PRESS RELEASE: AGUOK KUEI YUOTH ASSOCIATION IN JUBA CONDEMNS THE FIGHTING BETWEEN AGUOK AND APUK AND THE FAILURE OF STATE GOVERNMENT TO CONTAIN IT
November 26, 2016 (SSB) — The leadership of the above mentioned association in juba had strongly condemned the communal fighting between Aguok Kuei and Apuk communities of Gogrial State. First and foremost, we deeply express our heartfelt condolence and sorrow to the families of deceased on both sides of conflict. Mindful that the fighting between the two community is senseless and can not bring good results than the on going killing, massive displacement and destruction of lives and properties of innocent population.
We further deplore the dimension of the conflict which has led to the killing of children, women and elderly people that has never been a part of our culture and ethic and hasits own origin and must stop immediately. Moreover, we believed that Aguok and Apuk communities are inseparable and their problems are not inextricable and can be resolved faithfully through dialogue. Furthermore, we are moreconfident that the fighting between Aguok and Apuk has never been warranted or sanctioned by any of our elders and we do not have tangible evidence to implicate others.
The youth leadership believes that the current conflict is a systematic failure of state government as narrated hereunder;
Shortly after the end of 2015 conflict of which compensation and reconciliation were made, a criminal later known as Thiang and his friends came at night and killed the two sons of sultan Kuec on 03/01/2016. After this incidence governor Gum and his government promised our people that he will introduce death penalty to those criminals if they are arrested and proved guilty but one of those criminals was given safe haven to escape from NS detention and went on to kill another three people in Panacier. This unscrupulous position of state government cast doubt on its sincerity and neutrality to deliver justice to the victims’ vis-à-vis compelling our people to lose trust in the government and render our call for calm and restraint useless.
We would like to outline here numbers of incidents and provocations that exacerbated the situation.
- Shortly after the end of 2015 conflict between Aguok and Apuk and especially after the compensation was done to the people killed on both sides, the state governor ordered our people to return to their homes promising that there’ll be no problem again.
- On 3/1/2016 a culprit later named as Thiang Thiep and his accomplice came at night and killed the two sons of KuecMayar in cold blood.
- After this incident sultan Ngor Thiep, Thiang Thiep and other one person were arrested in connection with the killing. Nothing much had been heard except the escape of Thiang from the custody of NS and his subsequent killing of another three people in Panacier and went away still our people called for his arrest but the governor said he is armed with 30 PKMsand theroad was inaccessible.
- On 7/9/2016 our brothers from Apuk came and killed a boy in Majakou followed by Malualawien and Makuacpagong in which numbers of people were killed.
- In Sep 2016 Apuk community wrote a letter to governor Gum demanding certain areas in Aguok. That letter was passed by Gum to council of ministers for deliberation which ended in ordering our commissioners not to upgrade the old bomas which are claimed by Apuk but we believed that the root cause of conflict between Aguok and Apuk is not the border but a criminal who instigated the conflict of which some of them happened far away from the border.
- All these numbers of incidentsand provocations plus more which we did not mention left people with no choice but to defend themselves and trigger attack and counter-attack from both sides.
The AKYA leadership in Juba has deliberated and agreed on the following recommendations;
- An immediate arrest of Thiang and his accomplices.
- Pacification of warring communities.
- Any disarmament must be comprehensive and commence on both sides and must address the problem that let people get armed and where they get arms especially heavy weapons. On the other hand, the authority concern with disarmament should cooperate with executive chiefs and elders from both sides.
- Formation of high level committee to go and investigate the genesis of the conflict.
- Delivering of humanitarians assistance to displaced people.
- Call on national MPS and state MPS from Aguok and Apuk to immediately initiate and facilitate dialogue between conflicting communities.
- Formation of an independence court to trial people that are suspected to have instigated the conflict and those who have committed atrocities and must be free from any influence.
- An immediate arrest of all suspects from both sides.
- Deployment of security forces at the state borders especially toch to guarantee state security and maintain law and order in the state and South Sudan at large.
In conclusion the above mentioned recommendations represent our view on how to urgently deescalate the situation between Aguok and Apuk and we humbly call our president H.E Salva Kiir Mayardit to pressure the state government to immediately end the conflict between Aguok and Apuk once and for all or change it if it’s unfit to maintain peace and security in Gogrial State.
Signed by:
Majok Wol Majok Chairperson
CC Hon Governor Abraham Gum Makuac
Cc Hon national MPS and state MPS
Cc Commissioners of Aguok
Cc Community chairperson
Cc Executive chiefs and elders
Cc File.
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