An Aweil community meeting took place at the Methodist Guest House, Nairobi, with participants coming from both the SPLA liberated areas and Khartoum.
It had been planned for a long time and not only were those to attend expected from the Sudan but also abroad. It brought together the people from Aweil to address some the nagging issues in the community.
It was felt that it was important to move in to a new era of peace as one community. The war had brought it own ugly scenes in its wake and people are divided along political and sectional lines.
Cdr. Paul Malong Awan who shared the meeting said that the community needs to stand on its own feet to find a better path to follow during the time of peace. No community survives in disarray and therefore they must organized and work in conjunction with other communities in South Sudan for future prosperity.
The speakers one after the other praise the initiators of the idea especially CDR. Paul Malong who is currently in the reign of Community leadership. Others are CDR Lual Diing Wol and Commissioner of Aweil West Mr. Wol Mawien.
Those from Khartoum are Governor of Aweil State Mr. Garang Deng Aguer and Minister of State Mr. Dhieu Mathok. It was confounding when they gave the actual figures of Aweil people in North Sudan.
This shows that the war had widely scattered the people everywhere in search of safe havens. Mr. Ajal Deng, who is the SRRC legal secretary and Board Chairman of South Sudan Law Society, said that he is against the idea of Disarmament and Demobilization.
He suggested that those who are holding firearms should be taught the better use of it. Who knows what will happen in the future that would find people unprepared.
Aweil area, which borders Southern Kordofan and Darfur, had witnessed and underwent child abduction and slavery perpetrated by the Government armed militias.
In this case, the issue of slavery was seriously taken upon and the delegation from the Khartoum suggested a mutual approach to the issue.
The masters who are presently holding the children and the women must come in to common understanding with the community otherwise everything will be a waste of time if approached in a rush.
There were many items on the agenda set to be discussed but some members felt that it will be better if the items are built upon to be discussed in South Sudan where the majority is currently based.
The current population in Nairobi cannot undertake such a huge task of talking community affairs when the majority is not present.
A committee will therefore be formed to follow up the suggested items and build on them through research. These will then be presented to the general community in Aweil, Sudan.
Yai Deng Garang
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This is a very great webside for Aweil community. I'm very thankful for those who took the great amount of time and efforts to develop this webside for MADING AWEIL.
Thank you brother for sending this information to us. I must congratulate the Aweil people in Nairobi for their preparedness to meet the challenges of the post war environment. Aweil is one of the worst hit regions by this war, unity of purpose is the only way out in our difficult situation. I have confident in what Malong Awan and other Aweil leaders can do to our community. Their unwavering service during war time is enough to give us confident in their leadership. But our leaders like Malong Awan need support from everyone regardless of place of resident. This is one reason why we suggested "Aweil Youths Global Body" last month, we know such a body would be of great help in the process of resonstruction and rehabilitation of our homeland at a time like this. Continue encouraging and supporting our leaders to do more to our people, Aweil people outside Africa will not sleep but will also participate where necessary.
Thank you so much for this update. Please allow me to do a little bit correction at the point quoted below.
This shows that the war had widely scattered the people everywhere in search of safe havens. Mr. Ajal Deng, who is the SRRC legal secretary and Board Chairman of South Sudan Law Society, said that he is against the idea of Disarmament and Demobilization.
I think it was suggested that disarmament is national duty and therefore it will be taken care of by the SPLA/M DDR group. It was also advice that Aweil plans should be restricted to things that concern Aweil counties only while the national issues are to be address by national authorities.
Once again thank you very much for choosing to inform Aweil communities in large.
Have a nice time
Tong Deng
-- Edited by Tong Deng at 03:17, 2005-01-11
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