Polataka Face Foundation: Dr. John Garang’s Predictable Seeds for New Sudan (Part 3)
7 min readBy David Matiop Gai, Juba, South Sudan
May 23, 2016, (SSB) — Our journey from Torit to Polataka, and that time marked the final destination of bush new site for Red Army camp within Southern Sudan followed by Moli, and Borogoli after the fallen of Magishu in Ethiopia in1991. On the 18th of Dec 1989, group one started left the Mission, and they were accompanied by Commander Kuol Manyang, 1st Lt Awur Mawel, I corrected their ranks with John Kur in part three, because they were not 2nd Lt and the two platoons of Koryom battalion to Polataka for the first time. In group one, my brothers who were in the group were the first staff sergeant of group one late David Matiop Mum, Mabior Ruk, Abraham Mapiau Malual, and Ayuen Buol. They took the route from Imrok, Magwei, Obo, and then Polataka. On the next day, group two took their way again to Polataka.
On 22nd Dec 1989, group three leaved Mission in Torit for Polataka. We were also accompanied by Commander Kuol, 1st Lt Awur Mawel, and late staff sergeant Mawut Kuol Ayom with few soldiers. When we reached Magwei County, our vehicle got technical problem. We were so hungry since we started the journey in Torit without eating food. At 2: 45pm Sudan local time I remembered, Commander Kuol sent 1st Lt Awur Mawel to the SPLA military store in Magwei. The army officer or logististic officer in Magwei didn’t know 1st Lt Awur Mawel and he refused to give 10 sacks of maize requested by Kuol as for our food or (taiyin) for the group three.
Commander Kuol Manyang Juuk, the giant SPLA High Commander went by himself to the store, but surprisingly, before Kuol reached the location of the store, bodyguards were ahead of him in a big number, and the officer in the store knows, only three high commanders around Torit area were the only escorted familiars by many bodyguards, such as High Commander Kuol Manyang Juuk, High commander William Nyuon Buany Machar, and High Commander Salva Kiir Mayardit, and the man collapsed immediately, because he assumed right one of these high SPLA top commanders might have sent him the officer whom he denied but Alternate Commander Chuti Deng Thoat told him, don’t worry, we were coming to take some bags of maize for Red army, (Jeec el Ameer). We saw the man was chocking, and he could not talk. We also accompanied them and we brought bags of maize to the resting places. Kuol was well known for his straight forward and if you did a mistake, you may think, he will kill you, but kuol didn’t killed people who did not committed crimes that deserved death, or he cannot shot soldiers without approval from the military liberation council, but because Kuol was too principle, people fear him lots wherever he goes.
In group three, we were four platoons, and our staff sergeant for the group was Daniel Manyok Bior Aduot. The first platoon was led by Alier Achiek Koot as sergeant, and Alier Ayuen Gaar and I were leaders of our platoon in ( jamaa wula, and Aleir was a corporal (Ariip), and I was lance corporal (wukeil al riip). The second platoon of group three was led by Daniel Jok, and I forgot a leader of platoon three, but platoon four was led by late Mabiei from Abiei community who was killed in 1994 in Kapoeta wujuum, the last SPLA fighting in kapoeta in 1994 until the town was recaptured by SPLA in 2002.
At that time, group three in Magwei cooked maize and people ate balila uncooked because of limit time, but round 5:00pm, staff Sergeant Mawut Kuol Ayom of Koryom platoon blown the whistle and we stood in military assembly although we were not yet fully trained, we were instructed to make attention. We took our bags in the vehicles, and we moved southeast of Magwei County to Polataka. Before reaching Polataka, we came first to Obo at 7:00 pm; we were so thirsty, because we did not have enough water in magwei. There was a hand pump there in Obo for local people, we went to the borehole to drink water, and we got too short people; they look like another animal called nyanjuan who terrorized people in Bor especially in Gok community. This animal walks and talks like human being and it is very short, it’s also eats people on face, and when the children saw these short people, they thought of nyanjuan and ran back to the high way with shouting and noisy, kuol knows and said, I think they got those short people, and exactly that was the case of their fearing and crying. We were told that those are human being and they help us pumping water, and we drank, but yet we don’t come close to them. The children nickname them machek Abo, meaning short man of Obo.
The distant from Obo to Polataka was very near but our vehicle technical problems delayed us unsuspected, we arrived at 11:45pm. Commander Kuol went and slept in John Gory house, a catholic father in Polataka and we were taken to the west part of Polataka. We got buildings were occupied by animals and insects like rates, bees, snakes etc, and the roofs were removed by villagers. In our group, we got nice buildings, but iron sheets were removed. At that night, they authorities of Red army distributed blankets to us, and each child was receiving two good blankets. It was difficult to distributed blankets with list we have had because we were so many. The leaders just threw blankets to us until group three finished distribution at 3:00 Am night. We slept on the grass together with snakes, insects, and bees up in the houses. It was not an easy thing, because you can’t imagine whether Polataka will look beautiful the way it was compare to how we got it in the first place!
Polataka was big and very bushy or thickly with tall grass in Acholi home land and a bushy since those who were leaving in the area deserted it and ran away for some years. Actually SPLA was not well understood by Southerners in the first time, some people had different concepts about SPLA, and Arabs preached against SPLA as animals with big mouths and look like monkeys who run in valleys, a bad propaganda to tarnish the image of SPLA to be less understood by Southerners as people’s army which is daring to liberate them from the Arabs colonialism. When we reached at night as I said above, our colleagues from group one and group two didn’t know that we have arrived. The night was too much for us to bear it. The next morning was so far us to be achieved. We could not endure because the place was very smelly, and immediately some of us got sick in the same night and some children began crying and remembered back their parents. We began counseled them and encouraged them though we did not went through the training of counseling courses.
Earlier in the morning, we awaked in the grass and bushy area. I even laugh when I remembered how we slept in Polataka for the first time. These were nice experiences and there are no other things we could count difficult in lives than what we faced during the 21 years of SPLA/M struggle. The colleagues or comrades from group two who came two days ahead of us, they saw us and welcome us on next day. Their houses were a bit clean because they were clearing bushes few days ahead of us. We were told to clean our group immediately. There were no hoes, no pangas, and no singles, nothing for clearing the ground. The real military operations began from here. We were told to clean our houses and around group compound using our hands. We complained lots but no way, we asked how can we remove these big trees, grasses, and so forth? They said talimat, (military order), and you have to do it, it is a military language that cannot be violated.
There was no other option for us than implementation. We have to implement the orders. We got annoyed, but later on we learned military orders and everything become easy for us. Comrade, we used our hands, and stones for cutting trees. We cut and removed grasses for our own clean environment. We also removed and closed holes for snakes in order to leave the area. In our group, each platoon began clarifying grasses and trees around houses and inside houses, but little by little, we clean our group to a distant, and the other groups followed us to Polataka. The next reading will be a general cleaning in Polataka and the addition of Red army from other places of Southern Kordufan, Nuer, and Mundari in part 4.
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