Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin, Minister of Information and Broadcasting [File photo]
JUBA, 17th January 2012 – The government of the Republic of South Sudan is very confident of bringing peace between communities in Jonglei State, the minister for Information and Broadcasting, Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin said yesterday during an exclusive interview with Global Post, Bloomberg news.
He stated that the problem between Lou-Nuer and Murle communities in Jonglei State can be managed adequately because it is on cattle rustling and cannot be compared to what happened in Rwanda some years back.
He also accused Khartoum of engineering the conflict that has resulted in killing of innocent people in both communities of Jonglei State.
“The guns in the hands of Lou-Nuer and Murle which is up to now causing problems in Jonglei state were supplied by Khartoum to Lou-Nuer through the late Athor in order to destabilize situations in South Sudan”, he said. He also revealed that government has already taken steps to peace in the region.
“Among the most important things the government is doing to stabilize the situation include deployment of police forces, formation of investigative committee to trace the root cause of the problem, disarmament of the communities, engagement of both Murle and Lou Nuer youth in conferences, creation of buffer zones for police to monitor the violent movements of the communities and providing local chiefs with police to help them solve disputes”, Dr Marial said.
He further explained that the government is fully engaged in service delivery and is building roads so that mobility of government forces in the territory is easier. He added that once the resources in Jonglei are developed it can be part of solution to the problems noting that Jonglei is rich in oil, wildlife, agricultural land and hydro power of 5000 MW.
Dr. Marial as well said the problem will effectively be solved if oil companies came in to invest in Jonglei state. He disclosed that the government is planning to build oil refineries in the three states of Upper Nile, Unity and Central Equatoria to facilitate refinery processes while waiting for Toyota and Shell Oil Company to construct pipeline to make the transportations of oil companies to the international markets possible.
source goss.org