South Sudan army threatens to “kill Jonglei raiders”
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May 1, 2012 (BOR) – South Sudan’s army (SPLA) said it is considering
killing raiders who abduct or murder women and children in Jonglei
State as a disarmament campaign in the state concludes and peace
initiatives begin.
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chiefs who attended the peace conference in Bor, May 1, 2012
Community leaders are currently meeting in Bor, the capital of Jonglei
State, as part of efforts to find peacefully settlement to cattle
rustling and inter-communal violence in the state.
The commander of the 15,000 strong SPLA disarmament forces in Jonglei,
Gen. Kuol Diem Kuol told political and traditional leaders that “this
peace conference is the last chance” for restoring peace through
dialogue.
“The SPLA will not allow killing of children to continue. SPLA will
starting killing raiders if these acts continue,” Gen. Kuol said to
ululations from women attending the five day peace, tolerance and
reconciliation meeting.
“I want this conference to decide a solution to these [children and
women killings and abduction] or the SPLA will use force against
raiders,” Gen. Kuol added.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir appointed a 23 member peace committee
in January when inter-communal violence peaked in Jonglei State.
Over 1,000 people died and over 100,000 people were displaced by the
conflict in 2011. Cattle raiding, child abduction and indiscriminate
killings have characterised the fighting between pastoralist
communities in Jonglei state but the casualties have increased due to
illegal arms left over from the two-decade Sudanese civil that ended
in 2005 with peace accord.
Jonglei State governor Kuol Manyang told the participants that
development has been halted in Jonglei “because investors are scared
by this violence.” Governor Kuol says he is “ashamed” by the behaviour
of his people and urged leaders to reach a peaceful settlement to what
he called “criminal acts.”
The latest incident where three people were killed, occurred on Monday
in Anyidi of Bor county, a day before peace conference commences in
Bor. The attack was on a car travelling to Pibor county from Bor.
Gen. Kuol says the SPLA forces will remain in Jonglei State “as long
as there continue to be threat to disarmed communities.”
Expectations are high for peaceful settlement of the crisis from
delegates but traditional chiefs maintain that the government should
arrest suspected criminals or any accord signed on Saturday may come
and go like other agreements.
The roundtable meeting, chaired by Archbishop Daniel Deng, gave each
group in Jonglei State - including the Murle, Nuer, Jie, Anuak ,
Kachipo and Dinka Bor - time to present issues causing insecurity,
propose solutions and receive reactions from other delegates.
PRAYERS FOR PEACE
As part of opening prayers, Bishop Rajaf Diocese in Central Equartoria
State, Enock Tombe, began with a verse from the Bible and asked
Jonglei’s criminals to stop their criminal activities and accept peace
into their hearts.
The Archbishop asked the conference to present Jonglei’s problems
before God so that the people live in peace.
“It is evil plan that make our people to kill themselves. We will ask
God to destroy the Satan in us”, said the Deng.
Governor Manyang told the delegates representing the six ethnic tribes
in Jonglei to join hands and work towards restoring peace in the
conflict torn state.
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Kuol Manyang speaking at the conference in South Sudan Hotel in Bor,
May 1 2012, ST photo
Manyang said lots of people were killed, injured or abducted in the
last eleven months. “In the last 11 months, very many were killed
using guns, many children were abducted, and many others were injured.
Over 4,000 people died in the conflict”, said Manyang. The UN say that
1,000 were killed in 2011 but dispute the high figures given by some
officials of the number of deaths so far this year.
He said Jonglei had held lots of peace conferences since 2006 that had
not been productive, including one in Fangak County and Gumuk Payam of
Pibor County which had no significant outcome.
Manyang challenged head of families, chiefs and commissioners for
failing to end raiding and child abduction in their areas.
“If your son brings cattle or a child to your home, why cannot you ask
him where he got cattle or a child from? And you chief, what is your
role in this? Were you selected so that should keep quite when your
people kill others?"
Manyang continued saying “Peace will never come if we don’t respect
the others and their properties”.
He urged the people to accept their mistake in the conference so that
they join hands together in peace.
“The live we are in now is bad. There is nobody who will bring peace
to our state except you”, he added.
“10,028 ARMS COLLECTED IN JONGLEI,” SAYS SPLA
Jonglei’s conflicts are fueled by the illegal arms possessed by
civilians causing that the president of South Sudan to order a
comprehensive disarmament campaign in Jonglei which started in mid
February.
The head of disarmament in Jonglei State, General Kuol Diem Kuol
reported during the conference that his forces have collected the guns
from all the communities in Jonglei.
He said the army and axillary forces have collected a total of 10,028
forearms including 30 PKM machine guns, 10 RPG7 launchers.
“You cannot use PKM to kill you brother, instead of using it on the
national enemy. RPG7 is for destroying tanks and not people”, he
advised.
CHALLENGES DURING DISARMAMENT
General Kuol accused some Murle youth of resisting the disarmament by
running away from their communities to avoid the army.
“When SPLA entered Pibor Land, the your of Murle ran to Dinka, Nuer,
Anuak and places and hide in the bushes”, he said.
He said the many youth of Murle had not surrendered their arms.
According to the last report, made by SPLA, only 645 arms were
collected in Pibor County.
He said the bad roads network is another big challenge in Jonglei as
the forces are compelled to move on foot to places to where people
are.
Kuol said 52 attacks occurred since the disarmament started in
Jonglei. Out of 52 attacks, 51 attacks were carried out by Murle and
only one was done by some element in Bor on Murle, according to Kuol.
He said, Murle armed groups had attacked the SPLA seven times in Pibor
and conducted 17 attacks on the Dinka Bor Counties of Bor, Twice East
and Duk, 15 attacks on Akobo and Waat of Uror Counties, 5 times on Jie
Communities and 7 times on Anuak and once on themselves when a lorry
was attacked killing three and injuring one on Monday April 30.
SPLA CALLS FOR RETURN OF ABDUCTED CHILDREN
General Kuol asked the conference to work hard to bring all the
abducted children and women to their families.
He said the SPLA has collected 31 children from the hands of Murle
abductors and were returned them to their families. He said SPLA still
holds three girls [from Akobo County] who were recently brought from
the hands of the criminals and are yet to be handed over to the
commissioner of Akobo to reunite them with their families.
Kuol said the Army will continue searching for guns in Jonglei till no
more guns are in the hands of civilians.
He said the most of the SPLA are now deployed in remote areas to
protect the civilians from raids and abductions.
(ST)
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