South Sudan's Never Ending War

South Sudan’s Never Ending War…

South Sudan’s conflict has entered a new, more dangerous phase. While there has been no new fighting in the capital, Juba, since a splurge of violence in July, rebellion is spreading across the country. In its wake, refugees are fleeing into neighbouring Uganda and Ethiopia, fearing yet more bloodshed to come.

This briefing explores a crisis that has already left more than five million people – roughly half the population – in need of aid.

Where are we now?

At the root of the conflict is a political contest for power between President Salva Kiir and his rival, former vice president Riek Machar.

After two years of civil war, Machar arrived in Juba in April to cement a shaky peace agreement that gave his opposition SPLA-IO a stake in a government of national unity. But that deal expired in five days of fighting in July, which routed Machar’s protection force.

Late last month, Machar announced from Khartoum that he would fight on. He was joined in rebellion by veteran dissident Lam Akol, who launched his own National Democratic Movement to battle the government.

More of the same?

So far so predictable. South Sudan is a country held to ransom by what analyst Majak D’Agoot refers to as the“gun class” - men like Kiir and Machar, “sectarian warlords” that have historically used violence, channelled through appeals to ethnic nationalism, to “hijack” the state for “personal gain”.

It’s essentially a zero-sum game for who will be “king of the hill in Juba”, says conflict researcher Alan Boswell. So far, it’s a contest that Kiir appears to be winning. He has moved quickly to sideline Machar, with former SPLA-IO chief negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, sworn in as vice president.

The government’s intention is for Taban to woo over as many SPLA-IO commanders as possible, and to present him to the outside world as a credible alternative to Machar. To that end he recently visited New York and hobnobbed with officials in the UN and Western governments.

At home, the government maintains the idea there is still a government of national unity, based on the Addis Ababa peace agreement, an exhausting and frustrating mediation effort by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

Is the international community turning it's back?

“What I hear from government is a determination to move forward with implementation of the peace process,” said a Juba-based analyst who asked not to be named. “You go to meetings and workshops where people have name tags that still read TGoNU [Transitional Government of National Unity].”

Is Machar finished?

In building up Taban, the government is presenting the international community with a dilemma. Donors have to decide whether “we work with what we have, which is Taban, versus trying to ease Machar back into the peace process,” says Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group.

How acute the choice is will depend to an extent on what Machar does next. Khartoum, against which Kiir and the SPLA fought a bitter war to gain independence in 2011, has long meddled in the south – backing a rebellion by Machar against the SPLA in 1991 for one.

But Abdi believes the strategic calculation is changing. Through force of habit Khartoum may maintain an interest in Machar, but warming relations with Juba, and its main backer Uganda, means it would not be in Sudan’s long-term interests to arm and support him.

There is also diplomatic pressure to relocate Machar to South Africa, or anywhere else that does not share a border with South Sudan. With his aura already diminished, “If he goes to South Africa that will be the end of him,” says analyst Jok Madut Jok of the Sudd Institute.

He therefore wouldn’t be surprised if Machar manages to slip back into South Sudan: “If he can get into Upper Nile he will be a real player, and we’ll be back to full-blown civil war.”

Power to (my) people?

Ethnicity is often used as shorthand to explain South Sudan’s conflict and the atrocities committed against civilians by both sides. But the trigger for the civil war in 2013 was essentially a political dispute, based on internal SPLM opposition to Kiir that was drawn from multiple sources and ethnicities.

Kiir and Machar have since successfully mobilized key segments of their respective Dinka and Nuer communities, the country’s two largest groups. But while Kiir is seen by his opponents as promoting narrow ethnic interests, backed by the conservative Dinka Council of Elders, there is also resentment among some Dinka towards his clan, who are seen as especially favoured.

Neither are the Nuer monolithic. There are senior Nuer who have remained loyal to the SPLA, especially from northern Unity state. Broad ethnic labels tend to obscure local community dynamics.

Abdi believes the cardinal sin of the IGAD agreement was to view the struggle solely as a contest between Kiir and Machar. It was a narrow rather than a universal agreement, ignoring the demands of other ethnic groups and contestants for power that predate the peace process.

Those “centrifugal forces” are going to accelerate “the longer [a credible] peace process stays in the freezer,” says Abdi.

“I think you have two different wars going on in South Sudan right now,” notes Boswell. “You have a fight between Kiir and Machar’s coalitions over who will be king. But there are a bunch of smaller groups in South Sudan who are waging a war against the kingdom itself.”

Even though some groups in Equatoria have teamed up with SPLA-IO, they are all opposed to the hegemony of both sides. “They want a structure that’s more like a political union, a lot of smaller hills rather than one big one,” explains Boswell.

There are other groups like the Cobra Faction, which draws support from among the Murle in Greater Upper Nile. While former leader David Yau Yau is sticking with the government, the Cobras have joined “the struggle against the authoritarian, tribalistic regime in Juba”.

Stick or carrot?

The government’s approach in the past was to buy off these community militia, a strategy of co-option known as the “big tent”. But oil-dependent South Sudan is broke, and with carrots limited, the government has turned enthusiastically to the stick.

Wau, South Sudan’s second largest city, has felt the impact of a strategy of retribution. It was purged by the army, allegedly on the grounds the Fertit people were supporting SPLA-IO. Human rights groups reported mass graves, and the UN estimated 125,000 people were made homeless.

Overall, more than one million South Sudanese are now refugees in the region, with about 174,000 fleeing since the beginning of July.  UNHCR’s figures jumped sharply in late September.

People escaping the violence in Equatoria speak of villages being attacked and looted, women sexually abused, and young boys conscripted. “You can feel something terrible looming on the horizon, an enormous pall,” says the analyst in Juba.

How can disaster be averted?

“The best scenario is an impossible one,” says Jok. “It’s to get Machar and Kiir to retire from politics, to be replaced by a caretaker technocratic government until elections.”

There are equally few diplomatic options. For a start, the Addis Ababa process is deeply discredited. “IGAD is in complete disarray. Many people no longer believe there is a cogent regional strategy to find a solution,” notes Abdi of the ICG.

The UN’s response to the July violence, in which its peacekeepers failed to intervene convincingly to save civilian lives, has been to talk tough about an additional Regional Protection Force.

IGAD countries may provide some of the troops (Zimbabwe and Egypt have also volunteered), but as it wants the UN to pay for the intervention, the proposed 4,000 RPF soldiers would fall under a discredited UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) command structure.Andrew Green/IRIN

Bentiu IDP camp

The RPF has the “pacification” of Juba as part of its mandate. But the government has made it clear it will not accept any force that could offer any real interference, and the fact its army has shown no compunction aboutkilling UN peacekeepers, this is likely to provide food for thought for any potential troop contributors.

Start again?

South Sudan is such a mess that there have been calls by, among others, former US special envoy Princeton Lyman, and African academic Mahmood Mamdani, that the country be placed under some kind of trusteeship for 10 to 15 years.

It’s of course a non-starter. The clock can’t be put back, and there is no support for the proposal in the African Union.

“Mamdani has taken progressive positions on most issues, so this is more a symptom of despair rather than anything else,” says Abdi.

“A trusteeship of 10 to 15 years is more than a regime change policy, it’s like ‘we’re really messed up’,” adds Boswell.

The solution has to come from South Sudanese, says Jok. His best-case scenario is that Kiir gives Taban enough space to play a legitimate role, allowing him to put a brake on the excesses of the army, and build a constituency among the opposition that bleeds support away from Machar.

But Boswell has a more pessimistic take. He believes the government will pursue a security solution that will intimidate and coopt communities. But he likens the outcome to a giant Ponzi scheme, in which its political base of support only gets narrower.

“The government is winning the war militarily, but the big question is what happens if the Ponzi scheme collapses, swallowed up by the political grievances it’s generating?”

South Sudan, already poor and underdeveloped, is being made poorer still. It's people that have lived through decades of civil war are enduring yet more violence. "There are no winners in any of this," says the Juba-based analyst.

oa/bp

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Reflection for the 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Readings: Exodus 17: 8-13; 2 Timothy 3: 14- 4: 2; Luke 18: 1-8

Selected Text:  “The Lord said, ‘Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them’?”   (Luke 18:6-7)

Meditation:  The challenge of the Gospel is our fidelity and persistence in prayer.  Prayer is not something that comes out of the blue… We need to develop the habit and discipline of praying remembering that God ‘secures the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night’. Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

 DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life. 

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Re3flection for the 27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) 

Readings: Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4; Second Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14; and Luke 17:5-10

Selected Passage:  “The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."  The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to (this) mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.   (Luke 17: 5-6)

Meditation:  Faith is God’s gift to us.  We believe in God who has called us from  the very beginning.  And if we truly believe, we know that through the eyes of faith, we can do wonders -  forgive sins; heal the sick; and drive out demons!  Our call lies in the fact that we stand and live by the values we believe in.  This remains a challenge to each one of us. Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD... 

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart. 

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible... 

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life. 

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Reflection for the 26^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C): The Rich Man & Lazarus

Readings: Amos 6:1a, 4-7; 1Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31.

Selected Text:  "There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores" (Luke 16: 19-21) 

Meditation:  The parable is a strong reminder to us that we cannot continue to dress in purple garments and dine sumptuously without the poor partaking at our table. The real challenge for us, believers, is the generosity to share our blessings with the poor. Our failure to do so is already the judgment that awaits is… Beware! Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD... 

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart. 

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible... 

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life. 

To Kill in the Name of God is Satanic!

The Holy Father reminded those present how Jesus was the first martyr, and ever since, the Church has had many martyrs, but today more than ever.

“Today, there are Christians martyred, tortured, slaughtered, because they do not deny Jesus Christ,” he said.

In this history of martyrdom, he noted, we arrive at that of Father Jacques, who is part of this chain of martyrs.

“This cruelty that asks for apostasy is – let’s say the word – satanic,” he said, noting, “How much I would like that all the confessions would say: to kill in the name of God is satanic.”

Father Jacques Hamel was slaughtered, just as he was celebrating the Sacrifice of Christ. “A good, meek man, who always was trying to make peace, was assassinated, as if he were a criminal.”

“This is the thread of satanic persecution,” Francis said, observing, “In the midst of the difficult time that he lived in the midst of this tragedy he saw coming, he did not lose the clarity of accusing and say the name of the assassination: ‘Go away, Satan!’”

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Reflection for the 25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) 

Readings:  Amos 8: 4-7; 1 Timothy 2: 1-8; Luke 16: 1-13

Selected Gospel Passage: “The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness; for the sons of this world are shrewder in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.” (Luke. 16: 8-9)

Meditation:  The original meaning of "shrewdness" is "practical wisdom" or "prudence". It is the ability to deal with a given situation, to see what needs to be done and to do it. We are challenged to have that foresight, discernment, and judgment (the ability to see through and understand a situation and what will likely happen if we do not take appropriate action. Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD... 

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart. 

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible... 

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life. 

A Response to the Muslim Letter: A Common Word between You and Us

Response to the Muslim Letter: A Common Word between You and Us…

By Fr. Eliseo “Jun” Mercado, OMI

(Delivered at Georgetown University, Washington, DC: 2008)

The interreligious gap and misunderstanding in the Southern Philippines has a long history. It dates back from the period of colonialism when the Philippines was annexed by Spain in the 16^th century and later by the US at the turn of the 1900.

The encounter with Spanish forces was characterized by continuous war, except for intermittent truces that resulted to alienation and opposition between the Christianized Filipinos and the Islamized Filipinos now known as the “Bangsamoro peoples”. 

The period during the American period was also characterized by war, only this time, by decisive military victory that put an end to the once powerful Sultanates in Mindanao and their annexation to the Philippines. The Americans were able to abolish the powerful Sultanates and the Royal Titles (these titles were only recognized by President Marcos during the height of rebellion to counteract the influence and sway of the Rebel Commanders (MNLF) on the Muslim populace. The abolition of the governance structures and royal titles paved the way for the annexation Southern Mindanao.  And one of the programs of pacification and assimilation included among others the opening of Southern Mindanao for massive migration from the Luzon and the Visayas.

These historical facts have given rise to three significant realities that continue to haunt Muslim-Christian relations in the Philippines, even today. To wit:

1. The lingering suspicion and lack of trust that continue to characterize the relations between Christians and Muslims;
2. The sense of injustice on the part of the Moro and the Indigenous peoples for their lost ancestral domain.  After years of migration, they have found themselves a minority in their traditional homeland.  The Muslims are now majority only in five provinces out of the original 13 provinces in Southern Mindanao;
3. The Indigenous peoples who were once “masters” of the highlands of Mindanao (their traditional ancestral domains) were completely minoritized and marginalized even the in the mountains as they were given as timber concessions to big business; and
4. Poverty and neglect that led to, among others, the highest in mortality, illiteracy rate, lowest in access to basic services, especially health and education.

The above four are few of the causes of the renewed rebellion in the Southern Philippines.  The peace process in the Southern Mindanao follows the ever changing tide and wind of the government in Manila.

This is the context that has made urgent the interface of Christianity and Islam in the Philippines. 

First, there is an urgent need to distance the face of our faith traditions from the stereotypes of rebels/terrorists, on the one hand and oppressors and the army of occupation, on the other.

Christians and Muslims of goodwill, specifically bishops, ulama, priests, ustadzes and lay leaders beginning in early 70’s stood for justice and respect for human rights even during the height of battles between the Philippine regular army and the Moro National liberation Front.  The provinces of Cotabato and Sulu – the lands of many battles have witnessed examples of solidarity of people of goodwill from Christianity and Islam who continued to stand for justice and human rights.  The first association of Christian-Muslim Religious Leaders in Mindanao began in 1973 few months after the declaration of Martial law.  Then following the Peace Agreement in 1976, a more formal national conference involving leaders of Catholics, Protestants and Muslims began to address the problems of the South and to bring these issues to the attention of the National government.

Again, following the 1996 Final Peace between the Philippine Government and the Moro national Liberation, the Bishop-Ulama Forum was formed to support the peace process in the Southern Mindanao and the implementation of the said accord. 

Both associations contributed, through conferences and consultations, to a formation of yet another ‘thread’ beyond the familiar stereotypes and slogans in Southern Mindanao.  This is a partnership, albeit still a minority, that work for peace, reconciliation and partnership in building a more inclusive communities and governance.

The second is interreligious dialogue. Interreligious dialogue has a particular and peculiar history in the Philippines both in the local and national level given the situation of the war in Southern Mindanao.  Simply to name a few:

• A partnership to stand for justice and defense of human rights;
• A support to the peace process in Southern Mindanao that continues from 1976 to the present;
• An attempt of mutual accompaniment in celebrations of festivals like Duyog Ramadhan for the Muslims and Christmas for Christians;
• A pressure on the protagonists of the war to go back to the peace table to settle their differences;
• Involvement of the religious from both sides of the divide in Tract II of the peace process in Southern Mindanao. 
• Adopting Peace Education in schools and institutions of higher learning to imbibe a culture of peace in campuses; and
• Assistance to the victims of war, specifically to the internally displaced.

In a similar vein, the religious both Muslims and Christians (Catholics and Protestants) are active in various consultations and fora that seek to impact policies affecting the Southern Mindanao, in particular and the whole country, in general.   These attempts to influence official policy formulation range from peacebuilding to the shape of peace agreement that will be acceptable to all major stakeholder in Mindanao.

There is now the urgency for dialogue both inter and intra faiths given the concrete context of the Southern Mindanao, particularly with the recent surge of ISIS and ASG and other extremists that threaten the years of building of friendship and commitment to the Common Good. n Mindanao. There is, no doubt, that the continued and patient attempts of leaders from the faith divides have greatly influenced the Philippine government to adopt interreligious dialogue as a priority in seeking a just and sustainable peace the Philippines.  This has become an official policy that has marked the Philippines’ strong intervention and support to interreligious dialogue at the international bodies like UN and the Alliance of Civilizations, and of late in the Non Aligned Movement.

New Wind blowing and shaping…

Peacemaking is at the heart of our faith tradition. ”Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons and daughters of God.”  Peacemaking demands for a new relationship – a new solidarity for all peoples across political and ideological boundaries, across cultures and religions. 

I wish to echo Saint Pope John Paul II’s message in Damascus at the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, 6 May 2001.

“It is my ardent hope that Muslim and Christian religious leaders and teachers will present our two great religious communities as COMMUNITIES IN RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE, NEVER MORE AS COMMUNITIES IN CONFLICT”. It is crucial for the young to be taught the ways of respect and understanding, so that they will not be led to misuse religion itself to promote or justify hatred and violence.  Violence destroys the image of the Creator in his creatures, and should never be considered as the fruit of religious conviction.”

“Better mutual understanding will surely lead to a more objective and comprehensive knowledge of each other’s religious beliefs at the practical level, to a new way of presenting our two religions NOT IN OPPOSITION, as it happened too often in the past, BUT IN PARTNERSHIP FOR THE GOOD OF THE HUMAN FAMILY.”

In the same vein, I read the Common Word, with 138 signatories that speak of weight, influence and scholarship.  I personally consider the letter something historical with long enduring impact-

In the letter the Qur’an verse on tolerance is quoted: “Had God willed He could have made you one community. But that He may try you by that which He hath given you (He hath made you as ye are). So vie one with another in good works.  Unto God ye will all return, and He will then inform you of that wherein ye differ” (Al-Ma’idah, S. 5:48).

This Letter is a very important step in raising, yet, to another level the friendship between Christians and Muslims.  Often Christians have taken the initiative regarding dialogue, and they have so done well. It is important that this first step continues in this direction with increased clarity, even showing differences and the need for correction.

I believe that with time this Letter can create an opening and a greater convergence on the more delicate issues of religious freedom, the absolute value of human rights, the relationship between religion and society, the use of violence, etc.., in short current issues that worry all believers in our world today.

People, institution, nation, communities, in fact, individuals endure and are recognized by their fidelity to values and traditions they stand for.  And to us, the three values that stand are family, joyful hard work and our faith & traditions. Today people admire Mother Theresa or Oscar Romero or Martin Luther King Jr. or Desmond Tutu or Nelson Mandela, not because of their achievements but for the values and beliefs they stood for. They believed and lived with integrity and with no embarrassment. 

The need to provide the Story line…

Where do we locate ourselves within this flux and how do we view our confusion to say the least and deep crisis at worst in that new wind that blows and shapes a new world? 

More than ever before, there is a need to “re-appreciate” and perhaps even “re-construct” the stories of successes and failures, of power and wealth in the present age now labeled as both “post modernism” and “post ideologies”.  I turn to Gil Bailie (cf. Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads: 1996) for the apt description of this age. He takes the person of Bernard (a character in Virginia Woolf’s novel, The Waves) to depict the modern person.  In the novel, Bernard says: “I have made up thousand stories. I have filled up innumerable notebooks with phrases to be used when I have found the true story, the one story to which all the phrases refer, but I have never yet found that story.”

I believe that Christians and Muslims, notwithstanding the difficulties, have found the way to the writing of the needed story line… it is there in the story of our family, tribe and clan. It is a “kindredness” shaped not only by blood, but also by our community and eco-system.  And our story line rooted in faith and traditions that form our values that lay the foundational set of virtues to move together forward in achieving our goals for ourselves and for humankind. We are darn proud of our story and we share it with the world with smile in our faces and joy in our hearts.

In Conclusion

I will end this presentation with a quote from the martyred President of Egypt Anwar Sadat (yet another Nobel Peace laureate) expressed at the Knesset during his historic visit of the Holy City of Jerusalem in 1977.

“… Yet, there remains another wall.  This wall continues and constitutes a psychological barrier between us, a barrier of suspicion, a barrier of rejection, a barrier of fear, of deception, a barrier of hallucination without any action, deeds or decision.  A barrier of distorted and eroded interpretation of every event and statement... It is this official statement as constituting 70% of the whole process. Today, through my visit to you, I ask why don’t we stretch out our hands with faith and sincerity so that together we might destroy this barrier?”

No doubt, we can lead the way by stretching our hands with faith and sincerity so that together we may build a new world with no borders and barriers yet preserving our identity as we tell and re-tell our story line with smile in our faces and joy in our hearts. 

A final quote: “The age of nations is past. It remains for us now, if we do not wish to perish, to set aside the ancient prejudice, and build the earth.” (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ)

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Reflection for the 24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Readings: Exodus 32: 7-11.13-14; 1 Timothy 1: 12-17; Luke 15: 1-32

The Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son

Selected Passage: “So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.” (Luke 15: 20)

Meditation:  The Father shows COMPASSION. HE RUNS TO MEET THE ERRING SON, EMBRACES HIM AND KISSES HIM  - No question asked and NO recrimination and condemnation!  Our God is a God who is generous in forgiveness and abundant in his Mercy. Such is the LOVE of the Father for uu! Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD... 

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart. 

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible... 

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life. 

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Short Reflection for the 23^rd Sunday in ordinary time (C) 

Readings: Wisdom 9: 13-18;Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14: 25-33

Selected Passage:  “In the same way, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14: 33) 

Meditation:  The text warns us about our possessions. Often they become our idols – the silver and gold – the work of our human hands.  As the Psalm 115 remind us, they speak not, hear not and see not. Those who worship gold, positions and fame become like them.  Do we bow over our possession, that is, serving mammon or do we serve God alone? Cuidate!  Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com