JONGLEI: One girl killed, another tortured for bridegroom against their family Article Comments (5) Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By John Actually March 1, 2011 (BOR) – An 18 year old girl from Kolnyang payam (district) in the south of Bor county, is reported dead and another girl aged 19 has serious injuries. They were subjected to brutal torture for choosing a bridegroom against their parents’ will, on 28 February. Agot Ngong Okha, showing her wounds after she was beaten, Bor private clinic, 1 March 2011 (ST) The murdered girl, Akoey Madol Alier Barach, is said to have chosen and escaped with a man who her parents did not approve of because he has no cows or biological parents. Bride price in Dinka communities ranges from 30 to 300 heads of cattle, depending on the economic situation of the groom and the region. Recently this has become commercialised by some parents who ask their son-in-law to pay the bride price in money, with one cow generally represented by SDG1,000 (US$320). In traditional Dinka culture, marrying a poor man whose parents are dead or divorced and are not involved in their son’s life is rare. Agot Ngong Okha, who survived the torture with serious injuries, told Sudan Tribune that they were ordered to lay down, naked, by brothers and cousins, before receiving strokes with a traditional cow hide triple twisted lash. Both of them were beaten by two people at once between 10.00pm and 12 midnight. Akoey Barach passed away the following morning. According to Total, an eye witnesses in Malual Agorbaar, ten miles away from Bor town, on the Juba-Bor road, where the incident happened, the late Akoey Barach escaped with her husband to be, on 19 February. She was accompanied by her sister, Agot Ngong, and spent a week in hiding, before they were traced on 25 February. Although warned against it, Akoey Barach returned to the man she wanted to marry. The marriage was rejected and she brought home on 27 February by a group of young men, including her brother who now claims that the two partners are related. Father to the dead girl, Madol Alier Barach, beat his daughter for violating his orders and ordered his sons and his cousins to continue punishing her. Agot Ngong Okha narrated the event to Sudan Tribune at a private clinic in Bor where she received her medical help, "I got a call when I was about to eat. They forced me to move where Akoey was and ordered us to remove all clothes and lay us flat on the ground with face down. Four people, two with each of us, came with ropes, one on each side and begin to beat us. After about 30 minutes, blood was flowing all over the body but no one cared. I tried my best to escape but they caught me after some minutes. They continued beating us till we were unconscious. I recovered and Akoey died the following morning, yesterday". "After beating us, they told us to sit naked on cow dung ashes on the floor, for investigations, but no way could sit because the maimed buttocks were bleeding continuously and to them, that was another way of violating their orders", Agot Ngong continued. The body was brought to Bor Civil Hospital on Monday, 28 February for autopsies by a human rights group and forensic pathologist, Dr. Abdel Omer Odiel, who found that death was caused by neck fractures. The father to the girl who survived with injuries told Sudan Tribune that his daughter was cruelly beaten against his will, saying the people responsible must be arrested to face justice. The state police, backed up by a human rights group arrested the father of the dead girl and his son on the 1 March. Many murder cases over marriage disputes have been reported in South Sudan in states like Lakes state and Warrap state in recent times. ( ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
