Victims of Gumbo Sherikat Killings deserve justice

By Majak Kuany Alier

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN: Justice serves everyone regardless of one’s social status that is why it is called the rule of law. Whether regular people or privileged elite, the law is supreme to our status, and it is everybody’s fortification. 

As a peace-loving citizen, I would like to put down these thoughts in a transparent manner as much amid the reality call for justice to be served to victims of Sherikat tragic incident. As a strong-willed advocate of good governance, I must remain focused on the subject matter tenet as a means to develop these views to create empathy on why we should adhere to justice as we strive to become law-abiding citizens.

In serving justice, facts and truth synchronously toil together and in the absence of the other, the desired accountability can never be achieved without an effervescent rule of law in the country, and good governance is considered to be the vehicle for attaining sustainable justice in any given country on planet earth. 

As South Sudanese, we should know that justice anchorages forgiveness and reconciliation hence we must shrug off this culture of revenge killings and allow the law to be our armor and guard to protect each of us instead of using physical violence as a solution to errors.

I believe many of you share the same sense of being peaceful members of our society as I do, but the culture of inculcated tribalism and hatred in us as shown by years of devastating conflict has made the majority deviate from that harmonious and social cohesion we palisade together.

Let’s ask ourselves questions that can sway justice back into our war-torn heart: Can we make sense of a restorative approach to justice in the absence of either forgiveness or reconciliation? To answer this question, we must rethink why we fought more than five decades of civil war with Sudan to attain an independent South Sudan. 

The incident that was sparked by wrangles over a disputed piece of land as reported by media has led to the loss of nine lives which, include seven civilians and two army officers. May their souls rest in eternal peace!

The slaying of civilians on June 3rd, 2020, in a broad daylight was an act of inculcated privilege assumed by few individuals that claimed to have more rights than others in the face of the law. 

I believe that majority of South Sudanese in their infinite thinking might be having rambling questions as to why well-trained army officers could spark a wrangle over a disputed piece of land violently? The answer to this is exactly the reason why our president has swiftly constituted a fact-finding seven high-level investigation committee to give the country their findings within a seven-day timeframe.

People and government know that perpetrators did commit the crime out of their ignorance of the law but not because anyone was President Kiir’s nephew or a distant cousin. 

Someone who is not even related to the president in any way can commit a crime as a result of how our nation has been fixed since the inception due to the absence of fair and just law. 

In a nutshell, Sherikat incident should never be politicized and used as a Bhar el Ghazal orchestrated plan to hurt the Bor community. It is purely a felony punishable by law. 

Therefore, ignorance of the law is not a defense! It is the right time for South Sudanese to stop resolving every grievance violently. If we need our nation to prosper and communities to live and co-exist peacefully for centuries to come, we must respect and value human life. 

In conclusion, justice should be served instead of threatening citizens for expressing their displeasure with the system that has not been protecting them enough from the hands of the unknown gunmen for almost a decade now. 

The writer is an executive director for Sustainable Agency for Empowerment (SAFE), a youth-led organization that empowers nomadic children with literacy and numeracy. Majak is a YALI -RLC alumni, also a professional journalist with a lean focus on peace journalism, and also a strong-willed advocate of youth empowerment.

He can be reached via kuanyalier@gmail.com