machar, currently
under house arrest in South Africa, will return to fight in March and
they are preparing to join the fray.
Even educated professionals speak openly about their bias against the
Dinka people, refusing to rent their homes to members of the
community, citing colonial-era racial anthropology to justify their
beliefs.
Talk of genocide
"Genocide" prepares us for violence that is spectacular. It goads us
into believing that when confronted with extreme evil, we will have no
choice, but to react.
But talk of genocide simultaneously insulates us from the more
protracted, and often bewilderingly complex, low-level violence that
has already destroyed much of the country. This violence seems to be
acceptable, as it does not seem to surpass our threshold for outrage.
Talk of genocide also has a deeper impact. It forces us to divide a
conflict into innocent victims and vicious perpetrators. But what is
the value of such neat binaries when almost every community can speak
the language of victimhood?
I refer not to the layers of oppression that almost all South Sudanese
know intimately from years of fighting the government in Khartoum, but
the recurrent and diffused violence between South Sudanese communities
that has come to define independence.
This is a logic that the SPLA government is eager to embrace, pointing
out that even as the international community rushes to condemn its
behaviour, it has faced violent challenges to its rule that any
legitimate government must quell.
As one defender of the government, Taban Abel Aguek, succinctly put
it, "Fighting negative forces does not amount to genocide."
Simultaneously, Equatorians, by and large, are loathe to embrace the
language of victimhood, speaking instead about their willingness and
ability to rid their land of the Dinka "oppressors" forever.
But words are never enough. What is needed in South Sudan is not
continued debate about what to call the violence, but an accurate
assessment of the relative strength and motivations of the
belligerents.
Even as the SPLA continues to dominate the military, it faces a number
of organised challenges, not only from Machar, but also from other
militias that have entered the security void.
This diffusion of military strength is unlikely to produce a clear
victor in the battles that lie ahead. Nor is the conflict likely to
turn genocidal, as all sides have the capacity to fight back.
Yet, even as genocide may be avoided, civilians in South Sudan will
continue to bear the costs of the prolonged bloodshed.
Zachariah Mampilly is the author of Rebel Rulers and Africa Uprising.
He is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Africana Studies
at Vassar College.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/02/sudan-facing-genocide-violence-constant-170205104411113.html
END
______________________
John Ashworth
ashwor...@gmail.com
+254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile)
+211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile)
+44 787 976 8030 (UK mobile)
+88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone)
Skype: jashworth1
PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily
reflect the views of any organisation
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From: "John Ashworth" <ashwor...@gmail.com>
Date: 8 Feb 2017 07:10
Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] S Sudan not facing 'genocide', but violence is constant
To: "Group" <sudans-joh...@googlegroups.com>
Cc:
S Sudan not facing 'genocide', but violence is constant
Constant talk of genocide blurs more prevalent forms of violence that
are prolonging the bloodshed in the country.
by Zachariah Mampilly
Al Jazeera 07/02/17
On New Year's day, I boarded an Ethiopian Airlines flight from
Entebbe, Uganda. Formally dressed members of the South Sudanese
diaspora crowded the propeller plane alongside businessmen from
Uganda, Kenya and South India.
We were headed to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on one of three
different flights that leaves for the country every weekday. Arriving
at the ramshackle airport, we shuffled into four different lines
housed in a makeshift structure before entering a scrimmage to secure
our bags.
South Sudan has again been in the spotlight with warnings of a looming
genocide voiced by everyone from the former US Secretary of State John
Kerry to most recently, the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Yet, leaving Entebbe that Sunday, the banality of our departure scene
made me believe that such ominous warnings were mere hyperbole. I was
right and wrong. South Sudan is not heading towards a genocide. But
the spectre of violence is omnipresent, even as it resists
categorisation within easily comprehensible notions of genocide.
Talk of genocide, in fact, serves to obfuscate more prevalent forms of
violence that are slowly squelching the country's freedom dreams.
Debate about whether violence in South Sudan is genocidal or not
echoes debates in Darfur in the early 2000s. Those frenzied debates
produced only inaction, as the international community wilted in the
face of the complex configuration of internal and external political
forces that defined the fighting.
Stories of daily violence and insecurity
During my week in Juba, I spoke with numerous members of the local
Equatorian community. They recounted stories of daily violence and
insecurity at the hands of government soldiers.
One middle-class woman told me of a domestic worker being raped at
gunpoint by army soldiers in the daytime. A young man spoke of being
beaten and robbed by soldiers twice in the past month. Another claimed
to have lost his father, mother and brother at the hands of government
supporters.
Such violence has become normalised in many parts of South Sudan. In
July, fighting broke out between forces loyal to Vice President Riek
Machar and the government, controlled by the former rebels of the
Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), setting off the latest crisis.
For three days, armed groups fought for control of the city. Hundreds
of civilians were raped and killed as government supporters went door
to door searching for members of the Nuer community who share their
ethnic origins with the former vice president.
So why not refer to this situation as genocide? If you speak with
government officials and local community members, it is surprisingly
not the government that employs genocidal talk. Rather, it is members
of the Equatorian community who speak of expulsion and extermination
of government forces.
Though forced to hide in their homes for three days as the fighting
continued in the streets of Juba, the local Equatorian population was
not the target of either side, at least initially. Since then,
however, as many Nuer have fled, it is the Equatorians who have come
to view the Dinka-dominated SPLA as a conquering army to be expunged.
Talk of a revenge is omnipresent. I spoke with a member of a local
defence militia, one of many groups being organised independently by
young Equatorian men. He detailed for me the plans being put in place
- weapons stockpiled, oaths sworn, women and children moved across the
border to refugee camps or private homes in northern Uganda.
Later, I travelled by road across that border and was told about camps
swollen with women and children while the young men return to Juba to
protect their lands. These young men believe that Machar, currently
under house arrest in South Africa, will return to fight in March and
they are preparing to join the fray.
Even educated professionals speak openly about their bias against the
Dinka people, refusing to rent their homes to members of the
community, citing colonial-era racial anthropology to justify their
beliefs.
Talk of genocide
"Genocide" prepares us for violence that is spectacular. It goads us
into believing that when confronted with extreme evil, we will have no
choice, but to react.
But talk of genocide simultaneously insulates us from the more
protracted, and often bewilderingly complex, low-level violence that
has already destroyed much of the country. This violence seems to be
acceptable, as it does not seem to surpass our threshold for outrage.
Talk of genocide also has a deeper impact. It forces us to divide a
conflict into innocent victims and vicious perpetrators. But what is
the value of such neat binaries when almost every community can speak
the language of victimhood?
I refer not to the layers of oppression that almost all South Sudanese
know intimately from years of fighting the government in Khartoum, but
the recurrent and diffused violence between South Sudanese communities
that has come to define independence.
This is a logic that the SPLA government is eager to embrace, pointing
out that even as the international community rushes to condemn its
behaviour, it has faced violent challenges to its rule that any
legitimate government must quell.
As one defender of the government, Taban Abel Aguek, succinctly put
it, "Fighting negative forces does not amount to genocide."
Simultaneously, Equatorians, by and large, are loathe to embrace the
language of victimhood, speaking instead about their willingness and
ability to rid their land of the Dinka "oppressors" forever.
But words are never enough. What is needed in South Sudan is not
continued debate about what to call the violence, but an accurate
assessment of the relative strength and motivations of the
belligerents.
Even as the SPLA continues to dominate the military, it faces a number
of organised challenges, not only from Machar, but also from other
militias that have entered the security void.
This diffusion of military strength is unlikely to produce a clear
victor in the battles that lie ahead. Nor is the conflict likely to
turn genocidal, as all sides have the capacity to fight back.
Yet, even as genocide may be avoided, civilians in South Sudan will
continue to bear the costs of the prolonged bloodshed.
Zachariah Mampilly is the author of Rebel Rulers and Africa Uprising.
He is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Africana Studies
at Vassar College.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/02/sudan-facing-genocide-violence-constant-170205104411113.html
END
______________________
John Ashworth
ashwor...@gmail.com
+254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile)
+211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile)
+44 787 976 8030 (UK mobile)
+88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone)
Skype: jashworth1
PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily
reflect the views of any organisation
--
--
The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group.
To post to this group, send email to sudan-john-ashworth@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sudan-john-ashworth-unsub...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.za/group/sudan-john-ashworth
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudans-john-ashworth" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sudans-john-ashworth+unsub...@googlegroups.com.
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