A group of chiefs from Central Equatoria and the greater Upper Nile region of South Sudan are calling on the government of Rwanda to send experts to deliver lessons in reconciliation and peace-building.
UN Radio Miraya reports that the chiefs made the call shortly after they returned from Rwanda where they learned about the role of chiefs in conflict resolution and confidence building.
Agol Ayweil Aduwai, the Upper Nile Council of Chief’s chairperson says South Sudan must heed lessons from the way Rwanda handled issues of justice, peace and reconciliation after the 1994 genocide.
“We should forgive one another as one nation in South Sudan and reconcile. We should make an agreement to live as one nation. We need to sit as chiefs from South Sudan in a workshop to build confidence.”
South Sudan’s human rights commission has acknowledged that “ethnic massacres” in Juba touched off clashes and killings elsewhere in the country, causing the current civil war.
Mass killings have been carried out by SPLA-IO, SPLA-Juba, and other armed groups and aligned civilian militias. The locations of mass graves around Juba have yet to be disclosed.
File photo: Women in mourning protest for peace in Juba (Radio Tamazuj)
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