From: South Sudan Press
By Col. (Rtd). Wani Tombe Lako Lokitari
This is a formal general call to all men, women and youth of Greater Equatoria. All of you in Diaspora and inside the Sovereign Republic of South Sudan (SRSS), all of you, rise and take the lead, in the defense of the motherland, which is the defense of your comprehensive rights and freedoms. No one shall do this for all of you, in the Sovereign SRSS.
This is a just cause. Do not listen to the accusations that you are war mongers. You are the only peace and love mongers in the SRSS. You have endured excruciating hurts, agonies, humiliations, deprivations, exclusions, processes of pauperisation and diminutions; from 2005 to 2014, for the sake of an elusive and frustrated unity of the peoples of the SRSS.
The ongoing semblances of a civil in the SRSS have been triggered by the genocide committed in Juba during the month of December 2013, against the Nuer Nation and people, by the negligent and culpable government of the SRSS. The government of the SRSS has demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that, it is capable with impunity, to destroy in part, or in whole, any human groups or tribes in the SRSS.
Therefore; if the government of the SRSS, can use our own public war assets, bought by our own money, to kill; murder; and slaughter our Nuer brothers; sisters, sons; daughters; grandmothers; and grandfathers; in chilling cold blood; then, this same government, of the SRSS, can also do it to all of you.
Therefore, before the murderous and blood stained hands; in the current government of the SRSS, can find time to turn on you in Greater Equatoria, assisted by the hired mercenaries operating in the SRSS, it is your natural right and duty, to come together, in unison, with all our Nuer brothers and sisters, and many other brothers and sisters; in Upper Nile and Bahr El Ghazal, to stop these blood stained hands in Juba, from destroying the SRSS.
You the peoples of Greater Equatoria, must not, and shall not commit another mistake of standing by, while history is being rewritten in the SRSS. You must not, and shall not allow the history of our motherland to be rewritten in your absolute absence. If you allow this history; to be rewritten; in your absolute absence, you will be doing a grave disservice, to all posterities of the SRSS. Therefore, we are not going to allow, and shall not allow, this rewriting of the history of the SRSS, without us being privy to the authorship and ownership of our collective history in the SRSS.
You the peoples of Greater Equatoria have already written the historical template of South Sudan with your precious blood since 1947 through 1955 to date. Therefore, do not allow others to distort this history while you standby unconcerned. If you do that, you shall be written-off the history books in the SRSS. Do you want that to happen to you? The answer is a big No. Therefore, wake up and take action now.
All of you men, women and youth of Greater Equatoria, wherever you are, you must contribute to the processes of constituting an Interim Federal Government (IFG) in Juba. All of you must make sure that, all blood stained hands; and their accomplices, whether by intent or negligence, must not participate in the next IFG in the SRSS.
Therefore, in order to be able to be part and parcel of the next IFG in the SRSS, you must all make your presence felt. It is the culture in the SRSS that, all the ruling groups are backed up by force of arms. Do we need arms in Equatoria? The answer is a big Yes? Why do we need these arms in Equatoria? We need these arms in Equatoria, to protect the SRSS from those others; who have already privatised our public sovereign war assets, in order to murder and slaughter the rest of us. Is this an incitement to violence at law? No; this is not an incitement to violence at law. This is called sovereign and national self defense.
The government in Juba is no longer the sovereign that we can continue to obey. We are withdrawing our hitherto surrendered sovereignties. This was a privilege which the government in Juba has abused and misused, therefore, we are withdrawing these collective sovereignties.
The government in Juba is now murdering us, and therefore, we have the right to defend ourselves. The government in Juba is using the force of fire arms to plunder our national economic and financial assets, and therefore, we have the legal right to protect our collective public assets from being looted by individuals, by all means including the use of force.
You the peoples of Equatoria cannot carry on existing in the SRSS as comprehensive underdogs. You have to consciously, from now onwards, begin the process of moulding a New South Sudan (NSS). This NSS must be free from tribalism, nepotism, and all various instances of discrimination. It is time you told those others; who think that, they are born to rule, that, their assumptions are unfounded; and fundamentally vacuous.
You the peoples of Greater Equatoria must recover your stolen lands and other property. There are others in the SRSS, who have stolen villages and other parcels of land. These people argue that, if we in Greater Equatoria, want back our villages and these parcels of land, we must provide buckets of human blood. This is being told our people in Greater Equatoria day and night.
Our people are bluntly told that, these villages and parcels of land were liberated from the Jallabas. Therefore, these settlers and grabbers of the said villages and land; want buckets of human blood in exchange for our ancestral land. Fair enough, buckets of human blood they will get, but, it will be their own human blood, that we shall fill these empty buckets with, and then, give them to their surviving relatives.
You the people of Greater Equatoria, you must put a stop to the kind of governance that has been started in South Sudan from 2005 to date. This is the time that you must all act together. If you failed to heed to my cries and many other cries for action, you will be committing a historical fatal mistake from which you will never recover.
Our reasonableness has been grossly mistaken for cowardice. We are not cowards. History has recorded that we are not cowards. What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for some people to come from Upper Nile or from Bahr El Ghazal to hand you; your rights and freedoms in golden plates?
You have to claw back your stolen rights and freedoms now; and you have to arm yourselves to protect your future rights and freedoms. We shall all put down our arms when we have reformed the SRSS. Until that happens, it is time you took up arms to defend the SRSS and yourselves from the murderous, looting and negligent government in Juba; meanwhile, you work towards the formation of the Interim Federal government in the SRSS.
The author is the Chairman of Greater Equatoria Council of Rights (GRECOR).