The routine of cattle raids and revenge attacks in Western Lakes prevails because of a lack of an efficient justice system in the area. This conclusion was reached at a two-day roundtable discussion on the rule of law and human rights organized in Rumbek.

“If our government does not apprehend criminals who are heavily armed, how do you think cattle raiding and revenge killings will stop?” Ms. Ayor Achol Kuer, deputy chairlady of the local Women’s Association asked, with poorly disguised frustration. “For justice to prevail in Lakes, we must collectively eradicate impunity,” she added.

Western Lakes Legislative Assembly Speaker, Chol Kuotwel Manhom, had tuned in to the same wavelength, emphasizing the continuous and seemingly easily achieved proliferation of arms among the civil population.

“This situation where a normal citizen can kill with impunity is caused by the fact that everybody in South Sudan carries a gun,” he lamented. “Let us work together to see to it that our people are disarmed because if they are not it is going to be very difficult for us to enforce laws,” the surly Speaker added.

Mathiang Kuac Mathiang, president of the High Court, while admitting that rule of law in Greater Lakes has suffered an almost complete breakdown, adopted a more optimistic stance.

"It is true that human rights continue to be violated all around the country, and that in the Lakes region the situation is getting worse and worse. But there is nothing inevitable about this. Each individual, each state and each institution has a clear choice to make: we must choose to believe in the possibility of positive change.”

At the end of the roundtable discussion, there were indeed many positive, albeit a bit vague, words. Participants committed to improving the human rights situation by means of good governance, building strong and independent institutions to guarantee the rule of law and working closely with the civil society.

The event was organized by the Human Rights Division of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. Government officials, judges, chiefs, police and civil society representatives attended the forum.