In the climate of escalating mobilisation among the youth of Norther Jonglei, the newly constituted Murle Age Set Council went ahead with its planned visit to Rumbek, 7-12 December. The implementation of the Pieri Agreement had identified as one obstacle the absence of a credible and representative group of Murle who could act as counterparts for the youth leadership in Jonglei. The GPAA authorities had agreed, and the Murle Age Set Council was formed, with an initial engagement in Rumbek. This gave an opportunity to learn from the experiences of the akut de door (grassroots peace committees), led by the galweng leaders from across the five sections of the Dinka Agar.
The Minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement addressed the youth and expressed how thrilled the Lakes state Government were for this visit. The Minister acknowledged this was the second time Murle youth were visiting Dinka Agar. The Minister further commented that for many years Dinka Agar had one of the deadliest conflicts in South Sudan and that it is appropriate that the Murle delegation decided to come and learn from what the community of Dinka Agar did to stop the violence.
The Minister advised the council to use the days in Rumbek to interact and engage with the Gelweng leaders and traditional chiefs. He emphasised that the solution to their problem would only come if they worked together. He said that no one benefits from violence, further adding:
“The people you see here (pointing to the Gelweng leaders) were the ring leaders who orchestrated violence in the community, but with the help of the Peacebuilding Opportunities Fund, they could work together and stop fighting one another. You can see now everyone in Lakes is enjoying the fruit of their work.
If the youth, the foremost perpetrators of the conflict and chiefs, did not agree to work together and stop this conflict, I don’t think the government could have done much. In Rumbek today, people walk freely, late into the night, and we attribute this to the hard work of the traditional leaders and Gelweng. We appreciate the community leaders’ willingness and decision to choose peace.
A few years ago, you would hear gunshots almost everywhere, and that would mean someone has been killed. This is how terrible things were here in Rumbek.”
Lakes State Minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement
The conversations over the days in Rumbek covered different foundations of the way forward: the Murle understanding of peace itself; the practices within and between different age sets that contribute to violence and peace, respectively; the failures of the Murle with respect to the implementation of the Pieri Agreement; clarifying the priorities of the Council after their return to GPAA.
In the midst of these conversations, they engaged directly with the experience of the galweng leaders:
“First, we agreed to be honest with each other. We decided to tell each other the truth. We shared openly all that we did to each other, and that was when we could move forward. Acceptance is the first step, followed by your desire to find the solution and committing to go all the way, no matter what.
We faced several challenges, including how to achieve justice and accountability. The government was not proactive, and it was very difficult for the traditional leaders to arrest the culprits. We needed the support of the government.
Our advice to you, Murle community, is first, build trust among yourselves and work together with the government to enforce the law. If you help the government arrest those who are disturbing the community, you will see how quickly you will gain peace.”
Agar Galweng leaders
And the experiential marker of the process was a visit to the cattle camp in Pacong Boma. The Murle Council were struck by the experience and the visual signs of peace and development, at least compared with their reality in GPAA.
The Council established their plan for follow-up action, implementation of which was thwarted by the large-scale, organised mobilisation of Jonglei armed youth to attack GPAA. The impact of this on the ambition and objectives of the Age Set Council has yet to be determined, but is likely to require significant revision in response to the dynamics. At the time of writing, the Age Set Council has expressed a desire to revive the dialogue with their Jonglei counterparts.