Sir, – I have been reading, with avid interest, accounts of the ethnic tensions emerging in the newly-established state of South Sudan. As a member of a congregation which has Sisters in Rumbek, in the Lakes District, and because of my studies about the Holocaust, I am extremely concerned about adverse political developments affecting the people of South Sudan.
How many times do we have to hear such stories of ethnic cleansing, and pose as bystanders, observing but doing little to counteract it?
Throughout history, we have seen situations such as the fate of the Jews in Nazi occupied territories in Europe, the victims of the Pol Pot Regime in Cambodia, the conflicts involving the Tutsi and Hutu tribes in Rwanda, the Kikuyu and Kalenjins in Kenya, Bosnians and Serbs in Srebenica.
What is happening to stop this relentless massacre in an age when we have every facility of communication, intervention, and dialogue available to us – more than in any other era?
I plead with whoever reads this to heed what is happening, to be informed about it, and to lobby where possible to effect peaceful solutions to this current conflict. In this season of peace and joy, can we hope that the voices of our 20,000 internally displaced people from Jonglei State to the Lakes State will be heard? – Yours, etc,
LOUISE O’SULLIVAN
IBVM, Loreto,
Sundrive Road,
Crumlin,
Dublin 12.