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Interview with Fr James Oyet-Latansio (JOL), general secretary of the Christian Council in South Sudan and Mr Ferdinand von Habsburg-Lothringen (FHL), advisor on reconciliation, South Sudan Council of Churches
By Robert Bartram*
Q: What is the situation right now in Juba?
FHL: The ceasefire is broadly holding. It hasn’t disintegrated into a full-scale, head-on military collision…there are growing military tensions, with reports of mobilizations.
Q: Have you witnessed any increase in displaced persons?
FHL: In Juba, there is more than double the number of people in the Protection of Civilian sites (PoCs) from 20,000 to 45,000, a considerable increase. Elsewhere, the number has remained static. In other words, the situation has not improved enough for people to leave the PoCs.
Q: What has the church’s role been? How has it developed since the crisis began?
FHL: Last year, in Kigali, the heads of churches met and described a vision for reinforcing peace and bringing about long-term reconciliation. The peace action plan was developed, with three principal pillars. The first is advocacy. This is regional advocacy with countries around South Sudan. Advocacy also means communication from the people to the leaders and the leaders to the people. There is a big gap between them and this allows for manipulation. We must allow the voiceless to have a voice so that the suffering of the people is known. There is also a representative of the South Sudan Council of Churches on the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, Bishop Enock Tombe.
The second pillar is what we call “neutral forums.” People still regard the church with a huge amount of respect and it has more credibility than any other institution on the country. The forums convene South Sudanese at all levels: at the grassroots, but also the leadership level – military, political, civil society – with a possible blending of all those. In Wau, the council of churches is supporting the inter-church committee to bring all parties together, looking at all personalities to begin the dialogue. This process has already started and is on the move. Here in Juba, we are trying to build the confidence of women, at political and other levels to talk through what’s happening in Juba and South Sudan in general.
The last pillar is reconciliation. For that, you first need peace. However, the long-term goal is to look at how all the parties can live together.
Q: What is the church currently doing?
FHL: There is a programme to reach out to Intergovernmental Authority on Development countries to explain the position of the churches on peace. The idea is to give the perspective of the South Sudanese people to make the leadership in the region understand the real human issues. This is not just a political issue, but a human issue. The suffering is absolutely terrible. In Juba and Wau, people are living out in the open, cholera is breaking out, people have no shelter, little food, while some World Food Programme stores have been looted. These issues are easily forgotten because people are talking about power-sharing.
Q: What is the church doing in terms of relieving immediate suffering and offering humanitarian assistance?
JOL: When war broke out, most people went to live in church compounds. But the compounds were not prepared. The International Committee of the Red Cross responded immediately to our appeal by providing basic needs – sugar, wheat flour, beans, lentils – that can sustain people for the first few days. These were provided at the Catholic Church compound of St. Joseph’s for 4,500 people, for 1,500 at All Saints Cathedral, and 6,500 at the Catholic Cathedral of Juba.
Q: Could there be more that governments and the UN could do?
FHL: The important thing is for the church to highlight the partners on the humanitarian level, highlight to the South Sudanese so that the solution is not about turning to the international community but to solve the problem here. Advocacy is really to get the regional countries to engage further. The church is talking to a whole range of actors through networks in Europe the USA and elsewhere.
Q: What last message would you like to convey?
JOL: I want to thank our partners in the World Council of Churches (WCC) for raising the issue of South Sudan. I appeal to the international community through the WCC for support for the people of South Sudan. The people of South Sudan do not deserve this suffering.
FHL: People are looking for an immediate end to the conflict. The security aspect is important, but the much longer-term issue is dealing with the root causes of the conflict that will bring real peace. It’s going to take years of hard work.
WCC member churches in South Sudan
WCC press release 15 July - South Sudan on brink of major humanitarian crisis, church leaders report
Donate, humanitarian aid:
Lutheran World Federation – South Sudanese flee to Uganda
Lutheran World Federation – Forty-one refugees a minute
ACT Alliance – Influx of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda
*Robert Bartram is a communications specialist with 20 years experience drawn from a range of government, inter-government and media organizations, based in Geneva.
