Press Release: The Nuer White Army Ended Operations Against Murle Tribe in South Sudan.
8 min readNuer White Army, Akobo, South Sudan
January, 5, 2012
The leadership of the White Army has met today in Lilkuangole to determine the situation in Jonglei state after successfully launching Operation Ending Murle’s Abductions on December 22nd, 2011. After reviewing the operation, the leader of the White Army, Bor Doang informed the Executive Council of the White Army that the operation has been successful. The leader reported that twenty five Nuer and Dinka kids who were abducted by the Murle in the past have been recovered and will be returned to their parents by their chiefs. Over 80,000 stolen Nuer and Dinka cattle have been returned.
The casualties of the White Army are less than expected in that large operation. The leader of the army confirmed that 95 fighters have been wounded and 15 killed in the entire operation. The Murle ran to Pochalla and Boma near the Ethiopian border. The Executive Council congratulated Bor Doang for successful and capable leadership that disarmed Murle in a very short period of time. Although majority of Murle tribe escaped to Ethiopian mountains, the Executive Council has no intention to pursue them in a foreign country. The sovereignty of Ethiopia has to be respected and the White Army has no intention to create conflict with Ethiopia which was an ally that supported the people of South Sudan against successive Khartoum regimes before independence.
The White Army congratulated Twic-Dinka for joining the operation to disarm Murle. We thank 900 Dinka who joined us on December 22nd, 2011. We are very happy that no member of Dinka White Army was wounded or killed in operation. They played a very pivotal role in the capture of Lilkuangole. Most of military intelligence which located the whereabouts of Murle fighters was supplied by Twic-Dinka who joined their Nuer brothers to end the problem of Murle. The unity between the Nuer and Dinka youth will be consolidated for peace to reign supreme in Jonglei State. Nuer and Dinka share the same great grandmother during creation. Although Murle are also related to Nuer and Dinka as part of greater Nilotic tribe, their persistent determination to abduct Nuer and Dinka kids since 17th C is a big menace to all their neighbors.
The Nuer and Dinka youth will meet in the near future to discuss forming a coalition between the Nuer and Dinka white armies as the only solution to maintain security in Jonglei and Upper Nile States. Our Dinka brothers have proven to be very good fighters against Murle when we launched the operation. The Executive Council will also send a delegation to Anuak Youth for talks to form a unified army to fend off Murle threat in the region.
We would like to inform the world that three Nuer clans of Lou, Jikany and Gawaar have agreed to unite their white armies under the name Nuer White Army. From January, 5, 2012 onwards, the name that applies to Lou, Jikany and Gawaar fighters is the Nuer White Army. Bor Doang thanked 1,500 Jikany and 500 Gawaar Nuer who participated in the operation. It is the first time since Dr. Riek Machar formed the White Army in 1992 that all Nuer clans could unite their fighters under one command. The leadership has decided that all the Nuer clans, from east to west, will form a unified leadership under one leader. A delegation will be sent to Nuer Youth in Unity State to join the Nuer White Army to defend Nuerland from external enemies.
We want to state, in no uncertain terms, that the Nuer White Army has no political objective. The primary objective of the White Army is to defend the Nuer livelihood from Murle who carried out attacks against the Nuer civilians. We advise President Salva Kiir to find a solution to Murle problem which will push the South to first tribal world war. The problem of Jonglei state is a persistent attack of Murle against Nuer, Anuak and Dinka civilians. The Murle are the ones who do not want to live in peace. Murle cannot increase their population by abducting Nuer, Anuak and Dinka’s children. If Murle’s women have fertility problem, the Nuer and Dinka are willing to accept intermarriage with Murle. The Dinka, Nuer and Murle’s chiefs can sit down and talk about intermarriage to assist our Murle brothers to increase their population if their women are not procreating. The chiefs can decide the number of cattle a Murle man should pay as dowries to marry a Dinka or Nuer girl.
We want to inform UNMISS that we have no intention to fight the UN forces in South Sudan if they stay neutral. Since we launched operations against Murle, we never targeted UN forces. When our fighters entered to Pibor town, they didn’t shoot at UN and SPLA because we have no quarrel with them. The problem could arise if UN forces shoot at us because we could exercise the right of self-defense recognized internationally. Since the UN has no intention to fight us, we also have no intention to fight the UN and the SPLA. Our problem is Murle, not the UN.
The leadership of the White Army would like to thank the UNMISS for airlifting 84 members of our fighters wounded in the operation to Juba for treatment. We are very happy for what the UN forces did and it proved that they don’t have any intention to confront us as we mistakenly thought earlier. We want the UN forces to maintain neutrality they demonstrated when we entered Pibor town. The Commander of UN forces in Pibor is a professional soldier who talked to our leadership in a very polite way and made it clear that the UN would not support any side in the conflict. The White Army does acknowledge the difficult situation the UN forces are operating in given the fact that they are inexperienced when it comes to the issues of cattle rustling. However, the UN forces have shown professionalism in handling themselves in this operation. Our advice to them is to maintain being independent from South Sudan government which is led by confused people.
We would advise the UNMISS that the White Army is open to dialogue with international community. The White Army is represented in North America by Nuer Youth under the leadership of Gai Bol Thong in United States. We mandated the Nuer Youth in America to represent the Nuer White Army in any negotiation with the UN in New York. We the Nuer Youth in South Sudan do not recognize Riek Machar as a Nuer leader. He is responsible for all the killings we experience today because it was him who armed Murle tribe in 1997 when he signed Khartoum Peace Agreement with Omer Bashir. He cannot talk to us because we know that he is responsible for all the deaths in Jonglei for arming Murle in 1990s to fight John Garang. Now Murle are killing the Nuer and Dinka with weapons Riek Machar supplied to them in 1997.
The leadership of the Nuer White Army will talk only to Murle Youth through UN mediation outside South Sudan. Mediation between Murle, Dinka and Nuer chiefs is not in the interest of the youth of any side. We advise the international community to know that the chiefs of Nuer, Dinka and Murle will not solve the ongoing conflict. Therefore, there has to be a direct peace talk between Murle Youth on one side and Dinka and Nuer Youth on the other side. The chiefs and politicians in Jonglei and Juba are complicating the matter and the youth do not recognize their authority.
For peace to reign supreme, Murle Youth must talk face to face with Nuer and Dinka Youth outside South Sudan. If the Nuer, Dinka and Murle youth talk in New York, they will have a different experience. Their contact with outside world and the youth in America will be enlightening experience and it would assist in attitude change among the youth.
The entire youth in South Sudan have a problem with politicians in Juba. We advise the UN that the government in Juba is not in good terms with the Nuer and Dinka youth. Therefore, the UN must have an independent contact with the youth via Nuer youth in America who will assist to bring Murle and others together.
We want to advise the UNMISS that the war is not over and the international community should work hard to avoid more wars. We anticipate that the Murle will attack the Nuer and Dinka as a revenge for the operation we launched on December, 22nd, 2011. If they did that, we will launch surprise attacks which will lead to more bloodshed and displacements. Therefore, the UN and the US government must deal with the Murle and Nuer-Dinka white army independent from chiefs, churches and Juba’s government. The UN must talk to Nuer Youth in North America to facilitate direct Youth-to-Youth Dialogue. The people who die in numbers are youth and the majority of the populations are youth. There is no need for UN to waste time talking to tiny minority like chiefs, elders, pastors and politicians.
We would like to warn President Salva Kiir that any attempt to disarm the Nuer White Army will lead to catastrophe and bloodbath. The president must avoid sliding the South to a failed state and should rationally study the situation on the ground without emotion. The Nuer and Dinka youth are very angry and have acquired military arsenal which can bring down the government in Juba if provoked. The White Army has no intention to fight the government. But if President of the South will launch another forced disarmament similar to 2006, there will be a military uprising similar to what happened in Libya last year. If Salva Kiir wants to avoid what happened to Muamar Gaddafi, he should not mess up with Nuer White Army. Our intention is to defend our cattle and kids from Murle because the government failed to provide security after disarming us in 2006. But if Salva Kiir lost touch with reality and insists on disarmament, we will fight him. This time the war will be different because youth in the entire South are not happy with politicians in Juba. If Salva Kiir starts war against Nuer White Army, he will regret it for the rest of his life if he will survive.
For contact:
Bor Doang
Thuraya Phone: +882166997450
Jonglei, South Sudan
Gai Bol Thong
Leader of Nuer Youth in North America
Tel. (206)307-7357
Seattle, Washington
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