RUWENG COMMUNITIES Press Release

RUWENG COMMUNITIES Press Release: (Memorandum of Mutual Understanding)

1st Press Release Resolution

September 19, 2015 (SSB)  —-  The Ruweng Communities in Diaspora are the combination of Biemnom and Panrieng Counties of Jieeng ethnic groups in Unity State. The two Jieeng communities of Aloor (Biemnom) and Panaruu ( Panrieng) had held a joint-intercontinental teleconference in diaspora to reach the anonymous-general consensus to accept and welcome the signing of the foreign-imposed peace agreement by the regional & international mediators/observers accorded last week between the rebels and the government.

Cognitive, mindful, considerate, merciful of our own suffering civil populace who are internally and externally affected, displaced and tormenting in their own localities across South Sudan and other neighboring countries, the people of Ruweng Communities in Diaspora felt sympathetic and compassionate to accept, welcome and acknowledge the accorded peace cordially with tolerance, compromise and conditions.

The Ruweng Communities in Diaspora had taken this rare and solemn opportunity to gratefully congratulates both His Excellency Salva Kiir de Miyardit and Dr. Riek de Micar for inking the foreign-imposed peace upon them and against the wills and interests of South Sudanese citizens generally.

However, having acknowledged and welcomed the foreign-imposed peace on South Sudan by the regional and international forces does not necessarily mean that the Ruweng Communities in particular have no grievance to object to this biased peace, which appears to overshadow the survivability and security of their indigenous people & territorial integrity under the upcoming interim-transitional government of Salva Kiir-Riek Micar.

The misrepresentation and disproportionate distributions of the power and resource-sharing-formula during the short period of the IGAD-PLUS peace proposal was quite alienating and provocative to the bystanders, particularly to the political constituencies of Jieeng De Ruweng and Bul-Nuer in Unity State as well as the Maban & Padang Jieeng of the Upper Nile State respectively, given the fact that their indigenous States are categorically and selectively awarded to Dr. Riek Micar and Taban Deng Gai.

This miscalculation by either the South Sudan, regional, international, and rebel camps had prompted the minority communities in Unity State and Upper Nile State to react negatively to the call for the creation of their own States exclusive of Riek-Taban’s gubernatorial powers and resource-control over their territorial jurisdictions.

There are many factors leading to the Ruweng Communities to demand for the Statehood of their own self-rule, free of Riek-Taban and Nuer Counterparts for the following reasons:

1. Ruweng Communities reject and denounce to be ruled under the government of Unity State led by Riek-Taban and his Nuer Counterparts.

2. Chronic victimization of Ruweng Jieeng Minorities in the State had reached the climax of zero-tolerance so far. Political and socioeconomic oppression of the Ruweng Jieeng Minorities.

3. The Nuerization of the Unity State is institutionalized with bullying Stigma. Systematic Tribal Massacre of Ruweng Jieeng is an adopted Nuer-doctrine in Unity State in case of national political crisis and whenever there is a war.

4. Discriminatory institutionalization of the Nuer-Tribalism against Ruweng Jieeng in Unity State in the workforce of the gubernatorial employment system.

5. General insecurity deterioration and systematic territorial incursion by Nuer neighboring Counties over the Ruweng indigenous territories in Unity State.

Summarily speaking, the legendary People of Ruweng Jieeng in Unity State had suffered, endured and persevered for four decades, facing and confronting the traditional warfare with Nuer counterparts historically in Unity State in the past until traditional war treaties were signed peaceful resolutions to all those conflicts settled by our legendary paramount Chiefs and senior councils of Elders from both the Ruweng-Nuer by then.

Our heroic chiefs and councils of Elders were more peaceful and reconciliatory to reach a mutual pacts of peace accords which had enhanced & strengthened the harmonious coexistence and Stability between Ruweng Jieeng and Nuer counterpart in the historic State of Upper Nile region.

Despite the fact that those binding peace-pacts were sincerely honored and observed by the Ruweng Jieeng in the interests of appeasing and condoning the lasting peace and stability with neighbors, Nuer counterparts bordering Ruweng Jieeng along their traditional borders were hasty to violate sporadically the terms of the traditional peace-treaties reached mutually by the legendary Chiefs and councils of Elders on both sides of Jieeng and Nuer.

Nuer would not hesitate to invade into Jieeng lands and raid the cattle and loot whatever commodities with a valuable values by then. In spite of many agreed peace pacts, Nuer never back down from carrying out criminal raids and aggressive incursions to loot & kill.

It was all these provocative aggression and incursion which had become a chronic nightmare for the Ruweng people to choose to determine decisively the future destiny and fate for their own people to live side by side in peaceful isolation from Nuer dominance in Unity State. This chronic aggression didn’t ceased there but it continues to be a perpetual habit till then.

In the second phase of chronic-violent agitation of Ruweng Jieeng, the Nuer of the contemporary society and civilization adopted the similar systematic behavior of the past traditional Nuer-lifestyle of chronic agitation and harassment of their neighbors.
During the Civil war in Sudan when many marginalized Sudanese/South Sudanese flocked to Ethiopia to smuggle arms to fight for the liberation war or get guns to come and defend their people and territorial integrity from the aggressive neighbors in the early 1980s, both Nuer and Jieeng of Unity State did not hesitated to join the revolutionary armed struggle movement (SPLA/M) in their large number. The likes of Dr. Riek Micar and Taban Deng Gai later joined the people’s movement.

Long before the commencement of the SPLA Operation Bright Star Military Campaigns in 1980s and 1990s, Dr. John Garang was able to delegate and assign each high echelons of the SPLA military brass commands to the zonal command based on the respective regions or States of the SPLA strategic deployment, Dr. Riek was categorically deployed to the Western Upper Nile ( presently Unity State) as the SPLA Zonal Command, with late three-star Captain Simon Ngor Choc as his overall operational commander from Bentiu to Nuba Mountain areas until late Usif Kuwa later took control of the entire Nuba Mountain.

The gallant sons of Ruweng fought fiercely under the general command of Dr Riek Micar, until Ngor Choc who was the dearest son of Ruweng earned him the sweet legacy of the successful records and achievement in the SPLA ranks and files. Dr Riek Micar was hailed as the most successful zonal command due to the military successful operations conducted by late Simon Ngor Choc against the Sudan military garrison by then.

When the SPLA mainstream central command under the leadership of late Dr. John Garang decided to promote the most successful operational officers who earned and promoted Dr Riek as the most successful zonal commander of the western Upper Nile, Dr Riek later declined to promote late Ngor Choc, his successful operational officer in his zone and other junior officers under him.

Dr. Riek Micar refused to promote Ngor choc and other Panaruu heroic officers because his cynical motivation was to keep all Ruweng Jieeng SPLA officers under his demotion. It was a blunt policy of exclusion while maintaining the status quo ruling them.

And instead of promoting these Jieeng officers to the higher ranks based on their unique, exceptional-military performance, and excellent success in many fronts in Unity State against the enemy, he went ahead and diverted those ranks and files toward the promotion his tribal/clannish Nuer officers.

This was the beginning of Dr Riek Micar’s engineered and adopted institutionalization of Nuerism versus the Ruweng Jieeng minority.

In 1985, Riek continues to perpetuate his chronic, discriminatory policy against the Ruweng Jieeng over the distribution of the SRRA Humanitarian relief supplies evenly to the people of Unity State who were collectively under his military authority and civil administration when he was the SPLA western Upper Nile Zonal Command by then.

As the result of his discriminatory policies toward Ruweng Jieeng, he decided to order all the medical clinics and mobile health centers to be concentrated and built in his hometown of Leer and Duar, which are remote and far away from the Counties of Ruweng Jieeng.

All Nuer patients were able to have an abundant accessibility to Leer and Duar while the two counties of Ruweng Jieeng were left to fend off and combat the epidemic disease of Kalazaar on their own.

Despite the fact that the UN supervising over the humanitarian medical supplies to Unity State in 1986 did advised Riek Micar to permit the construction of at least one mobile clinics in Ruweng Counties, Riek refused blatantly never to allow any relocation of the mobile medical dispensaries to Ruweng areas by then.

So the UN medical team decided to abide by his biased policy against Ruweng and to obey his order to concentrate the medical services in Leer and Duar exclusively.

Given the surging deaths of the Kalazaar and its epidemic increment in Ruweng Counties, the caravans of Kalazaar patients began to make a massive exodus to Nuerland of Leer and Duar to seek emergency medical cares.

Some of these patients died while trekking to Duar, while some of them were denied access to equal medical attention and treatments upon their arrival in Nuerland of Leer and Duar. Others were reported to have been massacred in cold-blooded just because they were Jieeng in that regard.

This was the mayhem of the Ruweng initial silent-massacre in cold-blooded style by Dr. Riek Micar from 1986-1990s. Thousands of Ruweng patients died mercilessly in Nuerland seeking medical cares while their accompanies were killed.

Then in 1991, when the factional splits between Dr Riek Micar and John Garang occurred on August 28th, 2015, Riek initially launched his preliminary waves of rebel forces and White Army against the Ruweng Jieeng of Unity State and massacred thousands of innocent civilians in cold-blooded including blinds, cripples, elders, kids, women and other vulnerable handicapped disabled persons.

When you look at these sequential waves of the tribal massacre against Ruweng Jieeng, it was indeed an embedded tribal hatred which led to the intentional crime of this systematic-ethnic cleansing against Ruweng Jieeng.

During the 1997, when the likes of Taban Deng Gai and Nguen Monytuil were successive governors of the Western Upper Nile under the regime of the National Islamic Front of the Sudan government, political assassinations of the Ruweng Jieeng politicians and scholastic intellectuals who were working under the Sudan regime in Bentiu in 1990s was Alarming.

Great politicians and intellectuals like those of Choc de Kiir Juach who was the education minister of the Unity State by then killed by Paulino Matip Nhial’ s militias inside Bentiu during the governorship tenure of Dr. Nguen Monytuil and Taban Deng Gai over his attempt to relocate the educational resources to all the State counties including Ruweng counties. Senior politician by name Arop Dudi, whose her daughter is a minister of sport today under Salva Kiir Miyardit was also another victim of the Nuer-systematic political assassinations against Ruweng Jieeng in Bentiu.

The son of the retired SPLA veteran, Lieutenant General Michael Char Chol, by name Mijak de Char who was a former ex-SPLA soldier and skilled mechanic, was also killed in cold-blooded simply because he was Jieeng de Panaruu.

The systematic assassinations was sporadic and was not confined to the victims cited above, but many others who were vulnerable were victimized mercilessly and culled from 1980s-1990s. Many lives are not accounted for. Some Ruweng were lynched in darkness.

In 2000s to the present time, which is the term of Taban Deng Gai’s Governorship tenure following the CPA implementation-era, and post-independence secession of South Sudan, Taban Deng Gai started his term of governor with an enthusiastic momentum and greater expectations of the people of Unity State, but such an enthusiastic optimism later resulted in a disappointing dismay and upset, especially when Taban resumed the same old mentality of imposing the impulsive-Nuer-reckless bullying and coercive attitudes and prejudice of superiority and Nuerism Supremacy against the wills of Ruweng Jieeng in Unity State.

Specific illustrations of Taban Deng Gai having promoted the institutionalized Nuerism Superiority and supremacy were manifested in his gubernatorial occupation and territorial annexation of Ruweng County Payam of Manga (Wanh-danluel in Jieeng) to his Guit county of Jikeny-Nuer.

Manga aka Wanh-danluel was an indigenous swamp land of Panaruu which is seasonally used by the clans of Ngeer-Buga-Ngau-Miocigiu to graze their cattle annually. This swamp is a fertile ground feasible for commercial farmlands as well as it is also harboring an oil field.

Taban intention was maliciously driven to occupy, annex and own this indigenous land for his own personal mansion, future real estate, and commercial purposes ( mechanized agricultural projects).

The indigenous natives of the grabbed land by the gubernatorial decree of Taban decided to protest against the occupation and illegal land grabbing by Taban Deng, accusing him of an abuse of his governor powers against the local natives of Manga.

Taban bullied the county commissioner when he questioned his illegal occupation and residency without holding the notarized issuance of the title-deed of the land from the Panrieng County authorities.

Having noticed that his illegal occupation of Manga had angered the Ruweng People, Taban later decided to recruit and train local White Army militias from his Guit County, and encouraged his Guit-Leek Nuer to come and settle in Manga as a systematic strategy to gradually occupy and annex Manga of Ruweng natives to his Guit County.

Prior to his removal, Taban was also believed to have been behind the brutal assassination of the Biemnom Commissioner County in front of his brother and wife in Juba when the security force of death squad raided his home and mercilessly ransacked his house.

Before his removal by Salva Kiir in early 2013, Taban decided to tactically deploy his Guit-White-Army in Manga to intimidate, harass, repel, and deter Ruweng Jieeng natives who try to settle there.

Following his termination in early 2013, and was summoned to Juba and put under house arrest, Taban began to instruct and order his Guit-White-Army to begin the tribal terrorism operation against Ruweng natives in Manga and Agarak Payam respectively.

His militias sponsored via his county commissioner of Guit went on to pronounce and proclaim Manga as an officially-annexed Payam to Guit, prompting an angry outrage from the natives of Ruweng as an empty blunder and ploy rhetoric emanating from Taban Deng.

Ruweng paused for some months, until when the militias began to attack Manga and Agarak villages of Ruweng County, killing innocent civilians in cold-blooded in their sleep. Biu Payam youths challenged the county acting commissioner of Ruweng and State Governor to deter the terroristic Guit-White-Army before they responded in kind by taking laws into their own hands.

The second attack was launched against the villages of Agarak and more dozen were killed again, which triggered Biu Payam youths to launch a similar raid into the territory of Guit-White-Army in Guit.

The tension almost escalated to a major invasion until Governor Nguen Monytuil exercised his leadership swiftly to deter further escalation of the confrontation between Guit and Biu.

The atrocious massacre of Ruweng civilians did not ceased there, but it continues from late December 2013 to 2014 as the war raged on in Unity State.

The first casualties of Ruweng civilians occurred in Tharjath where the intellectual engineers and teachers mainly from Ruweng Counties were selectively singled out and summarily executed by Nuer forces in Tharjath and Bentiu by fire squads.

Following the intensive fight in Juba, Taban Deng Gai ordered his Guit-White-Army to resume the tribal attack against the innocent civilians of Agarak-Manga villages, massacred 38 civilians including the pregnant woman whose stomach/womb was cut-open and the fetus-infant baby taken out of her womb and cut into piece mercilessly by this Guit-White-Army, which was recruited and trained and equipped heavily by Taban Deng long before he was removed by Salva Kiir.

In April 2014, among the massacred thousands of civilians of various tribal, ethnic, clannish and national backgrounds were Jieeng of Ruweng who were residing there as either State residents or government employees.

Many lost lives while others sustained severe life-threatening wound and injuries. The office of the State Governor had lost the staff members who were formal employees. They were executed summarily on tribal lines.

An institutional discrimination and oppression of the Ruweng Jieeng is categorically minced and manifested in many different ways or forms in Unity State. It had developed with an embedded, chronic disenfranchisement versus the ethnic Jieeng in the predominantly-Nuer State.

This chronic tribalism had instilled the Nuer counterparts in the State with the set of attitudes, beliefs, and practice which justify the habitual characteristics that Unity State is where all the Nuer descendants originated, and so they have to rule over Jieeng minority of Ruweng with self-actualization and realization to imposing Nuer-superiority and supremacy to massacre-violently and systematically downtrodden the minorities at will whenever there is a national or state crisis.

The manifestation of Nuerism can also be seen in regard to the prospective quest and demand and stereotypical-prejudice overwhelmed-call by Nuer populace to change the Unity State name to the Liech State ( meaning cradle land of Nuer origin). This negative tribalism is overwhelmingly alarming with zero-tolerance.

In an employment gubernatorial workforce public sector, discriminatory hiring policies are appalling against Ruweng Jieeng despite the fair-standard human resource management and administration policies and regulatory laws which stipulate the hiring and vetting process of the job applicants without discriminating them on the basis of tribes. In Unity State, only Nuer applicant is given a first priority even though he or she may be less qualified and competent to fill the vacancy. Qualified minorities are discriminated against in favor of the least qualified Nuer-applicants.

During the Taban Deng Gai’s tenure, Ruweng Jieeng best students who had done excessively with an academic excellence in critical standard examination in overall performance in the State of Unity were deprived the hard-earned privileges of attaining the scholastic scholarship programs which was funded and sponsored by the State government under the tenure of Taban Deng Gai.

In the educational sector, the scholarship programs were not awarded to the State best students on the merit of academic excellence or exceptional and outstanding ovation-performance, but it was purely done on the merits of tribal majority, which justifies that Nuer were awarded the undeserved scholarships even when they do not qualify and perform academically to meet the required grade percent of the expected mark.

Many Nuer students were awarded the scholarship programs to secondary schools,colleges and universities in Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Malaysia including funding some Nuer individuals educations in Diaspora for their further education.

All these scholarships were funded and sponsored by Taban Deng Gai without awarding a single Ruweng student to a higher education of institute in Unity State.

The state-sponsored university or college in Bentiu was also privatized as Nuer college and was named as prospective Liech University which was an insult to Ruweng Jieeng minority because it was funded by the unity State 2% oil revenue share.

Taban Deng Gai had gone as far as financially and economically privatizing the spending of 2% State oil share to award scholarships to Nuer Students in various countries worldwide but he went as far as spending the millions of dollars to purchase the mechanized farm equipment such as bulldozers and ploughing tractors to be utilized for the State cultivation of agricultural/arable extensive projects, which in fact would had created the statewide job opportunities and enhanced food security in Unity State, unfortunately, these State farm commercial equipment later disappeared or might had been privatized and distributed among his loyal and supportive Nuer clans.

RECOMMENDATIONS & RESOLUTIONS

In summary of the aforementioned grievances, most triangling griefs had caused tribal mistrust, insecurity, disharmony, disunity which had then generated more hurt feelings and created polarized, divisive, fragmented dissension between Ruweng Jieeng and Nuer Counterparts in Unity State.

The following are the summarized recommendations and resolutions that Ruweng Communities in Diaspora would like to see put into considerations prior to the implementation of the of CPA-2.

1.Ruweng Diaspora Communities anonymously endorsed the Padang recent letter position paper demanding the separate secession of Ruweng and Padang people from the incumbent Unity State and Upper Nile State respectively.

2.Ruweng Communities in Diaspora resolved and recommended that creation of Ruweng State ( which shall consists of Panrieng/Biemnom) should be approved and ratified prior to the effective deadline of the peace.

3.Ruweng Diaspora Communities also endorsed the exclusive creation of the Central State which shall consist of Renk, Meluth, Akoka, Paloc, Pigi, Baliet, Maban counties respectively.

4.Ruweng & Padang Counties had reached the mutual consensus in a common solidarity that their territories will no longer be subjected to the rule and governance of Dr Riek-Taban’s transitional state governments of Unity State and Upper Nile State in the upcoming transitional administration.

5.Ruweng Communities in Diaspora resolved and recommended that they would exclusively declare the unilateral self-determination to self-rule in case President Salva Kiir declines and fails to fulfill and guarantee the general security and Survivability of our people of Ruweng.

6.Ruweng Diaspora Communities resolved that they should be left alone to rule and govern their own people within their territories should Kiir fails to approve their tentative popular consultation demands.

All the cited grievances above are the reasonable causes behind the exclusive demands for the constituencies of Ruweng people and Padang Counterparts.

Therefore, having provided the substantial justifications for the causes of Ruweng counties to secede from the Liech State (a soon-to-be former Unity State), Ruweng Diaspora Communities believe that they have the constitutional rights to the self-determination to decide the fateful future over the security uncertainty which often threaten the livelihood and survival of our people. Nobody shall infringes and alienates the constitutional rights of others, and deprives them to determine for themselves the security and peace for their people.

Granting of the self-rule State for the Ruweng Counties is critically vital for the smooth and peaceful implementation of the IGAD-PLUS peace as well as guaranteeing the safety and guardian of the oil infrastructure in the territories of Ruweng and Padang Counties.

It would be lauded for President Salva Kiir to take an urgent action now before the deadline of foreign-imposed peace in the Upper Nile and Unity State take an effect in the months.

We do anticipate your positive feedbacks over these communal demands, and thank you in advance for your considerate and mutual consideration and cooperation.

Best Regards,
Ruweng Communities in Diaspora.

Co-signed by:

1. Biemnom County Chairperson Diaspora.

2. Ruweng County Chairperson Diaspora.

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