---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2012 13:27:13 +0300 Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Rebel Group Threatens to Reignite Ethnic War To: Group <[email protected]>
1. South Sudan Rebel Group Threatens to Reignite Ethnic War By Jared Ferrie - Oct 31, 2012 1:05 PM GMT+0300 A new South Sudanese rebel group is threatening to reignite violence in Jonglei state where at least 1,600 people died in ethnic clashes last year, according to the United Nations and Archbishop Daniel Deng. A 3,000-member militia led by David Yau Yau, a former theology student and candidate for governor, has killed at least 100 government troops since August, the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, a research group, said in a report today. South Sudan’s army said 24 of its soldiers died in an Aug. 23 ambush. “If the David Yau Yau group splits out and begins to attack other communities, then that is very dangerous,” Deng, who leads a government-appointed committee to negotiate peace among rival ethnic groups, said in an Oct. 26 interview. The violence in Jonglei, an eastern state bordering Ethiopia where Total SA (FP) has a stake in an oil exploration concession, has marred South Sudan’s year-old independence from the north. The authorities in Juba, the capital, accused Sudan of airdropping weapons to the militia within sight of a UN peacekeeping mission post in Pibor County on Sept. 22. UN million spokesman Kouider Zerrouk said that while peacekeepers saw a “white, fixed-wing aircraft” drop as many as eight packages, the UN couldn’t identify the contents or who dropped them. Sudan’s army has denied supporting Yau Yau or any rebel group in South Sudan. UN Concern The UN Mission in South Sudan, which has about 130 peacekeepers in Pibor County, is “increasingly concerned” that violent incidents believed to be carried out by Yau Yau’s militia and aligned armed youth who have avoided disarmament “constitute a threat to the peace process,” Zerrouk said in an e-mailed response to questions on Oct. 29. Army spokesman Colonel Kella Dual Kueth said Yau Yau’s militia attacked two towns in Pibor County on Oct. 29, killing a woman and a child. “It was random shelling,” he said. Kueth dismissed the threat from Yau Yau, saying that “he has just a small group, and we will find him and deal with him.” The militia attacked a home in Akobo County on Oct. 25, wounding four people, Simon Duoth, commissioner of neighboring Uror County, said the following day in an interview in Yuai, the county capital. Abuses committed by the government’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army, or SPLA, in a campaign to disarm the warring Murle and Lou Nuer ethnic groups helped Yau Yau, a Murle, to recruit fighters, according to Jonah Leff, author of the Small Arms Survey report. New York-based Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have said they documented widespread abuses including rape, beatings and torture in Pibor County. ‘Curb Violations’ “For many Murle, the principal enemy is no longer the Lou Nuer but the SPLA,” according to the Small Arms Survey report. Human Rights Watch, in an Aug. 23 statement, said the “authorities have not taken sufficient steps to curb the violations or hold abusive soldiers accountable.” Zerrouk said the government has taken some action to address the allegations, including making arrests in rape cases and recalling units involved in the abuses. Small Arms Survey said the UN mission has “failed to carry out its mandate to protect civilians in the face of widespread SPLA abuses” and hasn’t sufficiently lobbied the government to change the army’s behavior. Zerrouk rejected the allegation, saying the mission raised its concerns with the army and that failure to bring perpetrators of abuses to justice risks undermining efforts to disarm communities in Jonglei and make peace between them. Army spokesman Kueth denied the allegations of abuse, saying they are “not true.” Restore Peace Because the disarmament campaign, known was Operation Restore Peace, was largely successful in taking weapons away from the Lou Nuer tribe and most of the Murle, local officials fear Yau Yau’s militia could run rampant. “I’m worried because I know that the whole population has been disarmed,” said Duoth, the Uror County commissioner. Leff, in an Oct. 28 e-mailed response to questions, said such attacks could spark a tribal arms race. “Since Yau Yau has brought a new influx of weapons into Murleland, Lou Nuer youth have started rearming in preparation for a newly armed Murle attack,” he said in an Oct. 28 e-mailed response to questions. END1 2. 'My Neighbour, My Enemy: Inter-tribal Violence in Jonglei' by HSBA Project Coordinator Jonah Leff, 31/10/12 Inter-tribal violence involving the Lou Nuer, Murle, and to a lesser extent the Dinka, escalated in 2009 and has become increasingly violent. Underlying causes include persistent lack of services, increased competition over natural resources, and the erosion of traditional leadership structures and the unspoken rules of cattle raiding. An influx of weapons to insurgent groups in Jonglei after 2010 has exacerbated tensions. Local- and national-level politicians have manipulated the conflict for personal and political gain, while Jonglei-based militia groups have provided weapons to tribal fighters to further their own agendas. This Issue Brief reviews the root causes and impacts of inter-tribal violence in Jonglei between the Lou Nuer and Murle since 2009, with a special focus on attacks by the Lou Nuer throughout Pibor county in December 2011 and January 2012. It assesses efforts by policymakers, church leaders, and others to address the problem. Key findings include: Inter-tribal conflict in Jonglei state has escalated and grown increasingly violent since 2009. Attacks are ethnically driven and aim not only to loot cattle, but also to kill and abduct women and children and destroy homes and communal facilities. The Lou Nuer attacks in Pibor county in December 2011 and January 2012 were the deadliest inter-tribal clashes since a 1991 Nuer attack on the state capital, Bor. The size of the attacking Lou Nuer force, numbering up to 8,000 fighters, was unprecedented. The emergence of rebel militias in Jonglei state in 2010, notably the groups led by George Athor and David Yau Yau, has provided a steady supply of small arms and ammunition to tribal groups. A significant majority of the weapons supplied originate from Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) stocks, though the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) has, both systematically and on an individual basis, supplied arms and ammunition to Jonglei communities. The economic and political marginalization of the Lou Nuer and Murle, the erosion of traditional leadership, increased competition over land and resources, and political exploitation have exacerbated traditional inter-tribal rivalries. The Murle are particularly marginalized, both politically and socially. In late November and early December 2011, the GoSS and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan received early warnings of an imminent Lou Nuer attack, but they were unable to take adequate preventive measures. The current SPLA-led civilian disarmament campaign, which has yielded more than 11,000 weapons, has helped prevent further large-scale attacks but does not address the root causes of the conflict. Soldiers conducting the campaign have committed rapes, torture, and killings—mostly against Murle communities—deepening Murle distrust of the SPLA. David Yau Yau’s rebellion in Pibor county, which re-emerged in mid-2012, has capitalized on disaffection among Murle communities. Available online at: http://www.smallarmssurveysudan.org/fileadmin/docs/issue-briefs/HSBA-IB21-Inter-tribal_violence_in_Jonglei.pdf END2 3. South Sudan army suspends disarmament operation in Pibor to hunt rebels October 30, 2012 (JUBA) - South Sudan has decided to cease conducting civilian disarmament operation activities in Jonglei’s Pibor County, instructing the army to take “sweeping measures” to clear the area of rebels, multiple senior military officers and top-level government officials said on Tuesday. The decision to suspend hunting for illicit arms held by civilians in Pibor County was necessitated by increased attacks rebels loyal to David Yau Yau, a militia leader who has been fighting the army (SPLA) in the area on and off since April 2010. Major General Butrous Bol Bol, told Sudan Tribuneon Tuesday that the disarmament operation’s commander "has received instructions from the [SPLA] general headquarters to suspend the disarmament program in Pibor County. The reason for suspension is the existence of David Yauyau militia group in the area.” Bol, who commands the SPLA’s division eight in Jonglei, responsible for provision and protection of lives and properties of citizens in the area, said that the move will allow the army to concentrate on its fight to contain rebel activities in the area. The senior officer added that “a notification” alerting the local population about the SPLA’s has been issued so it does not cause “panic”. “Local authorities, particularly the Pibor County Commissioner [Joshua Konyi Irer] has been informed. He will in turn pass this information to chiefs and the general population about it and now armed groups found in the area will have to explain themselves”, he said. The general said that Pibor was becoming "a front-line" for rebel activities, calling on civilian population to cooperate with the army in providing information about rebel activities. “Yauyau is not only fighting the army but also killing civilians. So he is actually becoming an enemy of the whole country. He has been attacking SPLA positions ever since he started his rebellion”, he said. In April this year Yauyau rebelled for a second time having joined the SPLA in 2011 having originally taken up arms against South Sudan’s ruling party - the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) after elections - in April 2010 when, as an independent candidate, he lost his campaign to represent the Gumuruk–Boma constituency in Pibor County at the Jonglei State Assembly. The SPLM candidate, Judy Jokongole, won the race by a wide margin according to electoral authorities. Before his failed election bid Yauyau studied theology in Southern Sudan and Kenya and then served as the Pibor County secretary of the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission in Jonglei. Yauyau hails from the Murle ethnic group, which is based in Pibor County where he carried out most of his activities during his first rebellion. A report from the Sudan Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) of the Small Arms Survey said last year that Yauyau’s initial rebellion may have been more about internal Murle politics than electoral grievances. The Murle, Luo Nuer, and Dinka as well as some other tribes in Jonglei were involved in series of raids and counter raids for cattle, bounty and revenge that escalated dramatically at the turn of the year, displacing over 100,000 people. A disarmament campaign has been underway in Jonglei since mid-March involving 15,000 SPLA soldiers and police in an attempt to disarm the civilian population. In the past disarmament campaigns have entrenched the Murle’s disaffection with the SPLM and SPLA and their perception that they are marginalised at a national level, according to the a 2011 by the Small Arms Survey research group. The report 2011 said: "Murle discontent and general insecurity in Pibor county have proved to be fertile ground for such a revolt, and the area is one where the SPLA has failed to assert and extend its authority, beyond the conduct of brutal disarmament campaigns that have served to stoke local discontent." At the time of Yauya’s second rebellion the SPLA’s spokesperson Philip Aguer said that the rebel group would have no meaningful effect on South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in July 2011. Since independence in July 2011 Juba has repeatedly claimed that Khartoum backs southern rebels in an attempt to destabilise the young nation. Unlike other figures who led insurrections after the 2010 elections Yauyau was a civilian and not a member of the army before his rebellion - although when he reconciled with Juba in 2011 he was given the position of General in the SPLA. (ST) http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article44375 END3 ______________________ John Ashworth Sudan, South Sudan Advisor [email protected] +254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile) +211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile) +27 82 050 1235 (South Africa mobile) +44 750 304 1790 (UK/international) +88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone) PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisation -- -- The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group. 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