Who should own the land, the People or the Government? By: Lok Franco Kok, South Sudan MAR. 02/2011, SSN; As an obvious projection area of potential social conflicts, the complex and emotional land question has the potential to create or even deepen tribal and regional mistrust and hatred.
Though rather prominent, the land question is only one aspect of various inherited inequalities and that includes the overall need for a redistribution of wealth. In other words, land would not especially be distributed or entrusted to those directly affected by land-grabbing, but to all historically disadvantaged citizens. South Sudan debate on land should be determined by two different lines of argumentation: equality and justice on the one hand, and the productivity of the agricultural sector on the other. The government could concentrated greatly for an accelerated land acquisition program to redress the racial imbalance in land ownership. However, land and resettlement policies are merely silent on the fate of workers on farms and pastorals that have been expected by the State for redistribution. The citizen interests are the government priority. The land issue became the main cause of tribal conflicts throughout South Sudan. Some tribes believe that their land was grabbed by other tribes during the civil war and they demanded it back. In early 19th century, some tribes started immigrating from their places of origin and occupied the land of their neighboring tribes due to some factors such as diseases-outbreaks and lack of proper agricultural and grazing land. That early immigration caused a lot of movement between tribes, which however made a firm co-existence between the tribes. The signing of peace agreement changed everything. The people whose land was occupied by others during the past wanted their land back, and that made the situation worse. Although widely opposed by grassroots tribal members, the government should draw boundaries between tribes to minimize the tensions. Appalling, outrageous, incredibly arrogant, and unbelievable! These are words that come to my mind as I hear once again the land problem raised for the second time in Upper Nile town of Obel. Obel is a Payam headquarters of Panyiduay, under Panyikang county in upper Nile, situated at the north of Sobat river. During the war time, people came from different areas of Jonglei and inhabited the area. Humanitarian organizations gave food and NFI to them as they were considered IDPs. The majority of the inhabitants are from Lou-Nuer who are truly from Jonglei State. They inhabited the area together with the locals villagers. No problems arosed all those years between these two sub-clans until the signing of the peace. After the signing of CPA in 2005, many people started going back to their places of origins as the war came to an end but they didn't move back for one reason or another. Meanwhile, the state government failed to find a solution either to bring them to Malakal town or transport them back to Jonglei as the security situation was calm throughout the South. An ironic sidelight on this was precisely brought to my attention when I heard that the settled IDPs are claiming to own Obel to become a payam under their authority. It was not new to hear something like this in Upper Nile State and northern part of Jonglei. In January 2009, there was a tribal clash between Shilluk and Dinka Ngok over the ownership of Malakal town which claimed the lives of hundreds of people. A similar incident happened in Fangak last year between Jagei Nuer (Laak) and Dinka Rut, and the government failed to take instant action to resolve the problems. Another problem encountered in the scheme relates to the sustainability of water supplies as many tribes are residing in vast dry areas remote from water points. During the dry season, these people started immigrating to the riverside to get sufficient water for their livestock. Inevitably, conflicts happen when those residing at the riverside prevent the movement of those pastoralists to the riverside. That also is the dark side of the story which many people do not pay any attention to and seem to be among the causes of tribal conflicts. The ongoing tribal conflicts has stalled the implementation of decentralization measures. Security concerns prevent government institutions from functioning effectively in certain areas and hamper participation in activities of local governing bodies. Not only do tribal disputes impede proper development on a county or Payam level, but they also extend out of the tribal frame to reach the state and these can lead to substantial economic, social and political losses. To address the problems of land disputes, the government should interact when any land related incident occurred. Furthermore, citizens of the affected areas are increasingly suffering from these land-related chaos. The political atmosphere in the first decade of independence will be very highly tense and should be the main issue which the Government needs to address what is known as the “crisis of high expectations” on the part of the majority for basic needs such as education, health, roads and land. This could explain why it is important for the New-born Nation to put forward considerable plans on these basic social services and focus its early efforts on solving these land-related issues to calm down the security situation within the civil society. The writer resides in South Sudan and reachable through:[email protected] -- 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.
