13 March 1999
Nairobi, Kenya
MORE THAN 300 DINKA AND NUER LEADERS SIGN A COVENANT OF PEACE WITH
FAR REACHING
COMMITMENTS
NAIROBI: The Dinka-Nuer West Bank Peace and Reconciliation Conference
held in Bahr el Ghazal in southern Sudan has resulted in a bold
commitment for peace that could have national implications. The
Conference, facilitated by the New Sudan Council of Churches, resulted
in a peace agreement called the Wunlit Dinka-Nuer Covenant. The Covenant
and its Resolutions were signed by more than 300 Dinka and Nuer chiefs,
community and church leaders, women and youth. It boldly promises an end
to seven and half years of conflict between the Dinka and Nuer people on
the West Bank of the Nile and declares a permanent ceasefire with
immediate effect. Amnesty is granted for offences prior to 1/1/99,
freedom of movement across the lines of conflict is affirmed, and
resolutions with far-reaching effects were adopted in a consensus style
of decision making. The Conference was opened with the sacrificing of a
large White Bull, traditional spiritual leaders of both peoples calling
for an end to the conflict, and the warning that any who violate this
Covenant will go the way of the White Bull. Christian church leaders
conducted daily prayers and the final Covenant was sealed both in
Christian worship and in traditional sacrifice of another bull, dancing
and festivities.
Resolutions address is detail issues such as:
** Missing persons and Marriages of Abductees: including the
identification of people who are missing or were abducted, the issue of
marriages, and the return of persons to their families and home areas;
** Reclaiming the Land and Rebuilding Relationships: including a
provisional list of more than 400 villages and settlements that have
been abandoned, an encouragement for people to move back home, and the
development of shared activities between Dinka and Nuer such as schools,
livestock markets, healthcare, etc.
**Institutional Arrangements and Monitoring the Border: including
police stations, border courts, appeal processes, radio stations to
build communications across the borders, joint policing of the grazing
and fishing areas during the dry season, and forming a Peace Council to
implement the Resolutions.
**Dealing with those Outside the Peace Process: including invitations
to commanders who have continued to fight and must be brought into the
peace process; and
**Extending the Peace: including Dinka-Nuer peace on the East Bank of
the Nile and spreading the peace to other Nilotic peoples, the peoples
of Equatoria, and all the people of South Sudan.
A Rapporteur Team of six members continued after the Wunlit
conference to meet in Loki, Kenya to gather the documentation together.
A publication of the basic documents is now available in hard copy
through NSCC in Nairobi. Within a few days the same documents will be
available through Sudan Infonet on its Internet
Web Site. The address is:
https://members.tripod.com/~SudanInfonet/
Signed:
William O. Lowrey, Ph.D.
NSCC Dinka-Nuer Peace Facilitator
