The Sydney Morning Herald

John Mac Acuek died trying to help the impoverished, write David Wroe and James Robertson

A Sydney father of five killed in the South Sudan conflict has been hailed as ''selfless'' by his family after he was ambushed trying to ferry civilians out of harm's way.

John Mac Acuek, 42, from Blacktown, was killed last Tuesday near the town of Bor after the four-wheel-drive in which he was travelling was ambushed by rebel fighters, his brother told Fairfax Media on Wednesday.

The brother, Deng Thiak Adut, from Parramatta, said Mr Acuek had been operating vehicles to evacuate people out of the town of Malour, a hotly contested area in the escalating civil war that lies north of the capital Juba. Mr Adut said his brother was travelling with an escort made up of three government soldiers when they were overrun by rebel fighters.

Mr Acuek had a wife and five children, aged between four and 17, his brother said. The family was deeply distraught.

''He was rescuing women and children but [the rebels] are targetting anyone who is against them,'' he said. ''They don't discriminate. They kill anyone they perceive as Dinka [an ethnic group].''

Another younger brother who lives in South Sudan and is a police officer found the body, Mr Adut said. He was unable to retrieve Mr Acuek's body for a proper burial because of the danger and was forced to cover it up and leave it.

Mr Adut said his brother may have been carrying a weapon for protection but was a civilian. He had lived back in South Sudan since 2007 and owned two hotels there but also worked with an agricultural charity.

Mr Adut said he hoped the tragedy would highlight the unfolding disaster in South Sudan, where forces loyal to former vice-president Riek Machar are battling the government of President Salva Kiir after a failed coup attempt.

South Sudan became the world's newest country in 2011 but ethnic conflict has reportedly led to the deaths of almost 1000 people while more than 200,000 people have been displaced.

Mr Acuek had been a child soldier in Sudan but fled the country with the rest of the family in 1998 - before South Sudan achieved independence - and arrived in Australia as a refugee.

He took a degree in social sciences from the University of Western Sydney in 2004.

''From all estimates he was the first southern Sudanese man to graduate from an Australian university,'' said Felicity Bennett-Bremner, who founded a charity with Mr Acuek after his graduation. ''He wanted to understand how people worked and what he could do to help them.''

Mr Acuek, through his charity Life Through Livestock, worked to cure for an illness ravaging cattle in his homeland. He had made inroads into the source of the disease, Mrs Bennett-Bremner said, before conflict broke out again.

Mr Acuek also found work with international non-government organisations and said he had previously worked with Global Communities, an organisation with an American headquarters.

Australian William Anayar, now in South Sudan, said he first met Mr Acuek in the late 1980s when the two were refugees, fleeing conflict that had enveloped their homeland. ''We were just little boys together, we were lost boys,'' Mr Anayar said. ''We were just minors.''

Mr Anayar said his friend had been a campaigner for cattle health in a part of the world where they are crucial to the economy.

Tributes poured in as news of Mr Acuek's death spread.

''I will never forget his amazing humour and desire to help others,'' said Moses Mabior Jombo, who added that he had lived with Mr Acuek at the Iffo Refugee Camp in east Kenya. ''His passing is another big blow to his family, Bor and South Sudan.''

By Maker Lual Kuol

1. The first intentional destruction was on 19^th May 1965 when Khartoum forces indiscriminately went on a shooting spree killing many innocent civilians and displacing many others. By that time, Bor Town was a small town dwelt by less than 10,000 people. The rural population had not migrated to Bor Town as it is the situation now.
2. The second intentional destruction was on 16^th May 1983 when battalion 105 rebelled against Khartoum government. Though Khartoum retaliated with heavy hand, the cause was a noble one and was taken lightly.
    
3. The third was the invasion of the whole land of greater Bor by the Lou Nuer under the instructions of  Riek Machar Teny who had just split from the main stream of SPLM/A and formed his own faction known as the Nasir Faction. Over ten thousand were massacred, thousands wounded, others abducted, the whole livestock of the area was driven off to Lou Nuer land. More than 80% of the population was displaced to eastern, western Equatoria and the neighboring countries of Kenya and Uganda. The massacre was genocide of which no one talked about.
4. The fourth was the one carried out by the loyal forces of Riek Machar on Bor Town on the 17^th December 2013 when one major General Gadiet, the divisional commander of Division 8 rebelled and led an attack on Bor Town. The attack resulted into death of many people and flashing out of the whole population of Bor Town estimated at over 150,000 people. The worst in the episode was that the majority displaced were those vulnerable civil populations that migrated to Bor Town two years earlier when Murles intensified their attacks on the rural population.

During the implementation of The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), Riek sometimes during official and private occasions hinted or expressed his sorrow for the 1991 invasion of Greater Bor of which his apology during an occasion in the house of Rebecca Nyandeng Chol in Juba, wife of late Dr. John Garang de Mabior could be recalled. Earlier in 2011 in a meeting in South Sudan Hotel in Bor, former governor Kuol Manyang convinced the people that there was no need to keep the grudges and called for forgiveness and to corroborate his good intensions, he called forward Dr. Riek and embraced him in front of the meeting amid applause of the gathering as a sign of forgiveness and recociliation. Kuol by doing so was representing both the aggrieved
citizens of Greater Bor and Jonglei State. He displayed to all that past was a bygone.

Unfortunately without elapsing of a year or more, Riek repeated the same massacre and may be worse than the one of 1991. That embracing of selves with Kuol was shedding of crocodile tears by Riek Machar. The last incidence was well planned as his lieutenants headed by Peter Gadeit studied all routes connecting the Payams and Bomas of Bor County by pretending to be inspecting the area under his command on the 15^th of December. He deluded his colleagues in Division 8 that he was going to deploy SPLA defensive forces in all strategic places where the enemy may penetrate and encroach into Bor Town.  The following night at Panpandiar, the headquarters of Division 8, which lies 22 kilometers south of Bor Town, Gadet invited his deputy Major General Ajak Yen to a meeting and there ordered his men to shoot him. Major General Ajak is one of the revered SPLA army officers for his courage, bravery and discipline who since joining the SPLA in 1983 never departed his forces till his murder. Then after finishing with Ajak, Gadet moved towards Bor Town with a number of mounted vehicles.

That was the time the population of Bor Town realized that there was an imminent attack on Bor Town and therefore started fleeing the town. Auxiliary police whom majority hailed from Nuer tribe disarmed the rest of their colleagues from Dinka tribe and defiantly disobeyed their commander who was a Dinka by tribe. The rest of the organized forces followed suit. This move within the forces made the Nuers to outnumber all the other ethnic groups put together. In actual fact over 80% of SPLA army hails from Nuer tribe. This big proportion was due to the continuous integration of militia groups into SPLA forces in order to bring about peace and stability into the nascent state of South Sudan.  

The death toll reported in the whole of South is put at over 1,000 but for Bor alone, the death toll could be ranging between 1000 and 2000.  Many who perished in the bushes or drowned in the river and marshes will not be accounted for. The Town and the whole market was ransacked and looted and many buildings either erased to the ground or destroyed. The human tragedy mounted when citizens left their homes in disarray. Many children and elderly went missing. Hunger stroke heavily on the fleeing population that carried along nothing beside dear lives. Deputy Governor Hussein Mar Nyot and the Minister of Law Enforcement, Gabriel Duop Lam in the government of Jonglei State rebelled openly. The two were the confidents of the former governor Kuol Manyang Juuk.

Many political and administrative decisions in the state were taken with advice and consultations of Hussein. Gabriel Duop was favored most among the ministers
when he joined John Garang University of Science and Technology. For the last three years, Duop paid little attention to his work and Kuol turned a blind eye to his not frequently paying attention to his duties as a minister of one of the most important and sensitive ministries as his interest (Kuol) was to develop the youth the likes of Duop that missed education during the long struggle.

Duop in order to thank Kuol for his support and sponsorship ordered the shooting of captain Chaw Mayol Juuk, a cousin to governor Kuol. The story of Chaw death happened when Chaw saluted his Minister and instead of responding to his subordinate solute, he, the minister derisively told him that he was not in a position to accept a salute from a Dinka. That was indirectly an order for his murder by another colleague from the Nuer tribe to shoot Chaw. Both Hussein and Duop have many assets in Bor ranging from plots of lands to houses and business places but the two allowed their tribesmen to destroy the assets of others.

During the four days of destruction in Bor, Riek Machar, Hussein and other allies of theirs shuttled between the UNMSS compound in Bor and the military bases at Malual Chat and Panpandiar and to surprisingly disappeared into the thin air through the assistance of UNMISS to appear at Lou Nuer area and from there to his home area of Bentiu where he was shown by Aljazeera Television addressing a press conference.

While the displaced were moving aimlessly around Bor Town, news reached that the White Army was moving towards Bor. This sent the whole county population panicking as the invasion and massacres of 1991 were still fresh in the minds of the population. As such the people thought otherwise and the option was to cross to the western bank of the river. Struggle of the population to enter the motor boats was one of the most painful sceneries as each wanted to have the first chance of getting into the boat. The saddest was that the fare for crossing was 50 South Sudanese Pounds which most did not have. Still despite the congestion many were able to cross to the western bank.
Thank the Almighty God that no accidents occurred during the crossing. It is
very fortunate that there were many motor boats despite the fact that the rebels forcefully confiscated some of them. The community headed by Dr. Agot Alier, Bor County Commissioner availed petrol for the evacuation of the stranded civil population on the eastern bank of the river. Now the evacuated population are scattered along the west bank of the river. Guolyar in Awerial Countyis currently hosting over 100,000 displaced people from Bor. Others crossed to Gutthom and many others sought refuge in the high grounds and marshes.

Still the invaders did not spare them but shot randomly into the papyrus, reeds and
any other aquatic plants that can cover and harbor the escapes. At Magok cattle
camp on the western bank of the river opposite to Malek village, two people were shot dead and two others wounded. On the 6^th of January, a contingent composed of the White army and rebels allied to Riek Machar followed some citizens who crossed the gullies (Wak) west of Baidit Town in order to hide. The poor who ran away with their lives were shot at and 12 people died instantly and others wounded. Over five hundred heads of cattle were robbed.
One of the victims of that attack is one lady by the name of Bol Mayen, wife of
Mordchai Maketh Duk, a career teacher and a veteran of Anyanya one war. Bol was
shot at the leg and the arm two weeks ago by the white Army at Baidit and as a
result was evacuated to the marshy land for recuperation. Unfortunately the determined killers when and finished her. In the same incident, her nephew Maker Gai Duk was killed. Maker was the son of her brother in law Gai Duk. Gai Duk himself was killed by Nuer during the 1991. These are some of the sad incidences which are overtaking the innocent people of Bor County.

As a result several people are reported killed or injured at different locations. Real
stories will come related when the situation returns to normal if ever it will happen. Many are dying of diseases such as diarrhea among the children and the elderly.  In less than one day alone at Guolyar, nearly 20 children died of diarrhea.

The route studied by Gadet before his onslaught on Bor people; that is the 38 kilometer road stretching from Cueikeer to Makol Cuei was used by the invaders to burn down the villages of Mathiang, Baidit, Makol Cuei, Werkok, Kapat, Konbek, Makuac, Mareng, Thianwei, Anyidi Kolnyang and other villages on the way. Not only setting the villages ablaze but used the route to flank the SPLA forces at Malou and Bangashorot.

This is a little account that could be related till present moment about the magnitude and the extent the destruction has taken on the innocent people of Bor. Nobody knows in how long the people of Bor will take before recovering from this killing! The real figures of the fatalities and destruction will be exposed when things go back to normal but when! The Almighty God knows.

Why were the people of Bor targeted?  

No one could exactly say why the people of Bor are targets of the current political wrangling in South Sudan. If the target was the SPLA forces, nothing would have involved the White Army composed mainly of Lou and Gaweer Nuers. If the intention is to control the oil fields, there is no oil field in Bor. There is only expected one oil well at Akeer between Duk and Ayod Counties. Moreover, the drilling at that oil field is at the initial stages of discovery and exploitation. If because Kuol Manyang and Michael Makuei Lueth are ministers in the National Government, Greater Lou Nuer alone has three ministers in the national government and four in the Jonglei State Government namely Dr. Riek Gai Kok, Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin and Racheal Nyadak Paul and Hussein Mar Nyot, Nyang Lul, Manawa Peter Gatkwoth and Gabriel Gai Riem in the national and state governments respectively.

If Riek Machar wanted to control the whole of Greater Upper Nile such that he uses it as a trumping card in any negotiations with the government of South Sudan, he should have not involved civilians in his war. Had Bor people being applying any discriminatory treatment on other ethnic groups in the state? Absolutely no and categorically no. If because Bor had witnessed some economical and infrastructural
development during the few years of CPA and independence, it was through the
efforts of all the citizens of the state and Nuer inclusive. Then why involving the innocent civilians and especially the Lou Nuer youth? If the Lou are under the influence of their Kujurs why did they not spare the lives of the South Sudanese during the long struggle waged against the North? Or are the Kujurs specialized in raiding and killing of the Bor Dinkas? Will the Kujur raise those killed among the White Army from death? Or will the Kujur take care of the families of the lost young Lou Nuer in war? Many questions could be posed why is Riek and Nuer particular  targeting
the Bor people?  Definitely no one can provide a convincing answer.

If all the reasons why Lou Nuer invaded Bor are exhausted without answers, then the only remaining answer is that Nuers have to rule South Sudan whether the South Sudanese like it or not and the way to achieve that goal is to wipe out the whole community of Bor County. If ruling of a country should be according to the size of the population, Joseph Lagu, Gismalla Abdalla Rasas, James Joseph Tambura ruled South Sudan during the Addis Ababa Agreement. Lwiji Adwok was the only Southerner during the long history of Sudan who flew the national flag for a month when head of the Council of the State when the chairmanship was rotational.

The mentioned South Sudanese leaders had their chances of leading Southerners despite hailing from minority tribes in South Sudan. For the Nuers, Riek Machar and Riek Gai were chairmen of the Coordinating Council for the South. Late Peter Gatkwoth was an interim president of the High Executive Council when Gen. Numiery dismissed the government of Gen. Joseph Lagu in 1979. Still the question hangs why is the Lou Nuer used against Bor Dinka? When the Lou Nuer Yuoth moved against the Murle in 2011, Riek Machar rushed to persuade them not to attack the Murles. But when the targeted were Bor Dinka, Riek turned a blind eye. In actual fact, Riek ordered and instigated the Lou Nuer and Gawer to smash the Bor Dinka.

Then, what is the problem between both the Lou Nuer and Gawer on one hand and Bor Dinka on the other?

• Lou and Gawer Nuers have no common borders with Bor Dinka. They are separated by Hol, Nyarweng and Twic communities. 
• There are no areas of contacts where the three communities meet especially during the dry season whereby pastoralists communities usually compete for the scarce resources of water and grazing.
• There are no historical problems or grudges between these communities that can buoyed at any time. It is in 1928 that the Lou Nuer raided the Dinka Land but the invasion was repulsed at Palep and Rem in Bor County. By that time, there were no educated people who could advise the communities to restrain from attacking each other.
• During the Regional Rule in the South, Lou Nuer and Dinkas were political allies and those who happened to attend that period could recall how Abel Alier, Peter Gatkwoth and Michael Wal Duany were very close allies.

Some African politicians are now facing trials in front of the International Criminal Court (The ICC) in the Hague for human rights violations in their countries. But the International community applied different standards in the case of the over 10,000 people killed in Bor in1991. We do not know how many butchered this time in the second invasion of Lou Nuer and Gawer to Bor? The International community is silently watching the genocide of Bor People without concern. May be Bor People are not included in the laws of humanity and human rights that are applied on those affected or aggrieved.

The answer for the massacre that took place between the 16^th December 2013 and January 2014 has no even the simplest reason and motive except mere jealousy, envy and hatred. Riek would like to reign over skulls, bones and graves of the people of Bor. Daniel .K. Mathews, the former Governor of Upper in the 90s of the last century said (He could administer Upper Nile without Bor). DK was kinder and humane to Bor people than Riek Machar as he(DK) did not like to represent them in his government but Riek Machar does not want the people of Bor to live on the surface of the earth.

Why is Riek Machar more influential on Lou and Gawer Nuers than the two communities elites and political leaders?

Riek Machar is from Bentiu or a Jiekeny Nuer for that matter but leisurely he uses Lou and Gawer Nuer to implement his desires and programs without objection or resistance from anyone. His programs are deadly but the equal giants and elites of Riek Machar caliber among the communities of Lou and Gawer watch him dragging their communities to death and destruction. Lou Nuer has the kind of Dr. Riek Gai, Justice John Luk, Barnaba Marial, Gen. Peter Bol Koang, Gen. Johnson Gony, Manawa Peter Gatkwoth, Gabriel Yol, ambassador Majok Guondong and many others who played a great role in the struggle and history of South Sudan.

On the other hand, Gawer is full of giants the kind of James Kok, Joseph Duer, Michael Mario, Timothy Tot Chol, John Koang Nyuon and many others that this page cannot take. Unless these leaders considered Riek Machar to have taken these communities to a dancing party where participants are expected to return happy and peaceful! The conclusion from the Lou and Gawer leaders’ indifference is that, either they do not command the respect of their communities or maybe they are sympathizing with Riek Machar under the surface.  What so ever the bravery of their kin and kin, all the mentioned political giants will one day mourn one or more of their relatives after returning from the touring picnic to Bor. 

How will the people of Jonglei State peacefully co- exist
after the second massacre by the Lou Nuer on the people of Bor?

Former late South African President Nelson Mandela during the peace and reconciliation process in South Africa, said the people were to forgive but not to forget. Exactly people of Bor forgave and even forgot the atrocities inflicted on them when Riek Machar ordered the wiping out of Bor Dinka from the map of South Sudan in 1991. Unfortunately Riek did not learn from his mistakes and for the second time ordered the finishing of those who remained in the 1991 massacre. Still with the second massacre and destruction, Almighty God will save some lives to wait for the third Riek expedition of wiping out the remnants of December 2013/2014 genocide. And till that time when the immortal Riek Machar repeats the action on the weak and innocent people of Bor, the stand of Bor people may be as follows:

During the implementation of CPA and after attainment of independence, some South Sudanese continued to educate their children in the neighboring countries of Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Europe, America and Australia. The rest of the children of the poor were left to undergo the poor quality of education. So when any insecurity happens, their children are in safe havens. I know majority of the squabbling politicians on seats of power acquired their education in Sudan but the very ones who got educated and trained in Sudan currently are despising the education offered in South Sudan.
These highly positioned South Sudanese think by offering quality education to
their children such that they will automatically catapult their children to the leadership of the children of the rest of the poor and vulnerable.

An awkward situation that revealed itself during the last incidents in South Sudan is that when some people felt insecure, they rushed to UNMISS Compound and produced their other nationality certificates of the countries they sought resettlement during the liberation struggle. That is, they were to be evacuated as foreign nationals. A minister, a director, a member of parliament to deny his people when things are tense leaving his kin and kin to suffer the harshest conditions of insecurity and displacement! Then when these people with dual nationalities get themselves on the safe grounds in the countries of resettlement or refuge, they start to incite the people at home to discipline their kin and kin from the other communities.

Of course their children are eating good food, sleeping comfortably, attending their
education regularly and getting good health services. The poor who escaped the
fighting in Malakal, Bor, Bentiu and Juba are now moving aimlessly in the bushes and marshes of South Sudan leave those who got killed, maimed or missed during the aimless movement. To lose 18 children in one day through the effect of diarrhea in one location is a great lost to South Sudan. How many months do mothers take to bear these children during pregnancy and how many months or years they take to care for them? Then for one’s ambition we lose these South Sudanese in one day vaccinating them with bullets, hunger and diseases. Even if one does not expect these children to vote for him in the near future, they are likely to vote for their groomed children for future leadership (if leadership is automatic.)

Till writing of this report, the onslaught on the innocent of Bor County is still continuing.

Thanks to the entire community of Awerial County headed by the County Commissioner for their hospitality and reception of the displaced people from Bor.

Maker Lual Kuol

Displaced citizen at Guolyar/ Awerial County/Lake State

8^th January 2014

Mobile: +211956525130/+211977183317

In South Sudan a political power struggle has deteriorated into mass murder. The Telegraph reports from Minkamen refugee camp

By David Blair, in Minkamen, video by Geoff Pugh

The Telegraph

Dawn was breaking over the White Nile as a heavily laden boat came into view. The ancient barge threaded its way past emerald reed-beds and beneath a flock of geese in perfect V-formation before drawing up near the shore.

"From the colonial Sudan, unto the independent Sudan – and South Sudan - the city of Bor had received umpteenth spotlights, both domestic and international for all reasons with good ones tipping the scale"

JUBA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - The South Sudanese government has accused rebel troops of committing atrocities against civilians by killing 127 hospital patients in the town of Bor last month.

The United Nations says thousands of people have been killed in more than a month of clashes pitting troops loyal to President Salva Kiir against rebels supporting Riek Machar, who was sacked as vice president in July.

Officials said the killings occurred on Dec. 19 when Peter Gadet, the army commander in Bor, pledged loyalty to Machar. Bor, which has seen some of the worst fighting since the rebellion started, was only retaken by the government last Saturday.

"They went into the hospital and slaughtered all 127 patients," Ateny Wek Ateny, the president's spokesman, told a news conference.

The rebels rejected the accusation and instead accused the government of massacring civilians in the capital, Juba, and of flattening the oil-producing Unity state's capital of Bentiu when they seized it back from the rebels earlier this month.

"That is a complete lie... We don't target civilians and on the contrary it is the government that targets its own civilians starting with the massacre in Juba," Lul Ruai Koang, a rebel military spokesman, told Reuters by phone from the Kenyan capital.

Officials of the United Nations humanitarian mission to the country were not immediately available to comment.

The army regained Bor with the backing of Ugandan troops deployed there.

Initially sparked off by a political row, battle lines have increasingly followed ethnic lines with Kiir's Dinka battling Machar's Nuer.

Kiir and Machar declined to sign a ceasefire agreement in Ethiopia due to disagreements over the fate of 11 detainees held by authorities in Juba and the involvement of the foreign troops.

Rebels insist the detainees be freed before a deal can be signed while the government maintains that they will only be released when the due process of law has been followed.

A summit of the heads of state of the regional grouping of Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which initiated the Addis Ababa talks, was postponed from Thursday.

A statement from the South Sudanese president's office said the IGAD meeting that was scheduled for Juba would now be held alongside the African Union summit in Addis Ababa starting Jan. 28. (Additional reporting and writing by Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

The AGE

JOHN MAC ACUEK 1972-2014

John Mac Acuek was killed recently while he was leading an effort to save civilians caught up in the fighting in South Sudan. It was a tragic, yet heroic, end for a man who seemed to have escaped war to make a new beginning in Australia.

John Mac, as he was known to his Australian friends, was born on December 1, 1972, the son of a Dinka chief, in Bor on the Nile River, in what was then Sudan (now South Sudan). At 13, he was pressed into service as a child soldier for the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army (SPLA), fighting for independence for southern Sudan. In his first battle, he was wounded by artillery fire and left to die.

He was found alive and conscious a couple of days later, and SPLA medics operated on him without anaesthetic, removing shrapnel fragments from his brain.

In a later engagement, he was shot through the ribs and leg. His comrades carried him across the nearby Ethiopian border to save him from the government soldiers, who rarely took prisoners.

After a third serious battlefield injury, Acuek was told a beautiful woman known to his family was in a displacement camp in a nearby town. Still far from recovered, he walked 50 kilometres to meet her. His marriage to Elizabeth, he would later recount, cost him 36 cows.

Like Lieutenant Henry, Hemingway's hero in A Farewell to Arms, Acuek had reached his fill of war. Family connections got his new wife to Nairobi, and Acuek set off to join her. Along the way he collected Elizabeth's mother and brother, and then busted his 12-year-old half-brother, Deng, out of a child soldier training camp.

Acuek, Elizabeth and Deng spent years in dismal refugee camps in northern Kenya. Their break came in the sprawling Kakuma camp in 1997, when Acuek met visiting Australian aid worker Christine Harrison. She had formed a determination to save "just one" refugee.

She chose Acuek, she said in a 2001 interview, because he was "always charming, always cheerful, always optimistic".

Leaving nothing to chance, Acuek made a 14-hour round trip to Nairobi to phone Harrison's then-husband, Bob Campbell, in Sydney. "He basically just pleaded with me," recalls Campbell, who agreed to sponsor the family.

African violence was never far away, however. On a trip to Nairobi to process his visa paperwork, Acuek was spotted by a senior figure in the SPLA. He was seized and tortured for three days - for his "desertion" and his crime of saving his younger brother. He was being taken out to be executed when a Kenyan police patrol noticed something amiss and released him.

In June 26, 1998, John Mac Acuek, Elizabeth, their baby son Joshua - who had been born in the refugee camp - and Deng flew into Sydney. Their entire possessions amounted to their visas and a bag of nappies.

The adjustments to life in Australia were enormous.

When Bob Campbell met them at the airport and announced he was taking them to Blacktown, Acuek assumed it was a camp for black people. Campbell had to reassure him it was simply a suburb in Sydney's west.

The family had never seen a washing machine or a fridge. Elizabeth's first effort at cooking ended badly when she lit a wood fire in the oven, while Deng destroyed a microwave trying to take the chill off a can of Coke.

"We discovered KFC, and for months that's what we ate," Acuek later recalled.

Despite his minimal schooling, Acuek's intelligence - he spoke seven languages - helped him progress quickly from TAFE courses to the University of Western Sydney, where he studied anthropology and international development.

They were just the third South Sudanese refugee family to be settled in Australia, and Acuek was the first to graduate from an Australian university.

He later undertook postgraduate study at the University of Geneva, funded by donations after his story was published in the Catholic press.

But there were still difficulties. As an African migrant in western Sydney, Acuek's university degree brought him no local job offers outside factory work. He wanted to do aid work in the Asia-Pacific, ideally in newly independent East Timor, but there were no offers.

More painfully, his marriage was collapsing. He and Elizabeth had added a daughter to their son, but Elizabeth was discovering freedoms not available to a traditional Dinka wife and mother.

"After all the effort to get out of Sudan and get to Australia," says Bob Campbell, "the hardest thing he found to accept was Elizabeth's different notion of what a woman could be in Australia. That was the greatest culture shock."

Meanwhile, contract offers piled up from aid organisations working in Sudan.

Still needing to support his family and Deng's education, Acuek reluctantly returned to the country from which he had fled - this time as an Australian citizen.

In 2005, when Acuek was back in southern Sudan at the head of an Oxfam team, a local warlord demanded his 4WD vehicles, diesel supplies and prized communications equipment. When Acuek refused, he was beaten up and thrown unconscious into a deep pit, foul with the blood and faeces of previous occupants.

It took several days for Oxfam to get word to the Australian authorities in Nairobi. By the time a diplomat negotiated his release, Acuek was close to death. The ordeal left him with a serious skin condition that sensitised him to the cold. He could no longer tolerate even mild Sydney winters.

Acuek was again forced into long separations from his children. He was back in South Sudan when the new nation gained its independence in 2011.

Buoyed by the new possibilities there, but hardly naive about the difficulties, Acuek set up several business ventures. Noticing a disease ravaging the cattle herds in the traditional rural economy, he determined to find a vaccine. He establishing a new NGO, Life Through Livestock, to fund the research.

Acuek became a community leader, and was elected secretary of the Bor county administration.

He opened a hotel in the town last year, proud of having a full house of international aid workers grateful for some creature comforts. Another hotel was under construction.

His brother Deng, meanwhile, had graduated in law. The former boy soldier is now a criminal lawyer in Sydney's west.

The family's hard-won prosperity was jeopardised in late 2013. South Sudan's former vice-president, Riek Machar, rebelled against the government of President Salva Kiir. Machar, a member of the Nuer clan, claimed persecution by the more numerous Dinka. Amid these ethnic tensions, the army split. Bor was the flashpoint.

Over Christmas and New Year, Machar's forces were on the point of overrunning the town. A large group of Dinka, mostly women and children, were trapped against a bank of the Nile.

Acuek led the effort to save them, first ferrying the civilians in night-time flotillas of canoes, and later with a convoy of 4WDs. On his final effort to save those trapped, he was ambushed and shot dead.

John Mac Acuek is survived by his former wife Elizabeth, five children, brother Deng, and by extended family members in South Sudan, as well as by the many friends he made in Australia and across the world.

Hugh Riminton

UNHCR

DZAIPI TRANSIT CENTRE, Uganda, January 23 (UNHCR) – Sophia and Olivia might be among the most popular girls' names in the West these days, but in Dzaipi transit centre in northern Uganda the clear winner for newborn girls is Nyaring. In the Dinka language it means "running," and sums up the way they came into the world.

Little Nyaring Panchol, just over four weeks old, was born under a tree as her mother fled the conflict in South Sudan. She's one of dozens of babies with that name here.

Mother Athieng Agok, only 19, was in the last stages of pregnancy when gunmen started shooting and burning homes in her town near Bor, in Jonglei state, on December 18, three days after the fledgling country descended into violence. She ran into the bush, and when her labour pains began, lay down in the shade of a tree.

Luckily she had her own mother, 35-year-old Angelina Ayun, to help. All day long, with gunfire echoing around them, they hid in the bush as Athieng's contractions grew more frequent. "There was a nurse with us, but she got scared and ran away, so it was just me," says Angelina.

Finally at midnight, tiny Nyaring came into the world. The delivery was so painful that Athieng fainted. But when she came to, she had to marshal all her strength to continue her journey away from the fighting – first in a UN truck to the capital, Juba, and then by car to the Ugandan border.

"I was not feeling well, I had a cough and diarrhoea, but there was no time for waiting," she recalls. "They were killing people."

In a twist of fate, Athieng was born under the same circumstances. Her pregnant mother was forced to flee in the early 1990s when South Sudan was fighting the 22-year-long civil war which led to its independence from Sudan. Angelina also gave birth in the bush, while running to Western Equatoria in South Sudan.

Last month, when the fighting scattered the family, Athieng's husband ran in a different direction from the rest of the family. Once safe in Uganda, she managed to call and tell him he had a daughter. But the connection did not last long enough for her to find out where he is.

Now the three generations of females live in a small pop-up tent given to them by Athieng's uncle. UNHCR is erecting more family tents daily and giving top priority to unaccompanied children, the elderly, sick, disabled and new mothers, but there is still not enough shelter for all.

While a number of women deliver each day in Dzaipi health centre, many more – unaware of the services – are giving birth in the transit centre itself, often out in the open. The UN refugee agency is using volunteers and posters to get the word out that free health services are available.

"We have big challenges with lack of local staffing because of all the extra refugees the health centre is now serving," says Khamis Khamis, UNHCR regional health officer. "The maternity ward is also small, with only 10 beds for the whole facility, while there are many pregnant women within the transit centre. We are working with our health partners to try to address these gaps."

Athieng and her baby have already been referred to the health centre for a post-natal check-up and received a UN Population Fund dignity kit which contains items such as soap, underwear and a cloth wrap for new mothers. UNHCR intends to move Athieng and her small family as quickly as possible to nearby Nyumanzi settlement, where they will receive land and tools to build a home.

For now, it is taking time for the family to realize their ordeal is over. "We are still dreaming that we are running. We feel like we are still in the bush," says Angelina.

"No one can leave their country without fearing," she adds, after fleeing a second time with absolutely nothing. But now she cannot imagine taking a chance on returning home a second time: "I will stay here – the war will go on forever."

By Lucy Beck in Dzaipi Transit Centre, Uganda

By Jenny Vaughan AFP

Addis Ababa — South Sudan's government and rebels on Thursday signed a ceasefire agreement, pledging to halt fighting within 24 hours and end five weeks of bitter conflict that has left thousands dead.

The agreement was signed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa by representatives of South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and rebel delegates loyal to ousted vice president Riek Machar, and was greeted by cheers from regional peace brokers and diplomats.

Mediators from the East African regional bloc IGAD, which has been brokering the peace talks, said the deal will put in place a verification and monitoring mechanism for the truce and allow unrestricted access to aid workers.

South Sudan's government also agreed to free 11 officials close to Machar who were detained after fighting between rival army units broke out on December 15, although no timeline for their release was given. The status of the detainees had been a major sticking point in the talks.

The fighting has been marked by atrocities committed by both sides, and more than half a million people have been forced from their homes amid a wave of ethnic violence in the already impoverished nation. Aid workers and analysts believe up to 10,000 people have died.

"These two agreements are the ingredients to create an environment for achieving a total peace in my country," said Taban Deng, head of the rebel delegation.

He said he hoped the deal would "pave the way for a serious national political dialogue aiming at reaching a lasting peace in South Sudan," the world's newest nation which only won independence from Khartoum in 2011.

Government negotiator Nhial Deng Nhial said the talks, which have been dragging on in a luxury hotel for three weeks, were "not easy".

"We hope to be able to make haste towards an agreement that will end bloodshed," he said, but voiced scepticism over the ability of the rebels, comprised of renegade army units, ethnic militia and ordinary civilians, to halt their operations.

"What worries us is whether the agreement on the cessation of hostilities will stick (and) the capacity of the rebel group... to stop fighting," he added. "We would like to take this opportunity to urge the rebel group to heed the voice of reason and abandon the quest for political power through violence."

US welcomes 'critical first step'

The United States, which played a crucial role in helping South Sudan win independence, welcomed the deal as a "critical first step" and called on both parties to implement it swiftly.

"This is a first critical step in ending the violence... we expect both parties to fully and swiftly implement the agreement," said White House spokesman Jay Carney, urging the two sides to move toward "an inclusive political dialogue".

He also said that "those who have committed atrocities must be held accountable".

After initial clashes broke out in the capital Juba more than a month ago, the conflict rapidly escalated into all-out war between the regular army, who have been backed by Ugandan troops, and breakaway army units and other militia.

The violence took on an ethnic dimension as members of Kiir's Dinka tribe clashed with Machar's Nuer group, sending thousands to seek shelter in squalid camps or within UN peacekeeping bases.

On Monday government forces recaptured the town of Malakal situated in the strategic oil-producing Upper Nile state and the last major settlement under rebel control. Large numbers of rebel forces, however, are still massed in rural areas and smaller towns.

Malakal, the town of Bentiu in oil-producing Unity State and Jonglei State capital Bor have all been largely destroyed and emptied after weeks of sometimes intense combat.

Jan Egeland, a former United Nations aid chief and now head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), on Thursday described the scale of the atrocities and war crimes -- including the recruitment of child soldiers -- as being as bad as those seen in Syria or Somalia.

"We're very, very concerned that there's more and more killings along ethnic lines," Egeland told AFP. "The gruesome slaughtering of defenceless civilians is as bad as in Syria, in Somalia, as elsewhere. The whole point here is that it can be avoided, it should be avoided, it must be avoided."

The United Nations has said it is investigating widespread reports of atrocities and war crimes, including massacres, gang rapes and summary executions.

British aid agency Oxfam said the country now had a "second chance" and urged both side to allow respect the pledge to allow full humanitarian access.

"The demand in the agreement for humanitarian access is a clear acknowledgement that the dire living conditions for the near half a million people displaced by recent violence are unacceptable and must be reversed," said Jose Barahona, Oxfam's County Director for South Sudan.

Copyright © 2014 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

By Butrus Ajak,

This author goes one-sided because Dr Riek’s destroyed my people and their hometown twice. Instead of taking war where it started, he fought it at a wrong place, Bortown. Believe it or not Dr Riek perfectly fits for the International Criminal Court hearing. Dr Riek is a serial killer and a dangerous criminal if he remains at large. He was compromised by the people of Bor regarding the atrocities he committed in 1991 and such conciliation makes him repeat the Bor genocide in 2013/14. He is capable of repeating similar atrocities for the third time if not taken behind bars once and for all.   

Riek desperate quest for SPLM top seat at any cost, took and still taking countless civilians life. Bor town is shockingly littered with numerous dead bodies and properties ransacked, go see graphic photos taken after Bor fell to the government forces by both Aljazeera and BBC news outlet and you will come to grasp ‘Dr Riek’s token democracy is hell of a shock’. Civilians who could not run especially the sick, pensioners, disable and many others who remained in Bor were all ruthlessly murdered in cold blood.

The attack happened at the time Buor people were absorbing and re-evaluating Riek’s ‘1991 Bor Massacre apology’ regrettably, he inanely blew it off again. Dr Riek’s second rebellion flared up the old and nearly healed wound of Bor Massacre. The onslaught on Bor County communities has deplorably reopened hoary lesions and invigorated ethnic divisions from carnages of the long civil war where infamous Bor Massacre was perpetrated on us.   

In 1991 this very Riek fell out with Dr John Garang, the erstwhile SPLA/SPLM chairman. Dr Riek disagreed with John Garang over objectives. Where Dr John Garang wanted a secular and democratic but united Sudan in which the southerners would have full representation, Dr Riek wanted a fully independent South Sudan. In August the same year Dr Riek Machar, Dr Lam Akol and General Gordon Kong announced that Dr John Garang had been expelled from the SPLM chairmanship.

The breakaway faction headed by Dr Riek went on and declared a war on Southerners just exactly the way he did it in 2013.  Riek ordered the same White Army to destroy Garang’s birth place in order to make Garang relinquished chairmanship. The political fell out resulted in deadly Dinka Bor tribal cleansing. The White Army massacred more than 2,000 people
mostly civilians in Bor in 1991, while tens of thousands died in the following
years from the resulting famine. Dr Riek forces drove away my people primary
source of living, cattle, goats and many others were all taken. What started as
power squabbling took a tribal dimension at the watch and command of Dr Riek
who bragged about consideration of democracy and Human Rights values.

Barefacedly,the time his forces overrun Bor killing civilians and taking away cattle, he was heard self-aggrandised of where Garang’s forces were to fight him when he surely knew SPLA forces were concentrated around Juba.

In December 2013, political disagreement in Juba between the reformists and conservatives resulted in a full blown up war.  Innocent people in Juba, Bor, Bentiu and Akobo were mercilessly killed subsequently. The government apparatus namely ‘Presidential Guards’ who are purportedly to have killed Nuer
civilians are in Juba and the leaders who commanded the killing are from Juba. The question is why Riek took the war to Bortown? My innocent civilians were viciously killed indiscriminately and properties destroyed as if our people were the one killing Nuer civilians in Juba.

The following are the findings atrocities committed and inflicted on Bor civilians by the forces of ‘prophet of doom’: I must say here his new found name fits him very well as the name goes in line with his actions the previous, and the current one.

Ø Amnesty International and members of Parliament of the South Sudan National Assembly reported that at least 2,500 people have died in Bor, following three week occupation by rebels who have been fighting Republic of South Sudan for over a month.

Ø Research organisation, the International Crisis Group estimated that over 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Ø The United Nations had it that over half a million people has been displaced.

Ø Human Rights Watch reported that about 84,000 civilians from Bor and surrounding areas fled following successive waves of fighting in December and January.

Ø MPs by the name June Malet, told Sudan Tribune (Jan 21) in Bor that she saw bodies of 14 women killed in church compound, Episcopal Church of South Sudan. The bodies of 32 patients, including10 children, where also found in Bor civil hospital and all elderly people who refused to leave Bor before 31 December 2013 have been killed.

Ø According to Sudan Tribune (Jan 21) about 32 dead bodies were found dumped in a small room at in Bor town hospital.

Ø Gurtong news recounted that in Saint Cathedral, known as Leudier in Bor, 14 elderly women loyal to God have been murdered in cold blood, most of whom were workers of God who take care of church affairs in the ministry of God.

Riek goes down the history of the Republic of South Sudan as brutal and a worse warlord known for being excellent at tribal incitement. He talked of lack of democracy in the SPLM/SPLA in the 90s and 2013, and instead of following democracy route he took arms mobilised his Nuer and waged unreasonable war on his fellow Southerners. His action in the 90s nearly derailed the SPLA/SPLM movement from attainment its overarching objects, his recent coup attempt has now taken the nation back to square one. Riek demeanors of forcing his way to secure leadership of the movement using bullet and not ballot and has been terribly catastrophic and a complete disenchantments of a man who would have become a president had he wisely used his academics prowess. 

Whatever dogmatic variances, Riek should not have resorted to taking arms against the nation he helped built in the last eight years, and the people he desperately needs to vote him in. He should have learnt a lesson or two from 1991 split, which was a complete shame to him and his blind followers. As this war is unfolding and subsiding at the same time, one would believe Riek, Taban and Hussein Nyot were not innocent about the coup attempt. Riek, Taban and Nyot escaped to their base in Nuerland and from what
White Army did to my innocent people in Bortown, they surely have communicated something sinister and tribal to them. While on a run, Riek called upon the army to depose the democratically elected President Kiir
and UN, Western countries and his stanch online followers said it's not a coup
d'état. The detainees could be innocent as most of them opted for SPLM internal reform and not necessarily arm taking, little did they know, Taban, Nyot and Riek had a contingency plan which was exclusively kept secret to the entire faction.

As I write, I do not still know where my parents are. They were mercilessly driven out of their homeland by the White Army. Their houses are vandalized which reminds us of the episode of 1991, a history almost forgiven and forgotten.

Is this the democracy Dr Riek has been talking about all these years?

According to Human Rights Watch, Yanadet Garang, a chief from Bor reported that those unable to run from the rebels were burned in their houses, including two elderly men, Achieng Mayen and Kuol Garang, and a paralysed woman. Is this the democracy Dr Riek talked about all these years?

From social site called Facebook a gentleman by name Eng Deng Kuol Nyuon wrote this “my grandfather Wuor Jok Nak (My mum's uncle) 90 yrs old was killed in cold blood in his house in Bor by Riek forces of darkness” besides this, the decease father was too killed by the same Riek forces in 1991.

Is this what democracy means to Riek and his forces? Thon Alier Nhial 70 year old mother was killed alongside her 12 other family members, all of whom were women and children at her house in Bor. Is this what democracy means to Riek and his followers?

Michael Majok Piel, father (Piel Mayen Deng) 62-year old and a war disable whose leg was amputated his brother and their brother-in-law and other family members were killed in their compound in town of Bor. Is this what democracy means to Riek and his forces?

49 civilians all elderly people from Anyidi, Palek only were all massacred alone at their house in Mareng an outpost of Anyidi Payam. And few of their names are here:

2.    Piel Mayen Deng (62 years old)

3.    Alier Maloi Anyang (68 years old)

4.    Biondit Deng Tong (73 years old)

5.    Awou Agot Madol (70 years old)

6.    Majok Akau (64 years old)

7.    Awou Agot Madol (94 years old)

8.    Madol Kom (80 years old)

9.    Machol Ngong (81 years old)
10.Ayuen Jok Madol (65 years old)

11.Nyuon Achuen (76 years old)

12.Nyankoor Pach (80 years old)

13.Anyiethdit (87 years old)

14.Yar Anyieth (64 years old)

Is this what democracy means to Dr Riek and his forces?

In closing remark, Dr Riek is a dangerous tribal warlord who needs put behind bars if International Criminal Court does not need to see third time atrocities being committed again in the Republic of South Sudan. Riek action of 2013 would not have happened had he prosecuted for committing crimes against humanity in the year 1991.

In 91 he declared rebellion to topple Dr Garang from SPLA/SPLM chairmanship by force using his Nuer people. He killed countless civilians and was militarily defeated and forgiven without charges laid on him. That being the case, in 2013 he organised his people again to fight his way to the SPLA/SPLM chairmanship. Fighting broke out in Juba and when his forces were defeated he smuggled out of Juba by the UNIMMIS officials on to his hiding boat in Rivernile and off he absconded to his stronghold in Nuerland. While on the run he called upon National army to topple Salva Kiir and wanted himself install as president, a clear case of a coup though being brushed off by the so-called Western powers that are interest driven other than gospel truth. We people of Bor County will not rest until Riek and his partners in crime are brought to justice to answer the atrocities they have committed twice on Dinka Bor people.        

Butrus is an erstwhile Red Army South Sudanese who resides in Australia; he holds MPH, MHP, BBus and Dip.BBus. 

GEOFFREY YORK

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN — The Globe and Mail

He was a soldier who witnessed terrible massacres in a civil war. Then, in the optimistic early days of the world’s newest nation, he became a banker on the financial frontier. Today he is angry, grief-stricken and ready to become a soldier again.

The story of Mayom Ateny Wai is the story of South Sudan itself: how the people of a brave new country have stumbled back into catastrophic bloodshed. Despite a ceasefire, the bloodshed continued this week in smaller-scale attacks. 

Seven political detainees, a central issue in the power struggle that triggered the latest war, were freed on Wednesday and flown to neighbouring Kenya in a gesture of reconciliation. But seven other opposition leaders still face treason charges, and the country remains a tinderbox of fury over atrocities on both sides. Up to 10,000 people are dead and 825,000 have fled their homes in just six disastrous weeks.

Mr. Wai, the bank manager, was helping his bank expand into the town of Bor last month when the fighting erupted. He fled into the bush and fought his way onto a boat to cross the river to safety. Last week, he returned to Bor for a few hours – and found a hospital filled with dead bodies.

His mind flashed back to the Bor massacre of 1991. He was a child soldier when he walked into the town that year, six days after the massacre that killed 2,000 civilians – one of the worst atrocities of the long civil war between southern and northern Sudan. Now the town was heaped with dead bodies again.

“When I saw the bodies, I broke into tears,” he said. “I was devastated. I don’t have words to describe it. I was asking, ‘Why, why, why are they being killed?’ The memories of 1991 came back immediately.”

He says he is ready to join the army again and fight the rebels if that’s what it takes to bring “law and order” to his country. “I feel the country is going back to civil war. The killings are continuing. The ceasefire isn’t working.”

A cousin in the small town of Jalle, about 40 kilometres from Bor, told him about a rebel raid this week that killed several people. Witnesses later said 15 were killed in the attack on Monday – three days after the ceasefire had officially begun. Similar reports have filtered in from several regions of South Sudan, with both sides implicated.

“South Sudan is going back to the dark days that we had forgotten when we became independent,” Mr. Wai said. “The rebels have to be cleared away. The government has to fight them. If I am called upon, I would offer myself.”

Mading Ngor, a journalist in Juba, said his uncle was among those killed in the Jalle attack on Monday. “The rebels are in smaller columns, still moving,” he said. “The army pushed them out of Bor, but it didn’t pursue them. I think both sides are playing games – and they’re playing games with lives. The ceasefire is on paper, but it’s not happening on the ground. Trust is gone.”

Anne Itto, a senior leader of the governing Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, told reporters on Wednesday that there has been a “significant reduction in shooting” since the ceasefire agreement. The ceasefire violations could be a result of communications problems between the commanders and the fighters, she said. “Some may not have even heard of the agreement.”

While people such as Mr. Wai blame the rebels for the huge death toll of the past six weeks, many others blame the government for atrocities of its own. More than 23,000 people have taken shelter in a desperately overcrowded tent camp on a United Nations military peacekeeping base in the capital, Juba. They say they are too terrified to return home after they witnessed horrendous attacks by government soldiers in the early days of the war last month.

Most people at the tent camp are from the Nuer ethnicity – the second-biggest ethnic group in South Sudan. They say they were deliberately targeted for killing by soldiers of the Dinka ethnicity, the largest in the country, after the start of the rebellion led by former vice-president Riek Machar, a Nuer.

“I saw the army collecting people at checkpoints and shooting them,” said Joseph Gadet, a 32-year-old oil company employee. Soldiers, he said, were asking: “Where are the houses of the Nuer?” He concealed the traditional Nuer tribal marks on his forehead and dodged checkpoints for two days until he could reach the UN base to take refuge.

Charles Riek Wal, a Nuer university student, said a large group of Dinka soldiers burst into his home on Dec. 16 and demanded to know the ethnicity of the nine men in the house. He was the only one who could speak the Dinka language, so he pretended to be Dinka and his life was spared. The others were tied together and marched out of the house at gunpoint. “I haven’t seen them since,” he said. “They are dead.”

Senior UN officials are increasingly worried that a lack of reconciliation might leave the displaced people in permanent camps, which could become a humanitarian nightmare.

“We cannot have people who continue to shelter in UN bases because they are so fearful,” UN emergency relief co-ordinator Valerie Amos told a press conference in Juba on Wednesday.

“The future of this country is blighted if people are not able to work together,” she said.

By Elizabeth Apajook Deng Lual


After untimely and suspicious death of Dr. Garang, the founder of South Sudan ruling party Sudanese People Liberation Movement (SPLM), persona of President Kiir accorded many South Sudanese comfort and solace. The people were simply comforted by the fact that President Kiir was one of the founders of SPLM who would ensure the mission of SPLM is realized through implementation of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and beyond. However, I was not impressed by Kiir’s ascendance to power because his ulterior motive to completely annihilate peace loving community of Bor was going to be realized. Mr. President since he joined the movement in 1983 and became SPLA general chief of staff and head of intelligence has been busy working to ensure the Community of Bor is wiped out. The following discussions will highlight specific roles he played and continues to play to ensure his ulterior motive of decimating or paralyzing the community of Bor is realized.

As a head of SPLA intelligence, General Kiir concocted numerous seditious claims against loyal members of SPLA/M leadership who happened to have hailed from Bor community; unfortunately as a result majority of these people were arrested and fatally tortured in the prisons characterized by harshly inhumane conditions. Notable and highly educated sons of Bor Community, who selflessly served in SPLM/A ranks and files, were hunted down and brutally murdered in cold blood.

In earlier months of 1991 , General Kiir claimed that he had gathered enough intelligence against Dr. Riek ; that Dr. Riek was planning a coup against leadership of the SPLM/A . Consequently, Late Dr. Garang commissioned General Kiir to arrest Dr. Riek . However , given his  lack of tactics General Kiir allowed  Dr. Riek to get to Nassir where he mobilized and prepared his tribesmen in to a robust military unit ,and summarily killed cadres of SPLM/ A who were of Bor origin . Dr. Riek attacked and helplessly killed civilians in Bor area , at the time when Bor sons had converged at town of Juba . Dr. Riek and his army , mostly comprised of few former SPLA soldiers and vast majority of untrained civilians under spell of Wurnyang’s magic , killed unarmed civilians - women , children and elderly-, looted live stocks and burned crops and buildings . Many civilians lost lives and many more got displaced from Bor area, thanks to General Kiir.

Pass forward to post referendum. At a prayer gathering held at late Dr. Garang’s house in Juba, Dr. Riek was moved by the speeches of various elderly members of Bor community; he became emotional and broke down. Then he confessed about atrocities he committed in Bor area and asked for forgiveness – a move that was welcomed by the members of Bor community who wanted to bury hatchet and start new a chapter with Nuer community in general and with Dr. Riek in particular. But the President General Salva – who is constantly giving amnesty after amnesty against enemies of South Sudan – ironically dismissed Dr. Riek’s turn of heart as ineffective; the President told Riek that local apologies would not suffice Dr. Riek clearly heard Mr. President’s call for bigger platform on which to deliver his apologies for atrocities he committed; and came up with and worked for idea of national reconciliation. However, the same president who called for bigger platform pushed off Dr. Riek from organization of national reconciliation. The president’s moves are aimed at stonewalling any reconciliation between Dr. Riek and Nuer community on one hand and the community of Bor on the other hand. The president would like Nuer community and Dr. Riek to remain as a sworn enemy of Bor community; this fits the president’s ulterior motive to annihilate Dinka Bor community.

President Kiir’s selective disarmament process leaves a lot be desired. Peace Loving community of Bor was targeted for disarmament while hostile communities of Nuer and Murle remain at large with guns. While Dinka Bor community has given up their guns, the government standby while civilians are raided and helplessly killed by these belligerent communities. To make matters worse, supposedly SPLA forces stationed in Bortown comprise of members of these hostile communities of Nuer and Murle – forces which are reluctant to pursue their own tribesmen who are committing atrocities against civilians. While sons of Nuer and Murle are stationed in Bortown, sons of Dinka Bor are assigned to South and North borders where they would not be able to defend their civilians; majority of the SPLA cadres of Dinka Bor origin have been prematurely and disgracefully retired. Literally, this president is working overtime to ensure the community of Dinka Bor is at a position where they cannot defend themselves.

If all of the above scenarios are not enough to make my case, let’s look at the president’s activities leading to “coup attempt.” President was expected to be set a reconciliatory tone in the meeting of SPLM, but he instead veered off from the tabled agenda and personally attacked Dr. Riek . The president went further to dare Dr. Riek to commit similar atrocities of 1991. Sadly, Riek repeated his actions of 1991. He helplessly raped and killed elderly, children and women. Sick people in Bortown civil hospitals, people who had sought refuge in churches and elderly were killed. The forces torn down buildings and anything they could find. Atrocities Riek and his forces committed this time around are two times of that of 1991. I am sure the president would be contented now for many civilians are killed and more displaced and it would take several years for Bor to be Bor again.

Though one would clearly see President Kiir’s intention to destroy Dinka Bor community, one would not understand what could be the genesis of this deep-seated hatred. He is bent to annihilated Bor community in part or in whole.  

By Elizabeth Apajook Lual Deng

“It is not true that people have been killed and displaced from Bortown. Paleeks, the owners of Bortown, are still at home “,  Said Nyandeng de Chol Atem in her interview
with BBC.

Nyandeng, your intentions towards Bor community are obvious. Your view to our community of Bor became clear after untimely death of our beloved son , Dr. Garang . You immediately ceased to be a Bor after collecting Dr. Garang’s life insurance from Ugandan government. However, you kept the surname name of Dr. Garang in order to continue getting sympathies and assistance from his friends and people. However, it is time for the Bor community to officially part ways with you. It is time for you to cease using and subsequently soiling our name through greed and political prostitution. 

Nyandeng, you have completely killed people of Bor. Your message on BBC – that Nuer civilians were targeted and killed in Juba -  infuriated Gen. Gatdet and SPLA officers of Nuer origin and matched to town of Bor and the suburbs where they helplessly and brutally butchered elderly and sickly who could not run . Women who had sought refuge in sanctuary of Bor cathedral were hunted down, raped and killed. Sickly in the civil hospital of Bor were also raped and killed. Banks and shops were looted and either set ablaze or torn down. A pregnant woman was raped, killed and impaled and fetus was speared to death. This is rather disturbing image , but this is state of affairs in Bortown and all the villages of Bor from Gok to Hol. Many people have been displaced and are either in neighboring towns of Lakes State or in refugee camps in Uganda and Kenya. It will take several years before Bor become Bor again, thanks to you.

Nyandeng, Bor community whether in the Diaspora or a home would hold you and your partner in crime, Dr. Riek accountable for atrocities committed against innocent and defenseless civilians.  Mind you, your negotiation in Addis Ababa will not be complete if you both would not own up to the atrocities committed.  

Mabior de Mabior, we know your mother misled you. You are our son and brother and we will always be here for you should you come to your senses.  Come back and work for your father’s view of liberating South Sudanese from poverty, illiteracy; your father’s vision can be realized through nongovernmental and nonpolitical means. You do not need to be in political position to further his view. 
 

By Goran Tomasevic

JONGLEI STATE, South Sudan Fri Jan 31, 2014 2:40pm EST

JONGLEI STATE, (Reuters) - South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar accused the government on Friday of ethnic cleansing and trying to sabotage peace talks, in his first face-to-face interview since fighting erupted late last year in Africa's youngest nation.

Dressed in dark green military fatigues and speaking to Reuters in his bush hideout, Machar branded President Salva Kiir a discredited leader who had lost the people's trust and should resign.

Thousands have been killed and more than half a million have fled their homes since fighting erupted in the capital Juba in mid-December and spread quickly across the oil-producing nation, often following ethnic lines.

The two sides signed a ceasefire on January 23 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, but each has accused the other of breaking it.

"Salva Kiir has committed atrocities in Juba, he has engaged in ethnic cleansing and he is still involved in the process," Machar said.

His comments highlighted the gulf between the sides, who are meant to resume their troubled peace talks in Ethiopia next week. Regional and world powers are worried fighting could break out again and spill over into neighboring states.

South Sudan's justice minister said this week that former vice president Machar and six of his closest allies should face treason charges, accusing him of trying to launch a coup.

"I am not aware of why we should face those charges for an alleged coup that never happened," Machar said. "(It) is another attempt to stop peace talks."

Machar has regularly denied starting the violence or trying to seize power, and has accused the president of taking advantage of an outburst of fighting between rival groups of soldiers to round up political rivals.

The United Nations and rights groups say both warring sides have committed atrocities, in a conflict that has taken the country to the brink of civil war. The government and rebels both accuse each other of ethnically motivated killings.

Human Rights Watch said earlier this month that government SPLA forces had targeted civilians from Machar's Nuer group in Juba early on in the conflict, while rebel forces had butchered members of Kiir's Dinka tribe in other towns.

GUNS AND LAUNDRY

In Machar's bush camp, hidden in the thorny scrub of South Sudan's vast Jonglei state which has untapped oil reserves, assault rifles stood propped up against a tree and laundry hung drying in the branches.

Nearby, Machar's wife Angelina Teny, a former mining and energy minister in the united Sudan before the South seceded in 2011, was typing on a laptop in front of her tent.

The rebel leader said Kiir had lost the support of the country's 11 million people. Asked what he wanted from the peace talks, Machar, who was sacked by Kiir in July, said he had no interest in being reinstated as vice president.

"It would be best for Kiir to resign. We are due for elections in 2015. Before the elections there would be an interim government," Machar said, declining to say who might lead it.

Machar blamed the army for the ceasefire violations. The army was, he said, battling to extend its control outside the towns of Malakal and Bentiu, near the country's main oil fields, and Bor, scene of some of the heaviest clashes.

Regional leaders said on Friday they aimed to deploy the first members of a team to monitor the shaky ceasefire at the weekend.

Even so, obstacles still lie in the way of the peace talks re-starting on time.

Four of the six senior political figures accused of treason alongside Machar are in detention in Juba. Machar pressed for their release after the government on Wednesday freed seven other detainees, but declined to say if he would call back his negotiators if the government refused.

"It will not be an inclusive peace process if they're not there. A non-inclusive process would hurt the people of Sudan," he said.

Machar said Kiir had only survived the uprising because Uganda's military had intervened. Uganda has admitted its army provided air and ground support to Kiir's troops, raising concerns among diplomats that the wider region could be sucked into the conflict.

"If it was not for the interference of the Ugandans, we would be in Juba now," Machar said.

Asked if that meant he would be in power, he replied: "Not necessarily, but Kiir wouldn't have been president."

(Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

By Okech Francis

Anadolu Agency

At least 15 people were killed – including women and children – and hundreds of heads of cattle stolen in militant attacks on two villages near Bor, capital of South Sudan's Jonglei State, which the government was quick to blame on rebels.

"The areas are very far and there are no access routes, so we couldn't readily verify the attacks," Sudan People's Liberation Army spokesman Col. Philip Aguer told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.

Militants attacked the villages of Jelle and Abuodit in the early hours of Wednesday. They reportedly killed 15 people and looted hundreds of heads of cattle.

"Most of those killed were women, elderly persons and children," Aguer asserted.

The army spokesman was quick to point the finger at rebels loyal to Riek Machar, President Salva Kiir's sacked vice president.

"These are typical acts by the rebels," he said. "They are continuing to carry out attacks despite the ceasefire agreement."

A spokesman for the rebel was not immediately available to comment on the accusation.

South Sudan has been shaken by violence since mid-December, when Kiir accused Machar of standing behind a failed coup attempt against his regime.

Following weeks of talks, the warring rivals signed an agreement last week calling for a cessation of hostilities.

According to the cessation of hostilities agreement, both parties "shall commit to immediately cease all military operations and freeze their forces at the places they are in and refrain from taking any actions that could lead to military confrontations, including all movement of forces, ammunition resupply, or any other action that could be viewed as confrontational."

On the security of civilians, the agreement calls on both parties to the conflict to "refrain from attacks on the civilian population and commit to the protection of human rights, life and property as provided by various national, continental and international instruments."

The violence, however, has already claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people.

Concluding a three-day visit to the country, Amos Valerie, UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said Wednesday that some 3.7 million people in South Sudan were now severely food insecure, while more than 820,000 had been displaced.

englishnews@aa.com.tr

Daniel Mabior Achiek Chau, Chair man Bor County, U.S.A

(Pleaseread the whole paper)

There are restless times when I have spent the night without sleeping. During these nights, I have thought about the first and the second massacre of Bor people committed by Riek Machar’s forces. In two repetitive massacres, unarmed Bor noncombatants especially poor senior citizens of Bor County, patients, children, and disabled people were slaughtered because they were Dinka. His forces also had no compassion for those Nuer people who supported the government either; their lives were not spared either.

With strong evidence of inhumane killing blamed on Riek Machar’s forces, it is imperative for the world to know this is not a tribal war. It is not Nuer versus Dinka as is being portrayed in the media outlets. If the conflict were Dinkas versus Nuers as the media puts it, why are refugees from Nuer being hosted in Warrape and Apadang and other Dinka lands? To iterate my point, nobody is targeting Nuer people. It is Riek Machar’s forces who are targeting the civilians, especially Bor community.

We must admit the truth that Nuer people were targeted and killed in Juba by soldiers who were so outraged at the chain of events as they unfolded in Juba, and this must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. However, does this justify the revenge killing of the elderly and patients in Bor town civil hospital? Once must be made aware that government soldiers are not targeting the Nuer community. What happened in Juba was an incident that should be condemned, and one must implore the government to hold accountable those responsible for these criminal acts.

Riek Machar is preaching the war as inter-tribal in order to gain support from his Nuer men who are culturally taught to go to fight first and find out later how the war originated. However, the universal rule tells us to first find out the root
cause before going to war.

In 1991, Riek Machar defected from the SPLA due to his prior intentions of leading the SPLA. For him to make his case to his tribal men, he framed three strategic deceptions to deceive and mobilize large numbers of Lou-Nuer youth to go to Bor, kill innocent civilians and loot their properties. He thought this would weaken Dr. John Garang and for the surrender of power to him. The first deception Riek laid out was that Dr. John Garang said that “he has oppressed and put Nuer in his pocket.” “So how long should Nuer stay in Dinka pocket?” he inquired. Secondly, Dr. John Garang had developed his own community of Bor and not a single area of Nuer land was developed. Nobody in his right mind would think of development during those days of war. He further told them if you go to Bor, you would see electricity shinning in every Luak (hut) while there is no single electricity in Nasir. Third, the SPLA had produced the monetary currency and Dr. John Garang wanted the logo on the money to be that of a monitor lizard (Mariar-nyang in Nuer and Agany in Dinka) because the Dinka eat Agany. Riek himself wanted the logo to be the cow since Nuers and Dinkas keep cows, but Garang refused to do so. These three mentioned allegations were the cause of his defection.

He articulated that neither himself nor any Nuer people wanted to be oppressed by the Dinka people. In collaboration with Wurnyeng, who was
a Nuer-Lou traditional devil leader, they deceived the Nuer people, especially
Lou-Nuer youth whom Riek considered vulnerable and an easy target to deceive. He won them over by telling them that everybody who would be killed in Bor would rise at his home tomb, making it an easy trip back home. 

Because Lou-Nuer youth were easily deceived, they turned out in great numbers and carried out one of the most extreme inhumane crimes on Bor people in the history of Sudan. Thousands of civilians were massacred; many were abducted, hundreds of thousands were displaced, and millions of livestock were stolen. All these happened on his
watch!

After the Lou-Nuer destruction and decimation of the whole area of Bor in 1991, his deception was uncovered because there was no development in the area after all, nor did a single man rise from death according to Wurnyeng’s prophesies. Ultimately no money was produced by the SPLA. So the Lou-Nuer realized they were betrayed by Machar. They abandoned him and went back to their villages.

Lou-Nuer’s only benefit from Riek’s destruction in 1991 was the children and the women they abducted, the looting of the villages of Bor, and inhumane killing of the innocent civilians. After the truth was detected, and Lou-Nuer youth abandoned him, Dr.  Riek was left vulnerable and he ended up in Khartoum because he did not defeat John Garang and didn’t have a large enough army to continue fighting with SPLA or the Khartoum government. This visionless leader signed what is called “The Khartoum Agreement” which did not yield any fruit at all. After the Lou-Nuer youth abandoned his mission, he began denouncing and condemning massacres carried out by Lou-Nuer in Bor calling it unlawful, inappropriate, and violation of human rights carried out by the people who were pursuing their own interests other than his mission. Riek blamed Lou-Nuer for killing and looting while he killed the SPLA and the most educated officers including heavy machines operators who were Dinkas in Nasir. On top of them were Akim Aluong Kang, Justice Manyuon Anyang, Kuol Deng Kuol, Kuereeng Akoi, Dr. Lem Kuany Achiek, Reech Deng Lual, chief from Daichuek and many others. Some other escaped from Nasir and they
were pursued by Riek’s security personnel to Dimma Refugee camp where I and other 11 Sons of Bor county transported them to Kenya in 1992. Among them were Kon Kudum Thod, Major General Deng Leek Deng, Brigadier General Ayor Kuok and others. Those who were targeted in Nasir were from the Greater Bor community except Kuol Deng who not only refused to sign a coup documents but also tore them and directly insulted Riek in parade. This illogic and inhuman act made him lose his supporters both internally and externally.

Although the President has his share of mismanagement to this crisis, the former Vice President Riek Machar has contributed to the cause of present political crisis. In no terms should Dr. Riek Machar be allowed to lead the country. He lacks the credibility and management skills to lead this nation forward. He is unable to control his forces, let alone the country. In addition to this factor, a huge proportion of his supporters always come from the community known to be extremely violent in the history of this country. Their behavior has taken this war to a different dimension. The current massacre in Bor, especially in the church and the Bor civil hospital is a clear indication of Riek’s failure. These killings only amount to an act of the devil and of inhumane beings whose vision to lead the country is meaningless. Dr. Riek and his
supporters haven’t learned of why they failed terribly in 1991. If they did
learn anything from it, they wouldn’t allow the history to repeat itself.

The former vice president has contradicted himself by saying that the incident was not a coup, and at the same time he is asking the democratically elected president to step down or fight him to leave power. It is a wrong calculation and a wrong political move. A democratically elected president should not be removed by force because this could be a wrong turn for a new country. So, if Riek Machar had credibility and crisis management skills, he would have condemned the massacre taking place in the country and called for a peaceful resolution. Riek does not see the turmoil taking place in the country because he believes in Ngundeng’s prophesies. He has devoted himself to the second self-proclaimed Nuer prophet who said that any Lou-Nuer youth who does not want to go and overthrow the Dinka dominated government in Juba will become blind. Lou-Nuer youth go to churches on Sundays and at the same time believe in other gods. They unanimously agreed to inflict this carnage without reflecting on the 1991 deceptions by Riek Machar and Wurnyeng. This second massacre, which has caused too much pain among the population of Bor across the globe is serious destruction that only not deserves condemnation, but those responsible must be held accountable. There is no reason for Riek’s supporters mainly from the Greater Upper Region to bring such destruction and obliteration to their own brothers and sisters. 

Now the whole Upper Nile region is totally devastated by this senseless war since thousands of their innocent civilians have been killed and their properties destroyed. The people responsible for these atrocities are from Upper Nile region as well. This brings me to the point I mentioned in one of my posts on my Facebook page that illiteracy is a death in itself. If not for illiteracy, there would be no reason for the people from the Greater Upper Nile to distress their own region.

Is there any region or state in the whole world where the owners are so blind so
as not to be able to forsee the future of their states? Terrible, isn’t it folks?  Lou-Nuer must understand that Bor people are their brothers and sisters rather than the Nuer of Unity State. We may not share the same language, but we share the same state and we are in the same geographical area. It is a reality we cannot deny. Now, the question is, what will be the future of Jonglei states? I need your comment on this please.

My advice, first of all, I want to advice everybody including those who are not happy with the manner in which the country is being managed, to rally behind the government and protect the law, constitution, and the elected government until it is democratically removed by ballots rather than bullets. This is not a matter of what the President does wrong but to preserve a peaceful transmission of power from generation to generation.

Secondly, there are people who disrespectfully insult the president. I think people who act like that don’t have knowledge about where we started and where we are today. President Kiir deserves respect no matter what he does wrong. He fought for this country without reservation until we got our independence and some of those who abuse him have not suffered like him. His moderate education became a big deal to those who don’t think he has enough education. Yes, he only has moderate education because he invested his time in the liberation of this country.

I’m also disappointed with folks who insult the president of the republic of South Sudan in the worldwide media. This is absolutely disgraceful to the country and its people. I am not supporting him anymore because he and Riek Machar are responsible for the killing of innocent civilians and the destruction in my region of Greater Upper Nile. However; he still deserves my respect and I profoundly disagree with the people who disrespectfully insult him. We all know that the President is a human being and that humans can commit mistakes anytime; plus the fact that people who are surrounding him have contributed to this mess.

Thirdly, there are people who have asked the president to step down. This is wrong.  Instead, we should all rally behind him and condemn the forces who want to overthrow him by force. Remember that if we let this government get overthrown by force, it will become common and we will forget about a peaceful transition of power, which means, we will always shed blood. People asking him to step down are setting a bad precedent. However, a good idea is to ask him not to run in the 2015 presidential race so as to allow a new people to run then.

Fourthly, I would love the president to order a tour for the accused detainees in the towns devastated by the rebels to see if this is the change they want.

Fifthly, I’m advising Dr. Riek Machar and his supporters to end the war and sign a peace agreement with the government. War is taking us nowhere but peace is our first priority that we need right now and later. Also, Riek needs to renounce his vision for president because he has failed terribly after his forces killed innocent civilians, destroyed property, committed horrible things, and
unspeakable acts which are extreme violations of human rights. This is a huge
shame on him and his forces and it will be absolutely a good idea for him not
to run for president in 2015.

Sixthly, in 1983, the Khoryom division mainly from greater Bor community, were the first recruits who initiated the war with Khartoum. About 80% of them are killed. This has a long term effect upon the greater Bor community in terms of human growth. If the Khoryom forces were mixed with other recruits from other regions or tribes, Greater Bor would not have incurred these losses. With that experience in mind, I urge the Jonglei state’s politicians whose youths are the target of the current crisis to think twice before they persuade their youths for recruitment.

Seventh and final, since some Nuer are extremely in need of POWER, I’m sincerely advising Nuer’s politicians to set down, scrutinize, and recommend logical and violent free individual from Nuer community to run for 2015 presidential race. Someone who would precisely convince South Sudanese how he wants to change the country. Someone if elected would rebuild Nuer legacy and trust from other South Sudanese. Someone who would plants the seeds of unity among the Nuer themselves and the country as a whole. Nuer must know for any cause, there is no way Dr. Riek would bring them a title of President. NO WAY, NO WAY, and NO WAY other than military force which will take many lives!!!!!!! Please accept my advice without denying this fact. 

He is reachable at danielachiek@hotmail.com

By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Saturday, 8 February 2014

Widespread looting in South Sudan’s strategic towns has been reported by the United Nations mission in the country, officials said Friday.

Peacekeepers found that the key town of Bor, which has changed hands several times in the conflict between government forces and rebels, had been looted, while the northeastern oil town of Malakal was “deserted and generally quiet,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Had told reporters.

“Yesterday, a mission patrol observed that looting in most parts of the town appears to have been widespread,” Haq said, adding that peacekeepers “noted population movements in the center of the town but residential areas were largely empty.”

Amid intense battles between government forces and rebels, tens of thousands of people have fled Bor and surrounding villages, preferring to take their chances against crocodiles in the White Nile and sniper fire from its banks rather than stay in town.

After the country erupted into conflict on Dec. 15, both towns have been the scene of heavy clashes between the South Sudanese army, loyal to President Salva Kiir, and fighters who back his former vice president Riek Machar.

Kiir dubbed the unrest a “coup attempt” by Machar, whom he sacked in July.

According to the latest U.N. figures, 738,000 civilians have fled their homes because of the fighting but remained in South Sudan, while 130,400 left for neighboring countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda.

(With AFP)

“Popular culture is a place where pity is called compassion, flattery is called love, propaganda is called knowledge, tension is called peace, gossip is called news, and auto-tune is called singing.”Criss Jami 

The article titled “The Union of Jonglei Communities in the USA Wants Interim Government in South Sudan; Criticizes Ugandan Military Intervention” appeared on both South Sudan News Agency and Gurtong websites on February 7^th, and 8^th respectively. The authors of this article did not identify themselves authentically except for the name of Union of Jonglei Communities in the USA, and identification seems to be intentional omission.

Jonglei State comprises of six communities which includes Jie, Kachipo, Anyuak, Dinka, Nuer and Murle. Until this article popped up in the news, there existed no such association called Union of Jonglei Communities in USA. As a part and parcel of Jonglei, the Bor County or Dinka Bor in Jonglei was neither notified nor involved in any contribution to such propaganda. The authentication of the article is questioned by itself. There is no indication of when, where, or how that meeting took place.

We want to let South Sudanese, Africa and the whole world know that this article is a product of Riek Machar and the White army Shareholders propaganda machine in the USA and South Sudan. We are urging the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), African Union (AU), and the Troika countries (UK, Norway, and U.S.) and all our friends involving in the peace process in Addis Ababa to ignore the voices of evil in all forms or colors they may appear. There are many statements poured into this articles that make it obviously known who the author(s) may be. This is a voice of those who cannot wait to get to the power by peaceful means.

We have not called for an interim administration in the Republic of South Sudan. We have not called for Ugandan troops’ withdrawal nor have we condemned them. The decision to form an interim administration or Ugandan troop’s withdrawal in South Sudan will be up to the government.

The propagandists, however, stated that Uganda troops have bombed Bor, Jonglei to ashes. Such statements are the reasons the above quotes is very important. It’s true that flattery is called love, propaganda is called knowledge, killing is called democracy, and gossip is called news in Riek Machar’s circle. The popular culture of Riek Machar and his supporters is that killing of the innocents is an honor and propaganda is the evidence of democracy. We are from Bor and we have people presently in Bor. There is no evidence of aerial bombardment destruction. The White army is seeking another party to blame for Bor destruction but there are the ones who burned down Bor and the surrounding villages to ashes. They did the same destructions in 1991; it’s a part of their pride. What a people? What a democracy?

The ironic thing about that article is that they are complaining of Kiir not providing them with protection for nine years. Who is causing insecurity in Jonglei? Has been any external attack or other state attack against Jonglei people? No, it’s the same war mongers who are creating insecurity to themselves.

We want to let the public know that such statements are coming from the children of darkness who want to forge well as Union of Jonglei Communities although there’s no such an organization. We need genuine peace and progress in South Sudan, but removing the government in violent manner will bring even worse disasters.

Calling for USA to Provide Clear Peace Strategy

It’s now obvious and imperative to conclude that it’s difficult to find way forward in Abyei and border issues due to the lack of solution on the part of the USA government. The current USA government has never has any concrete policy toward Sudan and South Sudan like the previous administration. Bush Administration commitment to ending civil war in Sudan was fruitful because that administration set a clear strategy. On the other hand, the current strategy has been shaky or weak at its best if there’s any at all. The same thing seems to repeat itself in the current political turmoil in the country.

Obama administration is playing two cards: being the impartial support for peace and at the same time supporting the rebel leader as an icon of democracy. President John F. Kennedy once said,“No matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the truth.” Riek Machar instigated tribal target killing, raping, abducting and destruction of properties in 1991 killing thousands of people in the name of democracy. He is currently repeating that tribal based killing again in the 2013-2014 in name of democracy and he is being believed by Obama administration.

I have not heard of any ethnic killer since the Rwanda’s genocide than Riek Machar, but he is repeating the lies on every microphone and camera, so he is being regarded as trustful man. The most frustrating thing is seeing people like American President supporting the rebellion that killing the innocent civilians who know nothing about the function of the government as a sign of democratic struggle.

When this unfortunate incidence happened in the mid-December, the government went on the news and announced that it was a coup attempted by Riek and his group. There was a brief silence before Adwok Nyaba and Riek broke their silence saying that it was not a coup. After Riek denial of the coup and the declaration of rebellion, American joined the bandwagon that it wasn’t a coup without clear investigation or elaboration.

During the first phase of Peace talk in Addis Ababa, Riek Machar demanded that the prisoners be released or else they can’t talk while the government maintained that no preconditions for the peace talk. American government got entertained with idea and started calling for their release. Since when did Obama stop criminal investigations that go on here in the USA and demanding the release of the prisoners without the due process of the law?  Being a third world the newest nation with the weakest system in the world does not warrant bypassing or violating the laws of that land.

Last week Riek spokesperson went on the media and announced that the presence of Uganda troops will derail peace process, and of course the US government ears were tingling while patiently waiting for the rebel statement. Obama administration got entertaining again calling for withdrawal of foreign troops in Southern Sudan. The one thing Obama administration failed to understand is that foreign troops include UN troops who were authorized in the United Nation with American support. They will be withdrawn if US passed the resolution for withdrawal in the UN. They were invited by South Sudan government too to keep law and order in the country. They themselves are being accused of failing to execute their mandate in the country and interfering in the internal affair as well.

Our question is that does American government know how much people look to them for leadership in the world? If so, then there should be a clear and consistent strategy that is nonpartisan, but peace bond solution. We really failed to understand the message US wants to convey by calling for withdrawal of foreign troops. We are sure that the US is calling for Uganda troops’ withdrawal because the rebels are demanding it. Should US entertain that notion and hoping that the peaceful resolution will pop up in Addis Ababa without more bloodshed? we doubt it. The rebels are crying obviously for the ways to continue with their destructive campaign and possibly forceful takeover of the government which is limited by Uganda troops now. we would think the response of any responsible government or party would be to keep the troops for now until concrete steps for peace are realized. If US government is really sickened by Kiir leadership as their behaviors suggested, they should work for peaceful solution that would guarantee free and fair electoral process in 2015, but not submitting to rebel
pressure of taking over the government at this hour. The recipe for that would be enormous. We believe solution to Abyei case would have been found if there was a clear and a consist strategy. The same thing will happen in this crisis. It’s going to get worse if there is no change of direction in American leadership.  

By Sarah Crowe
UNICEF

With large-scale displacement and insecurity in South Sudan, many children have been separated from their families and their communities. Bringing them back together is a major challenge, but the efforts of UNICEF and its partners are making it possible.

JUBA, South Sudan, 14 February 2014 – Far from home, in the company of strangers who speak a language they do not know, a small group of boys and girls play in the dust of the Juba child welfare centre. They are among hundreds of children lost or unaccompanied in the chaos of intense fighting in South Sudan.

Government forces rescued these children in the town of Bor, Jonglei state, around 200 km to the north, and brought them to Juba. Nobody here knows their names or exact ages. The children speak little Arabic. Some speak Murle, a minority language. Most say nothing.

“We brought them here. They were miserable – they have been suffering a lot. It was really very bad – they are totally traumatized and sick. They didn't know even what to do, that's why the social workers here worked very hard to bring them up to this level that you see them now,” says Bishop Martin Moga, Director of Child Welfare for Central Equatoria state. “Through the help of UNICEF, our partner, we care for the children, we give them medication, food and clothes. They receive a good bath, and they sleep well.”

Tracing system

Tracing their stories and their families is an uphill battle at a time when more than 700,000 South Sudanese have been displaced inside the country, and nearly 150,000 have fled to neighbouring countries.

Although a cessation of hostilities agreement was signed on 23 January, many families are still afraid to return home. Around 75,000 people have taken shelter in bases of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. In Juba alone, 245 children have been registered as separated from their families and unaccompanied by an adult.

The humanitarian needs are dire in South Sudan, and aid agencies have been severely restricted in getting help to those in need. So far, UNICEF has been able to reach just 300,000 of the internally displaced — fewer than half the total. Huge funding gaps, widespread looting of supplies, and the lack of access to affected areas all play havoc with getting help to children and families. 

At the centre, UNICEF and partner organization Nonviolent Peaceforce have set up a family tracing system to reunite families like 29-year-old Nyawal Ruach, from Bor, who was delighted to have found her two young sons through the centre.

“There was a big tank shooting where we were staying. I tied my children together so that they would not be separated,” she says. “Then I went to the house to get my newborn baby and some clothes, and in that time these two boys ran away, following those who were running away. My husband is still missing. But thanks to these people here at the centre, I at least have my children back.”

A matter of time

The biggest concern for child protection groups and UNICEF is that while their families are searching for them, unaccompanied children can be trafficked, abused, illegally adopted or taken out of the country.

“In a delicate period like this, we've learnt from all the emergencies all over the world that the one things that we shouldn't do is to take those children out of their community, out of this country,” says Cornelius Williams, Regional Child Protection Advisor for Eastern and

Southern Africa. “This would break the links of those children with their communities, and if we find their families, even their extended families, then the children are gone too. This is a state that has laws, that governs how you move children.”

Despite the continuing risks, Mr. Williams is confident that children and families can be reunited.

“It is just a matter of time, with the cessation of hostilities, with the work that we are doing,” he says. “Most of these children will be back in their families.”