Unemployed man attempts suicide at Radio Juba transmitter
April 10, 2007 (JUBA) — A middle aged man attempted to commit suicide on Monday 9 April morning when he climbed a 38-metre tower of the Southern Sudan Radio at Gunya area west of the broadcasting studio of Radio Juba.
Emmanuel Deng Ayii was reported to have climbed the transmitters’ tower on Sunday evening and was found sitting at the highest peak of the tower in the early hours of Monday by passers-by.
Several efforts were carried out by the security organs to convince Deng to come down from the tower but he did not want to listen to the crowd that gathered at the bottom of the transmitter appealing him to climb down. Two SPLA soldiers close Ayii tried to climb the tower in attempt to assure him that his grievances would be looked into, but the suicider did not adhere to, instead he continued to climb the tower to the top.
After a lengthy struggle to woo him to abandon his idea of committing the act of death by throwing himself from the top of the transmitter, Ayii threw an open letter to the First Vice-President and president of the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) demanding assistance.
Wrapped in a nylon plastic seen coming down from the suicider includes an open letter to the GOSS president, secondary school certificate and curriculum vitae. In his application, Ayii said he is an orphan, he has lost his father in the north-south war, was tortured by the then Islamic extremist security agents who castrated his genital organs by electric shock in Wau, Bahr al-Ghazal State, and their cattle looted. One of Ayii’s close relatives, who declined to be named, told Khartoum Monitor that the suicide attempter is sound-minded and comes from Warrap State and is searching for employment for the last 21 weeks in Juba.
Shortly, the presidential motorcade stormed the sites quickly responding to the event but surprisingly the GOSS vice-president, Dr Riek Machar Teny was seen emerging out of his private dark hardtop Toyota. Dr Teny talking from the bottom of the tower told Ayii, “Why do you want to kill yourself on Easter Monday? Please come down your grievances will be looked into without any reservations.
Upon hearing the GOSS vice-president’s willingness to solve his problems, Ayii decided to climb down the tower and was driven away by the vice-president. It was a very sad scenario without the councillors and clergy to counsel Ayii to drop his idea of committing suicide unlawfully.
(Khartoum Monitor)