When: February 24-26, 2008
 

Where: Washington, D.C.
 

More Info: ugandalobbyday.com

- All of the IRC’s “voices from the field”

Justin worked on the “Going Home” section of the paper which focuses on issues relating to Sudanese refugees and internally displaced persons returning to South Sudan as peace tries to settle in following a 21-year civil war. Justin was one of 124 trainees who recently completed a vocational training program sponsored by the IRC and received certificates in a variety of skills, including computing, hairdressing, catering and journalism. Below Justin answers questions about his internship and what he thinks about the future.

What is your background?

I am from a village called Lanyi in Western Equatoria State, South Sudan. Of the five children, I am the only lucky one to have the opportunity to study. I am my siblings’ light and I feel for them. I am brought up in the Christian faith of the Catholic Doctrine. His Grace Paulino Lukudu Loro, the Catholic Archbishop of Juba, implanted the importance of education in me and gave me the rare opportunity to learn English. His sponsorship to my intellectual, moral and spiritual guidance is special. I am 26, still single, and live in Juba.

Why did you decide to pursue journalism?

My pursuit of journalism is to make real changes in Sudan. The history of Sudan is full of war. South Sudan has just closed the chapter of war with the north. If we are to study closely what is going on, our people are not well informed and have no access to information about their rights. Only a few have the means of information about the problems of their region. Journalism is therefore a crucial tool for change and this is why I pursue it. My pursuit of journalism is a real duty to do in order to move people to true democracy, justice and equality provided in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. If this is not done, then how can we explain the constant corruption in our government? There are also social problems happening. I see my pursuit of journalism as being one big reliable commitment for the people of Sudan and South Sudan especially.

What did you learn at your internship?

In the internship I have learned journalism skills and gained a lot of experience. The journalism skills we learned about are: news reports, news features, news briefs, interviews and the inclusion of the 5Ws. The 5Ws try to explain what is done, who does it, where is it done, to whom it is done, when it is done and how is it done, and beside that, you have to mind what will happen next. We also learned about the journalists’ ethic code of conduct, balancing a story, covering press conferences and workshops, and taking action photos.

Could you describe the “Going Home” page you worked on?

The “Going Home” page encourages Sudanese people abroad to come home. The coming home of the people is also to meet the demand of the nation particularly for the upcoming census, elections and participating in the coming referendum when the Southerners will decide on their fate to spilt or remain within a united Sudan with the north.

How did you find out about the internship, the IRC and The Juba Post?

I believe in the internship program. It has opened me up to society, friends and to the world. This is the good achievement in human life that one needs to build on continuously. What I gained from the internship is good training and new knowledge. The IRC constantly assisted me during the internship program. The IRC sponsored me in these journalism training skills which have added a new career to my life. The IRC helped me with transport and food. One of the most important things I find IRC does is to improve and rebuild the capacity of those affected badly by Sudan’s long civil war. IRC goes down to the affected community of chiefs, local leaders and elders whose people need change in all aspects of life. The Juba Post’s acceptance of our training is positive as they have given us the skills along with help of IRC to be self-supportive. Now that we have finished with our internship, the problem is finding work.

Do you think peace will remain in South Sudan and what is the mood of returning refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs)?

I have my doubts on peace existing in South Sudan because the time factors provided in the CPA implementation are not respected. There are many contrary events dimming peace in South Sudan. There are misunderstandings on boundary demarcation lines. A census that was to take place in November this year was pushed back to February 2008. General elections and the referendum on independence remain untouched. Associated with this are issues of tribal clashes and people still carrying arms. From the narrow sense of peace remaining in South Sudan, the government is trying to maintain the insecurity to its capacity.

On the mood of the refugees and IDPs coming home, they do not all have the same level of feelings. Some preferred to remain in the exile and others are happy to be back home for different reasons. Many services are not reaching the people. Many look for working opportunities but find no job. And many of the people with jobs receive their salaries late, sometimes two or three months late or more.

How do you think being a journalist and journalism can help South Sudan recover and rebuild?

I like being a journalist because it helps our people and nation and can make changes on many aspects of our society. Journalism can greatly help South Sudan recover and build at the same time. Journalism in South Sudan has not yet taken root very much. If journalism takes root, it will improve education, raise awareness of our cultures and the world will be well informed about us. It will also eradicate bad feelings, implant harmony and reduce corruption in our social, political and economic institutions.

What are your future plans?

We recently finished with our theoretical and practical training. I am now following some investigative stories and following news assignments for the newspaper. After getting my information from various sources I write and submit the stories to the editor at The Juba Post to be published.

My major plans are to have a plot of land, build a house, have a good family and farther my education.

Watch Parts 1 and 2

Heading up into the mountains behind Poso in Central Sulawesi, the rice paddies of the coastal plain soon give way to lush mountain vegetation. Cocoa plantations large and small, mangoes, vanilla and cloves against a backdrop of the rich green tropical forest. All this to the sound of Bryan Adams’ ‘Summer of 69’ and Phil Collins’ ‘True Colours’ wafting out from the jeep’s tapedeck for the 100th time in the week. This may be a long way from home but driver Ahmad’s musical tastes are somewhat limited and distinctly Western.

First impressions make it hard to believe that this seemingly idyllic Indonesian backwater with its forest covered mountains dipping down to palm-fringed beaches has so recently been the scene of vicious sectarian violence. After an hour’s bumpy ride uphill I find Ari Pattinasarani taking pictures of a classroom full of junior high school kids at the Sanginora village school. The road doesn’t yet extend to the school and to visit this class we’ve had to traipse through the mud left by yesterday’s heavy rains.  The session has been organised by the local youth committee of which Ari is a leading member. One of his friends is talking to the teenagers about what physical and psychosocial changes they can expect as they grow up. It’s a lively affair and the children interact well, their giggling at some of the more intimate parts of the lecture interspersed with serious faces when they are asked to think about how they feel.  After the talk, I ask Ari to tell me a little about the conflict which has been such a crippling part of all their recent lives.

The violence, which has left deep physical and mental scars in this beautiful region of Sulawesi, came late, he says, to his home sub-district, the eight villages of Poso Pesisir Selatan. Trouble first erupted in the provincial town of Poso in 1998, during the nationwide turmoil as Suharto’s long presidency came to an end. The violence in most of the rest of the country was soon brought under control but around the towns of Poso and Tentena the downward spiral into sectarian violence which eventually left over a 1000 dead and 100,000 displaced had only just begun. The new millennium brought terrible bloodshed and destruction to the region. Jihadis saw the area around Poso where Christians and Muslims lived peacefully side by side, as a launchpad for their activities throughout the country. On the other side, Christian militias were determined to preserve their enclave in a predominantly Muslim country. The violence that followed was horrendous -  lynchings, church and mosque burning, the destruction of homes and schools, of businesses and shops, and almost the entire population forced to flee.  But Ari’s village of Tankura seemed to have escaped, until finally in November 2001 they heard that a mob was on its way.

Not waiting to see whether or not the rumours were true, Ari and his family along with the rest of his village, fled, first into the mountains to more remote villages but eventually to the provincial capital of Palu. When four months later word came through that it was safe to return home he and a few friends returned to find devastation. Ari is a Christian but at the same time as he returned so too did his fellow villagers from the Muslim community. He said it was moment of truth. The destruction was total, not aimed at one side or the other.  Both Christian and Muslim houses had been destroyed. The realisation dawned that those who had instigated this were not local.  He and his friends from both sides of the religious divide decided that this could not be allowed to happen again and they saw joining their local Youth Committees as a way they could play their part to make sure it didn’t.

Ari’s Majulea Youth Committee in Poso Pesisir Selatan and seven other committees in the worst affected sub districts of Central Sulawesi were set up as part of a CARDI programme, (Consortium for Assistance and Recovery toward Development in Indonesia) with funding from the European Union. The programme’s aim, to which Ari and his friends have fully bought in, is ‘building bridges between conflict affected youth.’ They believe that if young people learn to understand themselves and each other and form friendships based on that understanding, they can learn to trust each other so that the fact that they come from different religious communities will never again be enough for the ‘outsiders’ on whom they all blame the conflict, to pitch one group against another with such devastating consequences.