Ma’di in Diaspora urge government to stop illegal land grabbing in South Sudan
Monday 27 October 2008 09:11.
A Statement from the Ma’di Community in Diaspora on the Illegal Land Grabbing
and Sale in Nimule by SPLA Commanders and their Associates.
October 25, 2008 — When factionalism raised its ugly head, wreaking havoc in
Upper Nile and was threatening to rip apart the peoples movement in the 1990s,
we the members of the Ma’di community, felt that we could not just stand idly
by and watch our fellow countrymen and women being savagely brutalised by our
own people. We kindly opened our doors to all, especially the Dinka Bor, who
were fleeing from the carnage being visited upon them in Upper Nile. We shared
whatever little we had with them before the international community could come
to their aid. We allowed them to settle freely among us, without any
restrictions. We did all these, as any good neighbour would, without any second
thoughts because it is in our nature to do so: lend a helping hand to all in
their hour of need, expecting nothing in return except good neighbourliness.
Was it naive of us to expect good neighbourliness in return? So it seems. Of
late, our legendary patience has been stretched to its very limits by what we
can only define as a well-orchestrated series of disturbing and harrowing
experiences- lacking in all traits of good neighbourliness. Our well-meaning
act of hospitality has been thrown right back into our face by reckless
utterances and callous activities from some of our fellow citizens who we
shielded at their hour of need. More worryingly, for us, is the increasingly
provocative behaviour of our security forces whose actions suggest an alliance
with the IDPs against the local population – instead of being guarantors of
security to all. The latest of these provocative acts was unleashed on our
peace loving people on October 6th, 2008. It culminated in the death of one
person, a life-threatening injury to a woman, and a number of people being
beaten up and detained by the security forces, including
our community elders and leaders.
On the morning of October 6th 2008, the Ma’di community in Nimule awoke to find
some individuals of Somali origin fencing off a piece of land supposedly for
erecting a petrol station. Neither the local planning authority, nor the elders
of the community, or the chiefs had any prior knowledge. When a group of
concerned citizens approached these Somali trespassers, they were told that the
piece of land was being rented from a well placed military commander based in
Juba. They named Major General Wilson Deng Kouirot, as their linkman in Nimule.
The key particulars of the land grabbing and sale we find extremely disturbing
are:
The SPLA Officers in question have no legal rights to the land in question. On
the contrary, we expect them to be the custodians of the land, protecting it
from foreign occupation, instead of selling it, and worse of all to foreigners
– with the sole purpose of personal gains from the illicit proceedings.
By getting involved in this shady deal, grabbing and illegal sale of land,
these officers have shown not only total disregard to the legal owners of the
land but have brought to disrepute the good name of our national army, the
SPLA. They have further risked jeopardising a shaky inter-communal harmony for
personal gain of $600.00 per month – the monthly lease for the land according
to the Somali trespassers – not to mention a far larger amount of cash that
must have surely exchanged hands in greasing the deal. Whether these officers
deserve to continue wearing the SPLA uniform, is not for us to decide; that is
for their superiors in Juba to resolve.
To protect their illicit investment, these officers proceeded to deploy a group
of soldiers, entirely from one ethnic group, to confront the unarmed Nimule
citizens, who had gathered to find out what was happening. A number of the
citizens were beaten up by the security forces. Later under the cover of
darkness, the security forces rounded and picked up Ma’di elders. What we
cannot understand is how these commanders can be allowed to use our national
army, the SPLA to enforce their illegal personal deals.
Their next step was to impose a curfew, which offered them the perfect excuse
to legitimise the harassment and intimidation of our people. The security
forces as a result, whether in uniform or not, have the absolute right to stop
any member of the community, detain him or her, inspect his or her property –
often expecting to be bribed before the humiliation can come to an end. We
would like to know with who the power of imposing curfew lies; the civil
authority or the military?
The plot was supposedly for a petrol station, which was being located in a
densely populated area in direct contravention of basic international
standards. This total disregard to the well being and safety of the local
population, we find extremely disturbing, especially when perpetuated by the
people entrusted with the security of all of us. Even in the absence of
regulations, commonsense could at least dictate to us where and where not a
petrol station could be erected.
On the night of October 6th, 2008, Gonyo Lee, a promising artist from the
Olu’bo nation was gunned down in cold blood in Nimule by the gates of a lodge.
This was also the fateful night when the security forces imposed their curfew
in Nimule and were in total and full control of the town. What we cannot
understand is how such a murder could have taken place, with Nimule under dusk
to dawn curfew and under the watchful eyes of the security forces. For the
record, it must be made categorically clear that the Ma’di people are not
armed. There are only two categories of people who are armed in the whole of
Magwi County. They are either members of the security forces or the internally
displaced Dinka cattle keepers who can be spotted with guns – ostensibly to
protect their herds. Against who? We have no idea.
The first duty of any government is to offer security and protection to all its
citizens, be it from internal or external aggression. The GOSS seems to have
earned itself the perception of flouting this sacred convent with its citizens
with impunity. When the people of Western Equatoria turned to the GOSS, to
resolve a burning land issue, the GOSS turned a blind eye, until these
communities took the law into their hands with serious consequences. We were
therefore not surprised when we read the GOSS Minister of Information, Gabriel
Changson, saying: "It [the land issue] is news to me”. This was reported by
IRIN on 7th October, a day after one person was killed in Nimule! In the same
interview, a Dinka chief in Nimule, Malual Jok was quoted as saying: “We are in
peace and harmony, there are no problems with any natives or surrounding
areas”. How many people do the Minister and the chief want to see dead before
recognising that there is a problem?
For us, even the loss of one person is one death too many. For the record, the
Ma’di community have been drawing the attention of GOSS to these issues from
day one. Our latest letter was written to the President of GOSS early this
year. The Chief has to realise the fact that he is a Dinka chief in Nimule,
running a parallel administration, is in itself problem enough. Chief Malual
Jok, could you please find in your heart, a receptive ear with which to listen
to the groaning of our people each time herds of cattle are driven into our
fields to lay bare our cultivation, by AK47 trotting herdsmen, who are your
loyal subjects? We hope your Royal Highness, that this is not too much to ask
of you, or is it?
Inextricably linked to the issue of the sale of land by these SPLA officers is
the issue of the Internally Displaced Persons, who long after the cessation of
hostilities have refused to go back to their places of origin. The Ma’di, who
want to reclaim their land and property are daily bombarded with claims that
‘we liberated this land and if you want it back you have to take it using a
gun’. A rewind of the tape would indicate that these utterances are being made
by the very people who fled conflict in their state, were offered refuge by us,
and who spent the whole of the war period with us. How being sheltered and
protected by us, can all of a sudden turn into their having liberated us, defy
any logic. Only a person with a distorted sense of history or a desire to
rewrite history, would make such claims. Does offering refuge to fellow
southerners fleeing from conflict, in itself, not qualify as a contribution to
the war effort, one may wish to
ask? Such callous utterances serve no useful purposes, except to make us
believe, against our better judgement, that we have an occupying force on our
land and that we are not a free people. The humiliating predicament of our
people – of being reminded routinely – that they are not a free people but an
occupied people is one that you would not wish on your worse enemy. Whatever
our people have done to deserve such a treatment, beats us hollow.
We have heard often the claim that the Internally Displaced from Bor cannot go
back to their homeland because of the insecurity caused by the cattle rustling
in Jonglei state. This argument is difficult to buy, as cattle rustling are not
new phenomena in Jonglei state. It was there before the war and we cannot see
how all of a sudden it becomes an excuse for refusal to repatriate. Ironically,
we least expected our guests from Bor, having experienced and fled from
inter-communal strife, to be the last to sow seeds of inter-communal disharmony
in Nimule. How wrong we were!
Our hearts are saddened to see the usually peace loving and welcoming
metropolitan Nimule, where people of different nationalities have enjoyed
harmonious relations for decades, being rapidly transformed into a fiefdom of
well-connected and protected people who seem to act with impunity. Until the
GOSS steps in to have all the IDPs, all who have occupied land by force and
find the use of guns as the preferred tool of resolving and extending their
occupation are made to leave, communal harmony will be harmed irreparably – not
only in Nimule but beyond. We still have faith in the GOSS, and believe that,
these issues are not beyond amicable resolution with the right political will.
We pray that common sense and reason will prevail.
We make this statement with heavy hearts and with no ulterior motive other than
the desire to see our people live in dignity. We make this statement in the
name of Cizarina Lindrio, quoted in the same IRIN (07/10/08) which carried the
interview with GOSS Minister of Information Gabriel Changson and the Dinka Bor
Chief Malual Jok, who both appeared to be in total denial. Cizarina Lindrio was
quoted as saying:
"They chased me away," said Cizarina Lindio, who returned after two decades
only to find people from a different community living on her land. "They said,
’We liberated this place [Southern Sudan] with guns and I will use this gun on
you if you don’t go’," she said, sitting on a plastic bag outside a mud home
built on a small patch of land given to her by relatives. Locals say the Sudan
People’s Liberation Army (SPLA, which fought for years against the Northern
army, were dominated by ethnic Dinka, many from the Bor area in Jonglei State
farther north. After capturing Nimule, it became a military base and many of
the soldiers’ families moved in. "Those people ... are continuing to build
there," said Lindio. "I have no power. What can I do?"
-IRIN 07/10/08
It is the duty of the government to protect the weak and the powerless like
Cizarina Lindrio from being ‘chased away’ from her land like a dog. To the
GOSS, Lindrio could not have been more plainer than in declaring that she has
‘no power’. Her power is you, the GOSS. Will you empower her to reclaim her
land so that she lives in dignity rather than being routinely threatened,
abused and humiliated hunched on a ‘small patch of land given to her by
relatives?’ All Cizarina Lindrio asks of her government is her piece of land
back. Will you help give Cizarina back her dignity?
Mairi John
On behalf of Ma’di Community in Diaspora
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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