The Unknown Gunmen of South Sudan
When one of my reporters called police commissioner on Thursday for a comment, the chief officer said he cannot be interviewed on phone. A request for an interview at his office was not return. But from unknown sources, several media outlets blamed the death of Peter Julius Moi on the ‘unknown gunmen.’
And as usual in Juba here, murders are blamed on ‘unknown – gunmen.’ Maybe it is the easier group to cite. And so the media did not have to wait forever to hear from the police rather than blaming the killing on the ‘unknown gunmen.’
One resident of Juba joked that ‘there might be many unknown gunmen that could possibly outnumber the known gunmen in South Sudan.’ His estimate could be taken seriously. This is because when you count the killings in main cities; Juba, Bor, Wau, Yambio etc, carried by unknown gunmen contribute a significant fraction of human losses in this country.
Was Moi’s killing a target on the media? I don’t know. But the Union of Journalist and Association of Media in South Sudan have concluded so. In the word of our chairman ‘this is a direct attrack on the media houses in the Republic of South Sudan.’ There have been several deaths from unknown gunmen recently.
One fresh incident is the killing of SPLA 1st Lt in Sherikat few weeks. Another man survived 12 hours detention at the hands of unknown gunmen. He was handed over by Boda-boda rider and his cash of 39,000SSP was taken but spared his life. Lucky man.
In a characteristic style, the killing of SPLA officer in Sherikat and that of my colleague Peter Julius Moi, all the items including money and telephone were not taken by the killers. You don’t need to be crime specialist to conclude that those murders are well planned and executed.
As a reporter myself, I know how risky it to work in this country. When count the death of Isaiah Abraham and five other reporters killed in Western Bahr Al Ghazal, there is strong possibility that there scheme to intimidate journalists in this country. But equally important, it is just difficult to be a civil servant in South Sudan.
Two security men told me and my friend in June 2013 that they can take us to unknown place. When asked who they where, they said they are from the security. I jokingly told them security men are not supposed to take people to unknown places. They are supposed to protect the people from criminals. Their respond was to ask where we were working which was non-of-their business.
But to be honest, we had to negotiate our way out from that crime. The crime being standing at the roadside near a Boda-boda that mistakenly touch the cloth of security men! My goodness. I never slept that night.
I fully understood how dangerous to be a South Sudanese living in the town! It is only in your village that security men cannot boost about their work. There, you just need to yell and attract a merciless strong men to mob them.
But here, because of education, you found yourself at the mercy of men employed to protect but literally turning their guns on you. So being a journalist or not, you are just at the mercy of unknown gunmen.
Rest Peace Peter Julius Moi. The unknown gunmen have taken your young life.
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