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South Sudan
Government must disarm the Murle Community Bushmen in bush
first in order to avoid another mistake: This is a demand
from the Lou Nuer
Community in Diaspora.
By Lou Nuer Media Team,
“All human beings, whatever their
cultural or historical background, suffer when they are
intimidated, unreasonably attacked, imprisoned or tortured .
. . . We must, therefore, insist on a global consensus, not
only on the need to respect human rights worldwide but also
on the definition of these rights . . . for it is the
inherent nature of all human beings to yearn for freedom,
equality and dignity and they have an equal right to achieve
this rights.”
The Republic of South Sudan (RSS) has
announced recently the deployment of its troops, namely; the
Operations to Restore Peace in Jonglei State in order to
carry out the disarmament of the civilians.
This recent announcement and the dispatching of the
SPLA troops to the Jonglei State had made the entire Lou
Nuer community to be very concerned about how this current
disarmament will successfully be carried out by the
government troops in Jonglei State. The ruling authority,
headed by President Kiir Mayardit and Dr. Riek
Machar has previously proposed the same type of
disarmaments but failed to collect arms in the hands of
Murle community. This unbalance, unplanned and inappropriate
disarmament with no clear plan has led into the death of
thousands of the Lou Nuer children in the hand of enemy
within Jonglei territories (internal enemy in Jonglei).
It worth to know that the Lou Nuer
Community has previously volunteered in two consecutive
disarmaments to hand over their weapons to the government
convincingly and peacefully while leaving the vulnerable
children, women and elderly in deplorable situation in the
hands of Murle rivals. This community at large had
acknowledged the atrocities carried by Murle while the
government that we trust so much had never put forth any
protection of our children. Murle SPLA defector members left
military garrisons in Juba and in Jonglei in a good numbers,
and yet the ruling party has never condemns this
inappropriate action taken by the Murle members. The Murle
SPLA defectors went to ambush many villages with heavy
machine guns that include RPG-77 and roped us off in front
of the government troops but none of the SPLA forces had
ever intervened to rescue our villagers or to bring back our
children and livestock. The same defectors always go back to
their assigned units (Military camps) in order to get
bullets and military supplies but yet the SPLA command unit
had never launch any investigation to those who left the
military camps and come back later, after months without any
permission.
As we speak today on March 9/2012,
Murle gunmen, partly SPLA army defectors, attacked the Lou
Nuer cattle Camps in Romyieri (cattle grazing
camps). They had killed innocent children and women randomly
at night; and stealing an estimate number of 20-25,000
cattle. Our Youth were deceived by the SPLA officers that
they should come back to Akobo town in order to meet with
the head authority for the disarmament arrangement; a call
that was meant to deceive them, and allow Murle Bushmen to
launch an attack after our young people left the cattle
camps. Since the Lou Nuer youth came back from the Murleland,
the number of attacks steadily increased in the Lou Nuer
areas while the government is pressuring the Lou Nuer not to
revenge. One may wonders why the government doesn’t prove
that it can indeed provide protection to this vulnerable
population after the pending disarmament.
For so long, the disarmament debate has
ignored the fact that Murle community members are not in
their home including the current Murle SPLA defectors who
killed our members with the SPLA guns and bullets. They
choose to go to bush in order to hunt our ordinary members
and the other communities’ members within Jonglei State.
This fact would have been used to assess and evaluate the
policy of disarmament, fairly and equally to avoid the
previous mistake. What is needed is a rights-based approach
to disarmament. Ensuring equal disarmament would result into
better understanding between the citizens and the ruling
authority but using inappropriate and unplanned disarmament
like the 2006 disarmament will post a greater challenge
afterward to the system and to the government as well. We do
not want the government to misunderstand our community’s
position. We understood the severity of insecurity in the
State and would not mind to volunteer once again to lay down
the weapons. But this will happen only if the government has
understands and put the plan forth to prevent the severity
of the ongoing daily killings of our community members by
the Murle SPLA defectors and Murle Bushmen.
In December 2011, the South Sudan
Government has sent its Vice President Dr. Riek Machar to
Lilkwangole with intention to disengage the Lou Nuer youth
who went to Murleland in order to bring their abducted
children, and stolen cattle back after 4 months of waiting
the government’s respond to our calls - reference to Uror
County’s Massacre. We tried to pursue peace and many options
through peace mediator; Rev Deng Bull whiles our
children and cattle were in the hands of Murlemen. Murle
community members rejected our peaceful call in front of the
faith community and spiritual leaders. What can we do when
in fact we had been patient while seeking justice through
negotiation for the peace to prevail? We know that the
government and its Vice President Dr. Riek Machar sincerely
careless for our community and perhaps for the Dinka Bor
communities but only worried for the Murle people. The Murle
are more important in Jonglei nowadays; and anything that
happen to them always forced the government and humanitarian
forces to response immediately. We hold our breath for so
long, and now we will not take such a risk any longer unless
if the Government put forth a clear plan and objective of
protecting our own properties and our children from the
Murle members.
We count on the government that it turns
blind eyes onto our community’s problems. Our Community has
the largest number of people that died between 2005 and 2012
than any other communities in South Sudan.
We have never witnessed the government to respond
positively to our community problems rather than simplifying
it. The best example of our claim was on
August 18/2011 in Uror County’s massacre, and Pieri massacre
when a large number of our community members were murdered
and slaughtered intentionally in daylight by a group of
Murle SPLA gunmen who dressed in SPLA uniforms.
Neither the Vice President Dr. Machar nor President
Kiir has visited our community particular when the members
were mourning for the death of their loved one. There was no
government emergency on the scene, no protection and there
were no Journalists or media reporters while the ruling
authority was well aware that they had disarmed our
community twice; and not the Murle community as per the
policy of the disarmament.
Basically, we could not have peace or an
atmosphere in which peace could grow in Jonglei unless the
government recognize the rights of the communities (Dinka
Bor, Nuer and Anyuak) to be protected from the enemy
(external and internal enemies). We could not always
exchange our life for negative peace in expense of the
government policy that does not care much about our
wellbeing. As a community that is desperately and peacefully
eager to live in peace with its neighbors, our youth has
respectfully and repeatedly listened to the Vice President’s
disengagement policy and calls. Our Lou Nuer youth had
agreed to return to the Lou Nuer land as requested by the
government during December dispute, with particular proposed
agreement between Riek Machar and the Youth in Lilkwangole.
We thought that the government is the mother of the
society, and it should not lie to its own people or give
unfulfilled promises.
The Vice President has promised the Lou
Nuer Youth that they should return back to the Lou Nuer land
immediately with promise that the government will bring all
cattle and the 180 children from the Murle community.
Now, where is the Vice President’s promise to Lou
Nuer Youth in Lilkwangole? The Lou Nuer Youth’s anticipated
attack to Lilkwangole was meant to bring back our own cattle
and 180 children. Where is Dr. Riek Machar promise that Lou
Nuer’s belongings including their abducted children will be
brought after them by the government?
Where is Dr. Marial’s promise when he told the Aljazeera
English News that “the Government is going to compensate
anything the three communities had lost due to war between
them?” Where is the security protection that he promised to
“protect women, children and elderly in both communities?”
We haven’t see and will never see any protection in Lou Nuer
land. We only witnessed that the government is humbly caring
for the welfare and the security of Murle children, women
and elderly while providing them with enough food to hunt
our communities.
The Murle community members always leave
in a day light, in front of the SPLA forces but the SPLA
leadership have never warned our community that the Murle
are going to attack you. Recently, we
have heard that the Murle community had rejected the Murle
elders and the SPLA proposal in Lilkwangole and choose to go
to the bush in good numbers. This resulted to the current
attacks in Romyieri’s three cattle camps. This is reference
to the recent Murle activities that the State government had
witnessed. Is this government for all or it is for half
community in Jonglei? We certainly
caution the fact that Operation to Restore Peace in Jonglei
will not be able to control the Murle community members.
This is simply because their gunmen are currently scattered
throughout the bush in the Lou Nuer territories and the
Dinka-Bor land as well; launching massive attacks on
innocent people everywhere.
Counter attacks
began in Lou Nuer territories since January, and it
continues until these days of March, 9/2012. One of the
attacks, which claimed the lives of 13 people, occurred in
Yiedit and Ulang. Four women, two of whom were nursing
babies and two others were pregnant, were recently killed by
the Murle gunmen in Nyirol County. They killed 19 people in
Gatnyanhial of the Akobo West, and 22 people in Dengjok
payam of Akobo East. During the Wechdeang attack, by army
defectors from Waat Army base, 17 people were killed. The
most recent attacks were carried out on March 2, 2012 in
Nyirol County and claimed the lives of 23 people and the
latest in Romyeiri that claimed an untold number of
casualties carried out by three groups:
Murle, Kachipos and Jiah.
Again, we wanted to reiterate that all these attacks took
place after the troop deployment in the state. Is this the
sign of things to come in the Lou Nuer land after they hand
down their guns? In all the above attacks, no government
protection, no media or journalists’ report, and no
humanitarian emergency supports from the State government
and the government in Juba as well.
Having expressed our deepest regret and
serious concerns, our community is strongly disagreed with
the government’s proposed disarmament without deployment of
alternative forces that can protect the lives of Jonglei
residents after their guns are taken. The
mere disarmament proposal will automatically place the life
of Lou Nuer and various Jonglei Communities’ members at risk
in the hands of Murle Bushmen and warmongers. South Sudan
government must understand the seriousness of our concerns
that, if Murle Community is not completely disarm first we
will continue to live in uncontrollable insecurity in
Jonglei state and this will allow the disarmed members to
seek an alternative ways of protecting themselves.
The government must first define the real needs of
the Murle Community before launching Disarmament in Lou Nuer
and other communities in Jonglei State.
We want to make it crystal clear that
Murle problem in Jonglei State is not only affecting the Lou
Nuer community, but it also affects the Dinka Bor community
as well as the Anuak. We all need to see a successful
disarmament plan in place but for it to happen; Murle
Community must completely be disarmed first before any other
Community in Jonglei State or in South Sudan in general.
This is due to the evidence that Lou Nuer or Dinka
Bor youth never go to Murle to kill Murle people randomly or
stealing their cattle. The Murle youth are the one to attack
our communities first and that is why we strongly
recommended their community to be disarmed first before the
others follow. For the successful disarmament operation to
happen in Jonglei, the government must do the following:
Ø
The government
troops in the state should create a buffer zone now before
the disarmament so that these daily killings can stop. No
trust can be built when civilians are dying every day. Allow
6 months grace period to evaluate the effectiveness of the
buffer zones. If no attack occurs within these 6 months
grace period, then a voluntary disarmament would commence.
Ø
During this grace
period, the government and UN troops should provide
immediate protection to the civilians across the Lou Nuer
land as being done to the Murle communities. It should be
noted that since the December attack, there has not been a
single attack in any of the Murle villages from the Lou Nuer.
Ø
Deploy SPLA
forces within the counties of Jonglei to protect the
communities from the attackers after their guns are taken
away from their hands.
Ø
Bring
the Murle SPLA defectors to Justice to face immediate
conviction and create a ground policy or rule for those who
may defect later to face the Justice, or army squad
immediately.
Ø
Provide three
Gunship Helicopters to the Operations to Restore Peace in
Jonglei, so to monitor the movement between the rival
communities in the entire Jonglei State.
Ø
Bring our 180
children and cattle as promised by the country’s Vice
President to the Lou Nuer Youth in Lilkwangole.
Subsequently, the Lou Nuer Community has
understood the severity of Security negligent that the South
Sudan government has done to them. We completely understand
that none peace lovers including the Government of South
Sudan have aggressively defamed or tarnished the reputation
of our community. For so long the South
Sudan government has used all means to upstage the attention
of the world media from all malicious acts done to our
community by our neighboring Murle Community. The government
has disarmed Lou Nuer twice and promised to protect them,
but dramatically failed to do so which ended to the loss of
many lives in our community.
We have noticed that the South Sudan
Government has intentionally prohibited the media and
journalists to accessing all the areas attacked, including
all massacred carried on since August 18th 2011
by the Murle gunmen who dressed in SPLA army uniforms. If
the government is for all and for the people, then equal
consideration of both communities should be seen in
government policy reference to their promises and delivery
of the services. We must and should not live in shadow of
the government that does not care much for our community’s
wellbeing. The government always tried to convince us that
the state authority will design a plan that will address our
claim but until these days, all the promises they had made
are nothing but lies.
They had promised to bring back our 180
children from Murle land and until these days, there has
never been any news either to bring the children or not. We
would like to assure the government that we are an entity to
the government and we deserve to be protected by the
government. Failure to protect our lives, and if the ruling
party is still down-playing our peaceful calls as usual, we
must legally appeal and seek an international opinion or the
international justice against the ruling government because
the country’s leadership had totally failed to protect our
lives, our properties and our children from the Murle
community while restricting us not to launch an attack
against the Murle in order to bring back our children and
cattle.
Finally we wanted to remind the
government that the guns they kept collecting from the hands
of the Lou Nuer Youth are bought by individual; using
his/her own cattle/resources in order to protect his family
and properties from the enemy. The government collected guns
in the hands of our youth twice without compensations.
When our youth see that the government is not
protecting their children from the Murle, our youth find an
alternative ways to use their resources in order to buy guns
only for community protection because the government failed
to protect our lives or enforce laws against the violators.
Now if the government wanted to collect guns again, that is
fine but we strongly caution the government that all guns
must be collected in the hands of Murle Youth who are in
bush. As soon as progress is noticing, our Lou Nuer youth
will lay down their weapons to the government peacefully
without any opposition.
We would like to conclude it with our
respective views that the Government of South Sudan is
responsible for the causes; and existence of insecurity in
Jonglei State. We had been deceived, thinking that the
Government is for all people and not in favor of certain
communities. We tried harder to approach our partners
through peaceful dialogue but the government have never back
up our peace negotiation and dialogue where the root cause
of the problem should be addressed. We hope to live and
build a peaceful Jonglei State, a far
better State when in fact the dignity and the rights of all
communities in Jonglei are respected. We have rights to
nurture our children and our children have basic rights to
be nurtured by us; the biological fathers. Anything that
aims to destabilize our cultural rights, our natural rights
and dignity must not be accepted and it will be opposed
radically or peacefully. We love peace and always willing to
accept peace whenever the Government start showing fairness,
offer endless protections and respond efficiently to an
emergency situation in our communities. We ended up with the
quote below that represents the stand of our community
“Peace is more than just the absence of
war. People everywhere seek an inner peace that comes from
the right to voice their views, choose their leaders, feed
their families, and raise healthy children” (Jimmy Carter)
Signed by:
Lou Nuer Media Group
(Diaspora)
Contact Lou Nuer
Media Group
Lounuermediateam@gmail.com
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