Bor massacre: in the name of democracy
“Garang didn’t like semblance of institutions of structures of democracy
within the Movement. He is interested in running the Movement as his
personal property.” -Riek Machar, “Sudan Massacre,” 1991
By Mading Ngor
August 28, 2007 — Calling for democracy in the SPLM/SPLA was the sorry mask the Nasir
Faction wore to justify their heinous, shameful, uncivilized, mindless,
genocidal and cruel massacre of August 28th, 1991 of which some say more
than five thousand civilians were killed. According to a journalist in the
“Sudan Massacre,” posted on
Youtube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZIT_g4FCV0, “It is impossible
to know how many people died. Some say more than 5000. Many ran from their
villages to hide in the swamp and were slaughtered there; some were
strangled, others were shot.”
But to me, both the initial phase of devastation and the aftermath of the
massacre are not to be underestimated.
The brunt of the Bor massacre might have been comparable to modern Darfur
killings in scale but don’t take my words for it. Perhaps time will tell
the exact magnitude and scale and only then will things heat up for Riek
Machar to stand trial in the Hague, alongside with Joseph Kony that Riek
Machar is pathetically mediating for the end of his doomed cause in
northern Uganda.
Riek Machar is just another human rights abuser masquerading as peace
mediator for another shady character – ancestors have mercy.
With my own eyes, leaving my village, around central Bor in 1991, walking
along the roads, I saw dead cows and humans lying on each side of the
road, no exaggeration, until I reached the end of Bor south (Pariang Abei)
without missing a sight of such an horror. In trying to make sense of the
phenomenon, some southern Sudanese scholars have in their books written of
a wide support the Nasir Faction garnered at its primordial conception in
1991. In their explanations, lost in the books, the (SPLM-Nasir) was
formed as a genuine Movement to redress what the breakaway faction saw as
increasing plunge into authoritarianism and autocracy in the SPLA/SPLM
under the chairmanship of the late Dr. John Garang.
Riek Machar charged that “Garang didn’t like semblance of institutions of
structures of democracy within the Movement. He is interested in running
the Movement as his personal property,” (Riek Machar, “Sudan Massacre,”
1991). Later on, the unnamed authors and their books went on, the Movement
splintered after many dissenters learned about the human rights fiasco in
Bor- far worst than the supposed monstrosity of the rival faction – SPLM
Torit they had predicted to remedy.
Despite overwhelming evidence recorded in video tapes, then Riek Machar
dismissed the killings in Bor as mere propaganda. In “Sudan Massacre,” he
is quoted as saying, “I cannot just say kill the Dinka Bor, no, not at
all. They’re using it as a human rights violation; am aware of that. I
think it’s propaganda.” He added: “We don’t love killing. It’s not a good
character. It’s not part of my description. Garang today has no troops. If
he had troops we would have been fighting here. Most of his troops are
wiped out in Bor. And anyone else who wants to fight knows that his fate
might be the same with those who were wiped out in Bor.”
Moreover, countering the rhetoric of the Nasir Faction warlord in “Sudan
Massacre,” Garang dwelt on forgiveness but declared that“Even if I forgive
them, they will be known in history as people who stabbed the Movement in
Southern Sudan in the back. They will be known as people who at the point
of victory when we were going to win in Juba, they stabbed us in the back.
The people of the Sudan will judge that.”
Sixteen years on, Riek Machar has continued to evade the eyes of the
so-called human rights organizations who seemingly are blind to the
atrocities Riek Machar and his Nasir Faction have committed in Bor and
elsewhere.
For those who would like to bury history, not everyone is amnesiac about
the past. In 1991 our people were brutally murdered in the name of
democracy; how best would one end than to repeat Garang’s utterance that
“Democracy had been so much beaten up these days that even the devil can
come and say he is a democrat and people will listen to him.”?
When Riek was in Bor recently, I was painfully reminded of the violence of
1991 when I saw the warlord Riek Machar (Sudan Tribune August 18th) being
greeted in Bor town, again on another stupid mission .
May justice be done and lest we forget!
*Mading Ngor is a journalism student in Canada. He can be contacted at
[email protected]
JOHN CHOL
Bor massacre: in the name of democracy
Mading, It’s touching and still very painful recalling the huge Dinka Bor masscring in 1991.I was no exception of the tragedy in 1991.I shared the same bush with dead bodies for a couple of weeks,and to be realistic enought,i would preferred smelling rottened human bodies than rotten cows.Sometimes,hyeanas would be attracted by the rotten human flesh into the same bush were i was staying in.
I had to climbed up the tree and spent my night at the farest peak branches leaving behind wild animals devouring on the corpses and kids.This situation did not applied to me alone but to all the innocent Dinka Bor children below and above my age.I have seen Kids being killed while suckling their dead mothers’breast.
Some were cleansed up by wild animals,some drowned into rivers while the rest died of hunger and diseses.90% of orphans children in Bor was but attributed to Riak Machar’s struggling for power in what Dr.Riak called ‘War democracy”.
Thousands of lads at first onset of their monthly period were raped,killed when refused,abducted and made wives.Young girls who were not riped enough for sex were sexual tools and casual donkeys (Labourers)for the soldiers.
Worse part of it is that,most of chidren(girl),who surved killing in exchange of sex, cannot be demobilized at the moment as they were intergrated into Nuer communities.They have lost their Dinka language and were given different names.
Infact,it was my childhood time when i needed alot of helps from my parents,and being that young,my parents,relatives and friends were entangled to death in the bush in which we were hiding, somewhere in Pariaak forest.I was abducted and forced to carry looted property by Riak Machar’s soldiers.
I was too young (11yrs old) that i could not lifted heavy lots that were confisicated from Bor homestaeds,lashes at the back and thigh,were order of my life,although i was very weak,tired and hungry and traumatized by the death of my parents and relatives.I had to obey their commands otherwise i would be killed too like my parents.
In God help,I managed to befriended,Galuak Chuol,a Bentiu Nuer high command,who was commanding Nuer soldiers’operation in Poktap,I became his servant and i grasped a chance to narrated to him about my parents’episode.
I pleaded for a releast and he advised to scape in the next atttack where applicable.I narrowly scaped when SPLA attacked and captured Poktap from Machar’s soldiers.I did know where i was going but thanks God i found my way out by hiding in the river at day time and trekked at night hours.With such shocking event,could Riak be my leader that I can cast a vote for him? I would rather die before i see Dr.Riak in Power(am not against Nuer as a community but strictly on Dr.Machar)
It was too barbaric and very uncouth enough for the so called Dr.Riek machar Teny to wage traditional war against Bor Dinka wiping out lives and resources of the poor civilian.Dinka ran into exile and displaced camps were they are known for everything bad as their lives got exposed.
When Mr.Riak addresses himself a “Doctor”, what does this have to mean? Just a paper title? even a poor illiterate citizen would know Dr.Machar went to school and graduate an idiot in his mastery.How could one killed old ages,children,pregnant mothers and disabled heroes and you still have no shame in leadership.Thousands of Dinka Bor girls were raped,entangled to death should they plead to be pardoned.
A civilized elite will understand that children are the true futuristic leaders of the country.Thanks God that Dinka Bor had seeds within and outside Sudan,who still lively recalled the most deterioting destruction in Bor.I wished Riak Machar could realized that action speaks louder than word,and here,he is but like a hollow tin that make noise to the Dinka Bor community.
Most of times,I felt frustrated especially during the time Riak Machar signed illigle treaties with his White Nile company to explore oil in Padak.Were the community chiefs not sound-minded,Riak would have owned the huge oil revenue alone and channelled it into his pocket through his well-known,corrupt GIPP Africa Co.The enormous barrels of oil in Bor constituted of blood of mass killing in 1991.Were on earth,can a killer lived to enjoy at the expense of his deed.Dinka Bor have had much tolerancy on such occurrencies however Riak should stop triggering for more sources of conflict.
The Jonglei state is the biggest state in the South sudan ten states.Most insecured state as civilian are armed.It was so amazing when Riak Machar came to Bor town,the headquarter for Jonglei state,calling on for civilian disarmamemt.The idea was dearly good but Riak should have understand that he armed the communities in Jonglei state especially the Lou Nuer,and his former allies Murle Militias to clear Bor in the struggle.Neverthless,although forceful disarmament is done by the government,the situation will never changed unless Riak tells GOSS how many guns he issued to the communities during his democratic war.If guns are to be collected,Dr.Riak must present to the GOSS the spreadsheet detailing the number of weapons he expected to have been owned by the communities through his effort,less disarmament wouldn’t work effectively.
Lastly but not the least,I would like to inform my colleagues south sudanese that there shall be no peace at all in uganda as long as Dr.Riak continue to be the mediator.This is because Riak gained little fame in his leadership from everybody else in Uganda.It is quite complex to understand how Dr.Machar,who had been providing arms from the Khartoum government to the Rebel in Uganda,had just emerged to be a peace mediator.Riak Who is a great killer in his country will not gain respect from other country as the say goes,charity begins at home.Dr.Riek,What a shameful leader!
War remains must lived to tell the story though majority have died.
John Chol is a Southern Sudanese,who had been a refugee in East Africa,and currently living in Bor Town
Bob Tata
Our deep wounds are still bleeding and hurting as well so, stop nonsense and find the way to heal them
Hi Mading and John Chol
I read your articles concerning the alleged Bor massacre: in the name of democracy, and I was really shocked by the magnitude of tribalism -based hatred you have revealed!! Thus I have decided to ask both of you some few questions as I have got no time to waste talking about nonsense accusations that are just driven by tribalism and ignorance !! Question for Mading: how many Neur and other people from different tribes of Southern Sudan were massacred by SPLA under the command of the traitor and detector Garang ? What happened to people of Gan Jaak of western Neur in the early eighties (1980s)? Do you really know the location of Itang , the tribes who live there and the prices they paid to SPLA ?
Finally I would like to inform you that our country is not yet liberated as you seem to be overexcited and believe it is and that we are still struggling because the Garang‘s CPA that brought you to power can be easily dishonoured by northerners just like they did to the Addis Ababa agreement of Anya nya one movement !! So, to me the time is not yet appropriate to bring onto the surface those deep wounds that are still hurting every single south Sudanese as we are speaking! Each of us has her/his past and if we will continue to remind ourselves about them I am afraid our country will be worse even than Somalia, the only way out in my opinion is to forget even if not to forgive !!
I am telling you this because you are behaving as conquer s or champions but what I know is that you have reached the power that you are abusing now through the peace deal so, you better think carefully about your destiny or fate once the Arab in North dishonoured your CPA, think about who will be willing to fight a long side you again once your hidden agenda have been discovered , so if you are really wise as you implied when you called those of Dr de machar mindless !! You would have realised that you need where to put your bottoms once you are kicked out of the power by NCP! For John Chol I would like to advise you to read some story books about Neur – Dinka conflict and I hope you will learn a lot from there !
BY Bol Thourmuck a Biotechnologist who work and live in the UK