EAST AFRICAN
September 22 - September 28, 1999
Slain Sudanese Warlord Mourned by His 10 Wives
A JOINT REPORT
TO SOME, Sudanese warlord Major-General Kerubino Kuanyin Bol was a psychotic killer. But to his 10 wives and dozens of children, he was a loving husband and father who provided for their every need.
Bol, 51, thought to have fired the first shot in Sudans 16-year civil war, was killed last week in a mutiny by a disaffected commander of the Sudan People's Liberation Front.
His death was greeted with delight by aid workers who said he was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in his home province of Bahr el Ghazal in a brutal three-year terror campaign.
They also blame him for last years famine in which at least 60,000 people who had fled his militia died of starvation and disease.
But at his large home in an exclusive Nairobi estate last week, his wives wept and embraced as they prepared goat, chicken and vats of rice for his funeral service.
A group of some of his four dozen children sat and watched satellite television, while the older ones helped unload crates of beer from the back of a truck.
"My father was a brave man. He fought a lot but he taught us how to respect other people and to love other people," said Bols eldest son, 24-year-old Malang Kerubino, who was educated in Cuba alongside the sons of rebel leaders from all over the world.
"Some people said they hated him but politics is a very dirty game.
His family and supporters said they were convinced that Bol was assassinated but by whom they had yet to determine.
Bol swapped sides several times in Sudans civil war -- which in its broadest terms pits the Islamist government against Christian and animist rebels in the south.
When he died he was on poor terms with both the government and the main rebel group the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA).
"We are sure he was assassinated," said Commander Amon Wantuk. "But we have yet to determine the facts. He could be a victim of various conspiracies."
The privately-owned Al-Sahafa newspaper quoted Mr Mohamed al-Amin, secretary of the political affairs department in the ruling National Islamic Salvation Front, as saying Bol, 51, had been killed by the forces of renegade commander Peter Gadiet.
Mr Amin said neither the Sudanese Islam-based government nor Matip had any hand in Bols death.
Bol was one of the founders of the SPLA, which has been fighting the government since 1983 for political and religious freedom for the mainly Christian and animist people of the south.
But, like other rebel commanders, he changed sides several times. For three years he held sway over his home region of northern Bahr el-Ghazal. .
After a long stint on the government side, Bol switched allegiance again in January 1998, briefly seizing Wau, the main town in Bahr el-Ghazal, from government forces.
Bol never regained the trust of SPLA leader John Garang and last year was accused of plotting to assassinate him in Nairobi.
The chubby, bespectacled Bol never far from his silver-topped shooting stick had kept a low profile in recent months and sought refuge in the home of Matip, in the neighbouring southern province of Western Upper Nile.
Maj-Gen Bol's death brings to an end the life of a man who was an important factor, both positive and negative, in the liberation struggle of the people of south Sudan against the oppression and domination of the regime in Khartoum.
The name of the then Major in the Sudanese army, Kerubino Kuanyin Bol, first came to prominence in southern Sudan when he fired and shot the first bullet against the regime of Gaafar Mohammed Nimeri in Bor town on May 16,1983.
The circumstance of Maj-Gen Bol's death are reflective of the intricacies of the politics of liberation in south Sudan and the power struggle that has marred it since the inception of the Movement. It may not be possible at this stage to count him among the fallen heroes of the struggle for freedom and independence in south Sudan. This is because, apart from the fact that he fell on the wrong side, more often than not he had been responsible for many disruptions which cumulatively retarded the cause of liberation.
Maj-Gen Bol was the deputy of Col Dr John Garang de Mabior until July 1987, when he was arrested and detained for insubordination and administrative indiscipline. He remained in detention until his escape from jail in late 1992.
In March 1993, Maj-Gen Bol and his group of ex-political detainees, the late William Nyuon Bany and his splinter group known as SPLM/A Forces of Unity and Democracy and Riek Machar's SPLM/A Nasir faction (named after Nasir town where the failed coup to oust Garang was staged in August 1991), coalesced to form what was then known as SPLM/A-United.
Maj-Gen Bol was not only a very controversial personality; he precipitated a political crisis at the level of the Movement's leadership resulting in his re-defection back to the NIF regime engineered by the regime's agents in Nairobi.
In October 1998, the Muthangari Police Station in Nairobi witnessed a shootout between supporters of Maj-Gen Bol and Dr Garang resulting in the death of one person
When the dust of the Nairobi episode settled and things started to move again, Maj-Gen Bol had relocated to Mankien, where he was hosted by Maj-General Paulino Matip and where he met his death last week.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
