JUBA, South Sudan: When South Sudan's fledgling democracy
suddenly unraveled in December, what started as political infighting within the
country's ruling party quickly ripped along ethnic fault lines, often pitting
neighbors against each other according to the tribal markings on their faces.
Within a few days, thousands of people were dead -- the exact
count is unknown -- and tens of thousands more were seeking shelter from the
violence.
In Juba, the disheveled capital city, many of those from the
Nuer tribe, feeling at a disadvantage to the dominant Dinka, sought safety on
two sprawling bases of the United Nations peacekeeping mission.
Almost four months later they remain. Shipping containers are
double-stacked around the perimeter, blocking stray gunfire.
Blue-helmeted Mongolian
troops tightly control the handful of entrances
In the larger of the two U.N. bases more than 21,000 Nuer
remain packed under endless streams of plastic sheeting stretched between
poles. It is crowded and it smells bad. Yet few talk about wanting to go to the
second site the U.N. has offered across town.
"There's no security in Juba, so people are targeted for
violence. The Nuer are targeted," said John Nur, a young man who said that
before the crisis he worked for the International Republican Institute, a
U.S.-based nongovernmental organization promoting democracy worldwide.
"The government says it's just isolated drunks with guns
causing the problems, but they haven't arrested anyone," he added.
"So people are still afraid of returning home."
Some camp residents venture out during the day to a nearby
market. A few go to jobs before returning to the camp by nightfall. One Nuer
member of the South Sudan parliament commutes to legislative sessions from his
tent in the camp.
From the first moments of the violence, camp residents have
been accompanied by a group of Catholic sisters from India.
"We've been working in the bush with war-affected
people, but when we heard the cry of the people here, we came on the first day
to provide trauma counseling and to work with the women and children,"
said Sister Amala Francies, project coordinator in South Sudan for the
Daughters of Mary Immaculate.
The sisters return daily, bringing food, counseling women and
organizing activities for children. There are no formal schools in the camp, so
were it not for the opportunity to gather with the sisters in a few large tents
donated by UNICEF, the kids would have nothing to do.
"We want to give the children an opportunity to leave
their trauma behind for a few minutes, to give them some freedom. We teach them
English and some of their letters," Sister Amala told Catholic News
Service April 1.
The nuns also work for
reconciliation
"We see that tribalism is very high," Sister Amala
explained. "The people focus on their tribe, not on the development of the
whole country. So we work with the children to quit thinking about just me, but
rather about us, about the larger community, which is the only way you can
develop this country. As we make headway with the children, they go home and
teach their parents, who rather than thinking about just me and you, need to
think about the whole country."
The congregation has about 20 sisters in South Sudan. Half of
them serve a remote area near Wau, while the others are in Juba and have made
the camp their parish, despite sporadic outbreaks of violence.
"At first the sounds of gunfire made us worry a lot, but
we reminded ourselves that it was God who called us to this service,"
Sister Amala said. "And then slowly, as we have lived with the people amid
their fear and needs, our own fears and worries were lost. It is God's plan,
not ours, so the more we focus on God's work, the less space there is for
worry."
The U.N.'s operation of the camps has drawn criticism. Some
Dinka leaders have accused the international organization of harboring
assassins in the camps. Doctors Without Borders accused senior U.N. officials
April 9 of a "shocking display of indifference" toward the wellbeing
of camp residents as the rainy season gets underway and the camp inexorably
turns into a muddy quagmire.
Apart from the inevitable political controversy the camp
generates, the sisters' quiet ministry of accompaniment remains critical, one
U.N. official admitted.
"The United Nations mission and all the humanitarian
groups work to provide material things like water, food, latrines and health
services, but the human person is more than all those, so for the sisters to be
present and sing and laugh while they visit and pray with people is so
important," said Analia Ramos, a ration officer from Argentina. "The
Daughters of Mary Immaculate have been able to show the people in the camp the
face of Jesus and Mary that we, because of so much work, at times forget
about."
The sisters also provide the framework for a larger Catholic
presence in the camp. Several priests and other religious regularly visit the
sick in the small camp hospital. Sunday Mass is celebrated by priests from Juba.
Among recent celebrants was Maryknoll Father Jim Noonan from
the United States. He said the singing and dancing during Mass left him
convinced that camp residents retain "a deep sense of God's presence"
amid the many challenges they face.
"They are not prisoners there, but neither are they home
where they want to be," Father Noonan said. "They told me that it is
their faith that allows them to endure hardship, and that despite the
difficulties, God is with them. So they enthusiastically celebrated that they
have not been abandoned."
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