11 October 2015

 From:  Tonj East Community in Melbourne, Australia

To    :  The governor of Warrap state Honourable Akec Tong Aleu

cc     :   Tonj East County Commissioner Honourable Biar Biar Mawien

cc     :   Tonj East Community Chiefs and Youth leaders

cc     :   H.E. 1st Lt. General/Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic of South Sudan

Subject: Our respond to the current conflict in Tonj East County

In response to the current inter-clan fighting in Tonj East County, we the citizens of Tonj East in Melbourne Australia convened today on the 11^th of October 2015 to determine our position and to put forward a suggested remedy we think best to address this.

This behaviour will put our community in the category of being a proxy force to the enemy of the nation and is sending a message complimentary to the enemy’s propaganda against our government.  We are one people and don’t have borders to dispute, this sends again a wrong signal to be exploited by the opponents of the government that the recent decree by the president creating more states is a catalyst to tribal and clan-based wars.

We hereby express our grief for the loss of lives and pay our sincere condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones on both sides of the warring parties. We also condemn this odious violence, including the wanton destruction of property such as the burning of houses in all possible terms and demand that it ceases immediately and that the ringleaders of this crime must be found and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

We recommend the following measures be taken by the Government to address the conflict:

·      The authorities to use physical force against those not obeying the orders to stop fighting or who are still stalking violence

·      The identification of the culprits to commence immediately and unimpeded, community leaders and chiefs to assist in that

·      The commissioner having not acted to reign in those chiefs who exchanged bigotry statements before him in our opinion, is deemed incompetent to continue as commissioner and must therefore resign or be sacked and a competent replacement candidate to be appointed from any of the three payams of Ananatak Court

·      The civilians must be disarmed and the government to provide protection to those who will be exposed to the rebel  militia and other inter-state tribal attacks

·      Meetings to start sooner rather than later for legal processes for compensation and reconciliation

·      None of the sides will ever use Lol-lith to receive the commissioner or make a claim of it until settlement is reached, and burning down of settlements must stop, it never happened even in the worst fighting between these communities in late 60s, this is a dangerous trend

The following co-signatories are the participants of the meeting on behave of Tonj East community in Melbourne: