After Maar, Jalle and Baidit attacks, what is the Government doing to protect civilians?
7 min readBy Samuel Reech Mayen, Kampala, Uganda
November 21, 2015 (SSB) —- In the first quarter of the year 2007, H.E. President Salva Kiir visited the counties of Greater Bor. Prior to his address to the public in Panyagor, Chief Dau Reech Deng was asked by the other chiefs to express the grievances of the community to the President. In his presentation, Sultan Dau elaborated how the community was being affected by Murle cattle raiders who are also kidnappers. He asked the President to make a decision that could end the atrocities that are committed by cattle raiders who are supported by their malicious politicians.
The speech of Chief Dau Reech reminded President Kiir of what Dr. John Garang told him after his 1988 visitation to the area. He informed the public that Dr. Garang quoted Chief Reech Deng describing Murle cattle raiders as “people who do not procreate but kidnap other people’s kids”. The chief called them “lazy people who do not work to raise their wealth but raid other people hard-earned wealth”. Salva Kiir vividly remembered every words of Chief Reech Deng communicated to him by Dr. John Garang, the then Commander in Chief of the SPLA and the Chairman of the SPLM.
The President pieced together names of the two chiefs and concluded that “I think the 1988 chief Reech Deng who spoke to Dr. Garang must be the father of Chief Dau Reech who is today reporting the issue of Murle raiders that his father reported two decades ago”. The President remarked that he was working hard to ensure that raiding with all its associated consequences is stopped.
Having attended that day presidential address in Twic East County Headquarters, the continuation of attacks on civilians reminded me of that crucial visitation and the promise made by the President. The closely connected attacks of Jalle Payam, the ambush in Baidit Payam in Bor County and the most recent bloodshed in Maar, Pakeer Payam in Twic East County indicate that civilians are not protected. From the Maar attack, the evidence showed that one of the attackers was killed and recognized as a Nuer by origin, meaning the numbers of attackers loitering in the territory of this community keep multiplying.
For reasons known better to these neighboring communities, they have chosen to be enemies and to make it worst, their enmity is geared toward innocent children, women and elderly people. On top of all, these people keep rebelling and latter sign sham peace. On the basis of fake peace, the rebellious leaders are not prosecuted but instead given higher positions. We have seen most of these guys as Gen. David Yau Yau and his Generals are enjoying air-conditioned houses in Juba after all those atrocities. Allegations still carry his name in the wind, and who cares to prove or disprove that claim? Dr. Riek with his generals who blessed the killings in Bor from mid December 2013 to January 2014 is also expected to come home soon. No one hates peace but should not be in the expenses of the rights of the citizens.
As I mentioned in my previous article, it was exactly the 24 of February this year that I passed through Maar, the Headquarters of Pakeer Payam. On reaching Maar at about 2:00pm of a slightly cloudy day, I looked around the Payam Headquarters and realized that the tiny population that did not flee the village clustered around this minute town. This small population thought it was much safer to squash themselves in this small space.
On arrival, my cousin whom we had not met for quite long saw me and rushed out from a certain building. It took me sometime to recognize his face for he had grown a bit older. After hugging and changing some jokes, he asked me to rest and take some drinks but I told him that the cows may astray and I need to keep them moving. I managed to convince him that I was not going to relax. On accepting my argument, he picked a small stick and escorted me on that main road that leads to Paliau.
While we were chatting and laughing he looked concerned and curious. I told him that I was moving with uncle only that I was a little faster. He told me that this place has developed into a wild bush where many raiders roam around. He advised that I shouldn’t move alone and I must spend a night in Paliau to get more accompany the following morning. I lied to him that I would. We exchanged contacts and parted.
The following month, I went back to Juba and proceeded to Uganda. Nine months later, I received a call that he was killed. Mabior Dau (Dau-Magaal) was killed probably in the same spot I met him in the centre of Maar. He was murdered together with over twenty civilians mostly women, children and old men. He was a Police Non-Commissioned Officer at Maar Police station where he had served for some years. It is unfortunate that I didn’t call him back till his life was taken away by the enemies.
At a time when the relatives of the victims of attacks are sobbing, they lack nice words to express their levels of disappointment. One can emotionally yell and curse at the world around. These cycles of massacres are maddening.
Indeed, the people of greater Bor like any other community in South Sudan for years had known that their prime and the only enemy was Khartoum’s regime. The simple history of how Arabs regime massacred Bor chiefs in 1967 is a clear indication of such a bitter feud between the people of Bor and the Islamic government of the Sudan. Although Arabs latter mobilized other communities to attack these people whom they perceived as threat to their policies in the South, the People of Bor like most South [ern] Sudanese did not deviate from the true cause of the struggle for liberation.
It is heartbreaking that after the real enemy has gone, people continue to die in huge numbers. The old women and men whose sons died in the wars of liberation are constantly being killed in their villages. Yes, it is true that the enemy still supply the weak-minded South Sudanese with weapons to destroy their fellow citizens.
Judging from these regular attacks, one concludes that there are three categories of enemies against the civilians in this area; the first group is that voluntary bunch of youth from the neighboring communities who are ever ready when asked by their hateful leaders to attack and kill the innocent people; The second groups are the suppliers of the firearms who are the abettors in the commission of all these atrocities; And the third enemies are those ones who have the ability to pursue and disarm these attackers, but decide to rest their powers and keep the communities bleeding.
It’s true that the situation of these suffering is being ignored. There are old women and men in the villages that spend nights hiding in the flood, thorny bushes, not sleeping in their warm grass-thatched houses because armed youth from the neighboring communities are hunting them. They spend nights in the cold fanning away the swarm of mosquitoes from their faces. There is that old man too who was murdered just in the middle of his courtyard, sitting by the heap of the burning dry cow dung. His little children fell on him wailing for their dear father but were also sprayed mercilessly with bullets killing them instantly. Who can impose justice in these terrible circumstances?
The rights of those children who have been forced out of their villages and found themselves immerse into the childhood diseases in those small islands along the Nile is neglected. It is horrible to see infants being forced out of the schools to sleep in unhealthy environment because their villages are being threatened by other countrymen. This is the situation facing the children of Bor, Duk and Twic East counties as we speak.
This is not a call for the youth from Bor community to take arms and retaliate for it is unprecedented to the values and the spirit of peace and justice. It is a call to the government to provide protection to the civilians. However, asking the government to protect the civilians does not mean these counties need sons from other regions to fight in defense of their cattle as many construe it naively. There are enough personnel from this community in the SPLA and the police who can be deployed to effectively patrol and stop the continuation of incursion.
The author is a student who lives in Uganda and can be reached at: mayenreech@gmail.com
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