A CASE FOR AN INDEPENDENT TRIBUNAL FOR FINAL RECONCILIATION-Government of South Sudan (GOSS) rubs salt in 1992 scars - by Opoka Christopher Amanjur.Page 8, Juba Post, http://www.k2-media.org/jubapost/go/index.phpJuba, South Sudan, 3-7 July 2008A failure on the part of the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) has cast further doubt as to the legacy if the victims of the 1992 slaughters of innocent officers of the Prisons, Wild Life, Police and Army as well as civilians that perished and left hundreds of orphans and widows in the region.A demand that the 7th July every year be dedicated to the memory of the brutal killings of innocent Southern Sudanese on mere allegations of collaboration with the SPLA has fallen on the death unresponsive attention of the ears of GOSS as well as at the CentralEquitoria State government level. In an interview with The Juba Post, one such widow narrated her husband’s seemingly fated death amidst repeated sobs and wimps. She was a mother of two daughters when her husband was killed. It was a Sunday morning and she noticed her husband was ill at ease. She begged him to tell her what was worrying him but he just remained silent. Later that day friends came around telling him to go into hiding, but then ‘there was no place to hide’. She explained that ‘Arkangello’ feared that his family would be killed if he disappeared. ’It was a sacrifice on his part’, but now the government cannot even allow me to celebrate and mourn the death of my husband in dignity she added. The year 1992 has scars that have never healed. Many widows of the infamous ‘White House brutal murders’ confessed that, the government has done little to address their plight. They have on several occasions argued for their right to exclusiveness in according them a separate day to mourn and conduct a vigil in memory of their loved ones. Others, however, have little empathy to accommodate the inaction of the government. Such groups have gone as far as pointing fingers at people in the high ranks of the government in treading their sincere request in the mud. They have sworn not to vote for such people come parliamentary and presidential elections. Others have threatened to expose the involvement of these leaders in other follies that have been kept silent as graves.In particular one woman who requested for anonymity for fear of her life and that of her surviving two children, questioned the legitimacy of leaders in Southern Sudan, many of whom she said have failed to reconcile themselves with their past deeds. ‘Horrendous things have happened but our people have learnt that it’s better to keep silent and cry in loud silence‘, she said in a thick tone of sarcasm and irony.In other quarters, the victims of the 1992 massacre have been sung as heroes who paved the way with their bloodshed, for the renegotiation of previous failed agreements in Southern Sudan. A shockingly irritating revelation, however, is that the wives of these unrecognized heroes have been deserted by the government to either fend for themselves or to toil in squalid living conditions. More recently, a letter by The Association of 1992Widows sent tantrums in Parliament where no conclusive consensus was reached for reasons best known to the actors.These women are calling on politicians to stop politicizing the death of their husbands for selfish political gains. They are asking the government to help them reconcile with the past by exposing the actors and perpetrators of the 1992 crimes. These women believe and are confident that the leaders in the then national security, who orchestrated these heinous crimes, are still living at large either in Khartoum or abroad somewhere in the Arab world. ‘Our call for justice will never end until GOSS brings everything out in the open’, said one woman. The women have also forwarded a request for the government to address their plight of poverty, disease, education and land for settlement.
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