Is there something about the oil industry that encourages thuggery on the scale seen in South Sudan? Or is it simply a historical phenomenon starting at the end of WWI with European and American petroleum interests dividing up the Near East after the demise of the Ottoman Empire? Or is it simply bloodyminded Homo sapiens?
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I hope that you are not seeking United States military intervention. We must stop doing that every time something this upsetting happens.
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The civil war in South Sudan has actually been going on since 1956, when the British left. I lived in Dembi Dollo, Ethiopia, on the Ethiopian plateau just above the South Sudan, where I worked as a Peace Corps teacher. I could look down the Ethiopian escarpment and into the Sudan far below. I flew, and sometimes walked, to Gambella, which had been part of the British Sudan but had become Ethiopian.
We were all quite aware in 1966 that a civil war was going on in the Sudan. I visited villages of ethnic groups that had been pushed out of the Sudan into the remote reaches of the Boro River valley in Ethiopia, and others that were trying to survive on the steep side of the Ethiopian escarpment. When I was there, Dembi Dollo had the only road access I knew of to Gambella (and thus to the Sudan) and I presume that the many of the weapons for this early phase of the Sudanese struggle passed through the town. I gave shelter to young men trying to escape the Sudan.
I admire Ms. Mednick greatly. She is a very brave woman. Everyone needs to understand what a long and bloody struggle this has been, and how many outside forces (including us) have their bloody fingers in this pie. This long war, which has gone on for 63 years and is not over yet, is mostly about oil. No one will ever know how many lives have been lost, mostly women and children. We can be certain a few people will get very rich.
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Watch the French documentary “We Come as Friends”.
Thank you for bringing this to the world's attention. What are the mechanisms for determining who is buying the oil from these companies, who is providing the weapons, and has there been support for any solution related efforts on the part of South Sudan's neighbors - Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda? You would think that by now there would be a "playbook" for targeted economic sanctions.
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I cannot imagine the bravery required to do this kind of reporting. Thankfully for the South Sudanese there is a woman willing to tell their story to the world.
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You could easily change this headline to "White House Silences Witness to its Horrors."
If this bothers anyone, you can write to President Salva Kiir Mayardit c/o Embassy of South Sudan, 1015 31st Street NW Suite 300, Washington DC 20007. We can't wait for our government if we want to stand up for journalists.
S.Sudan rests in a region which is naturally suitable to farm and raise enough cattles and at least feed itself,It is not just oil and mines of precious materials.But people have to feel safe enough to work on their fields and move from places to places.But, politicians who claim to be caring for the people of their respective ethnic Gp pay of ill educated young mob and attack those they call others.Such things left the fields idle,ruined crops,destroyed businesses, burnt churches,etc. created a dislocated mass.A pressure by all major powers and serious Govs,Inter orgs should deny access to Weaps or contraband sells so that these won't feed avoidable fratricide and cause massive flow of refugees,this is a regional challenge too.TMD.
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Thanks to the Editorial Board for reminding us about the atrocities being committed in South Sudan. The account of the brave reporting of Sam Mednick is deeply touching, too, and she needs to be recognized as a hero by the MSM.
The anguish and agony of the people on the ground is terrible to contemplate, and with the current administration, I have no hope that the USA will be able to lend whatever assistance would be useful.
One of the lessons here is that a lack of universal education--and communication--can leave a people helpless against the greed and brutality of malignant and murderous individuals who wish to seize power. There is a vicious cycle in the situation in S. Sudan.
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Thanks to Ms. Mednick & all the other reporters who tell the stories of war & suffering around the world. South Sudan’s is yet another conflict related to oil. The sooner we reduce our reliance upon it, the sooner these places will have some chance at peace. Petronas and China have merely supplanted the Western carbon multinationals whose predations have been the source of so much suffering in the developing world.
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It's reporters like Mednick who remind us how important a free press really is to our country. That said, I worry about reporters who risk life and limb to get the truth out of places like South Sudan. I would rather see the Times pay locals do the reporting anonymously. We've lost to many good young people in places like this.
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Thanks for bringing the tragedy of South Sudan back into the light and thanks to Ms. Mednick for risking all to share the truth and hope for justice.
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This editorial neglects to mention how South Sudan came to be a country. A shorty summary might be, 'South Sudanese independence became a pet project of President Obama, who directed hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayer funds to the new government shortly before it imploded.'
There is a case to be made that, had the international community simply ignored southern Sudan, had Dave Eggers never written The What, people there might possibly be better off today, or at least forging their own organic path forward.
Reporting from forgotten places is noble enough, but what would really help is if we stopped sending guns.
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She was expelled, not silenced. It is appropriate for governments seeking peace to control those who oppose it.
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@ Being expelled from the South Sudan is being silenced. You might take a look at our own Constitution for our law on this subject.
@Being expelled from the South Sudan is being silenced. You seem unaware of our government's law on this topic. I suggest you read the Constitution.
Earlier at dawn, The World Bulletin brought readers to the severity of the crisis of South Sudan, where floods are devastating the welfare of its people and their children.
UNICEF has launched an appeal to The US Government for 10 M to save some of the above, but this will fall on deaf ears and these young were born to die.
It is a request for a large donation, but Trump's presidency cannot afford it. A residential apartment on Fifth Avenue costs more than the funds needed for this humanitarian endeavor, and an American corporate bank spends far more in a week. There appears to be a need to keep our Rich in clover.
Biden, if elected, would respond to this appeal because he is not lacking in compassion, and has the experience and savvy to know that these children could be ours.
With thoughts of Mr. Mednick, a witness to these atrocities, and to Mr. Danois, a journalist wearing combat boots, Sam Roberts at The New York Times, they have traveled the killing fields, returning with their testimonies of the brutality of nations, but there is little hope that this G.O.P. will respond.
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@Miss Ley
Perhaps a typo, but Ms Mednick is female. And whilst I loathe Trump, I believe the rest of the world should respond, too.
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@Miss Ley Please note that the very brave Sam Mednick is, in fact, a WOMAN.
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Sam’s expulsion is a true loss to honest reporting in South Sudan. As the parents of Christopher Allen, a journalist who was killed by South Sudanese government forces on August 26, 2017, we know Sam made great efforts and took enormous risks to attempt to uncover the truth of our son’s death. While the US Embassy and State Department largely failed to gather any information, Sam was able to get closer to the truth than anyone else. As far as we know, Sam was the only western journalist still working in South Sudan. Her expulsion represents one more blow to the hope of this young country becoming an open society where journalists can do their work free from oppression and fear.
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Spent eight (8) months with the SPLA/North with Abdel Azziz in Nuba Mountains during what was a temporary peace arrangement during mid 2002. Starvation was the tool Omar Bashir, President of Sudan used to cleanse the Nubian people from the five (5) mountains in south Kordafan Province which is now formally in Sudan.
Back prior to the referendum in 2011 on train and advise mission with the SPLA outside Juba.
The people of what is now South Sudan hoped that the long struggle with the north which began in 1983 would finally come to an end after the 2011 vote for independence.
But, it was not to be...the Dinka and Neuer tribes basically went to war. Neuer's led by Reik Machar who had always been a "darling" of Bashir broker away from the newest country in Africa. For all the reasons most of us still do not understand. Bashir always wanted a divided South Sudan..that's where the oil is. Bashir was afraid the South would plan pumping their oil south to the new discoveries around Lake Albert..that new pipeline is now being built. Bashir is gone..but, the issue of oil to include the Chinese and others will always play a decisional role in the area.
After Sudan..I went on to Afghanistan..to Iraq..then finally to Uganda...Africa is truly different..as that say "TIA"!
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Another loss to truth, as the journalism spotlight dims. Howe, we can determine a lot by who the culprits are exerting force and terror in the region. Thank you Ms. Mednick and all those who stood up to speak out.
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"South Sudan’s action in silencing Ms. Mednick was indeed uncanny, and unconscionable, and warrants the loudest protest from organizations and governments that deem peace and elemental human rights worth defending."
The only protests I found, albeit through a quick search, were from Reporters without Borders and Amnesty international. Could it be that there are not many organizations or governments "that deem peace and elemental human rights worth defending" re South Sudan?
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Malaysia, China and South Sudan united in the situation in South Sudan? George Clooney helping to fund a group bringing the truth there to light?
Amazing. And likewise amazingly brave to be a journalist there.
To be a woman journalist in such a dangerous, chauvinist region is even more amazing,
I am glad she got out alive. Surely she will do much more writing fo great importance in the months and years ahead.
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Great and courageous journalist, but irresponsible and inaccurate title. Expulsion is not murder or infliction of grave disability such as serious TBI. He is alive and competent and while barred from first-person eye-witness accounting, he is, thank heavens, far from silenced.
In an age when the current POTUS calls the press an enemy of the people and shows no compunction publicly wishing that he could copy-cat the way honest journalists are too often dealt with by tyrants (aka torture, imprisonments, death), it is irresponsible to suggest one suffered such fate when he did not.
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@ROI Did you even read the article? Sam is not a "he."
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@Pamela,
In an earlier post, this reader addressed Ms. Mednick as a "he", and standing corrected with the irony of it all, having listened to the accounts of several women, colleagues and friends, on their return from South Sudan on humanitarian mission.
There was a moment of jubilation on their part and shared, when South Sudan came into being, and it was known as 'Dancing on the Roof of The Palace", their compound, where those of us at home were asked to send music and prayers.
All gone now this element of joy and hope, for this US presidency will never care to intervene. Homage to Ms. Medick, and those who rest forgotten while the raging of wars continue.
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@ROI "He" is not a he, but a SHE! THAT makes it even more amazing that SHE was able to get out alive. And expulsion of the press is indeed a grave infliction. Freedom of the press is what keeps the world from going down the rabbit hole for good.
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Thanks for highlighting this region of the world and the importance journalism plays in the nascent and fragile formation of this new nation - without the light, dark forces will have their way unnoticed by the world.
I learned about South Sudan from Clooney's activities in the news and from my brother's medical NGO work there, only to barely escape with his life several years back to Uganda where he is now based.
Sad that journalists and others groups of people doing valiant good work are always at such terrible risk in these places. But as Mednick states, she is "grateful to the South Sudanese people I’ve met, who have inspired me more than they realize.” That is the common reason many NGO workers continue their perilous but valuable and personally rewarding work.
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