Gun culture hard to beat in south Sudan
November 24, 2008 (BOR, Jonglei state) — With bulging muscles oiled for battle and feathers fluttering proudly from their hair, towering Sudanese wrestlers leap high into the air to intimidate their opponents.
The fighters are fearsome, but this is just sport. Cheered by excited crowds, the young men prepare for a showdown to test their strength and show off to girls.
But in the remote and often lawless southern Sudan state of Jonglei, awash with guns, rival clashes all too often turn deadly.
Traditional hierarchies of authority were shaken by one of Africa’s longest civil wars and with an easy availability of AK-47 automatic rifles, many young men brought up in conflict take by force what they believe they deserve.
“After the 21 years of the civil war, a lot of arms went into the hands of civilians,” said state law enforcement minister Hussein Mar Nyuot.
“This is causing many problems with tribal conflicts, abducting children, cattle raiding, looting of property: we know you cannot have peace with so many arms around.”
Long years of war, little law enforcement and porous borders have seen Sudan flooded by up to 3.2 million guns, two thirds of which are held by civilians, according to the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project.
Some of the war’s heaviest battles were fought in Jonglei.
It was here that southern rebels took up arms against northern government troops in 1983 and Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, was the site of a notorious 1991 massacre following a rebel leadership split.
Like elsewhere in the south, authorities in Jonglei have launched several failed bids to disarm those with guns, be they ethnic groups or cattle herders who guard highly prized livestock that underpin much of daily life.
“Many are reluctant to surrender their weapons due to insecurity, and for the protection of their family and livestock,” warned Malick Ceesay, head of the UN peacekeeping team in Jonglei.
“People must have the confidence that if they give up their guns they and their property will be protected.”
Disarmament is seen as key to rebuilding the south, which in 2011 is scheduled to hold an historic referendum on whether to secede from the north, carving into two Africa’s largest country.
In the past, the north unleashed proxies and exploited ethnic rivalries by backing splinter militias distrustful of the mainstream southern leadership. Some fear that armed groups will again rise up in a bid to block independence.
“Endemic pastoralist violence is reaching dangerous levels and there are widespread suspicions of outside support for the perpetrators as part of efforts to scupper the fragile north-south peace process,” the Small Arms Survey warned this year.
But it’s a logistical nightmare to impose law and order in an isolated and swampy state, about the size of Austria and Switzerland combined only with limited mud roads, and those often impassable for months with heavy rains.
Without newspapers or FM radio stations, communication across vast rural areas to persuade often nomadic groups of the benefits of voluntary disarmament, depend on face-to-face contacts with community leaders.
“We have to do face-to-face talking, to persuade the elders… Take guns away from one group, and the other can take advantage,” Nyuot said.
Forcible disarmament has sparked a violent backlash in the past.
A 2006 campaign gathered in around 4,000 guns, but kicked off a rash of skirmishes in which more than 1,000 people died.
Some even broke into storehouses to steal weapons confiscated by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, the southern ex-rebels turned regular troops.
“People took the guns back and now people are armed like before,” said Nyuot.
Old grievances run deep. Traditional ethnic rivalries between multiple groups are exasperated by bitter enmities dating from the war. There are more than 60 different tribes across the south.
Many civilians argue that a total lack of government security and distrust of outsiders forces them to carry arms to protect themselves and their cattle, a traditional banking system used to pay debts and dowries.
Guns are cheap: an AK-47 can sell for as little as 50 dollars in Bor, according to the word on the street. A cow can fetch up to 1,000 dollars.
Authorities insist that efforts are being made to improve security.
“We have trained police officers and will send them out to every area,” said Colonel Ayur Deng Ayur, head of state police training, waving at the latest batch of 450 recruits, practising drill on a dusty parade square by the Nile.
“Now we have trained them to investigate crime at every level in all the counties,” he added.
The government also says efforts are being made to improve living standards in order to encourage people to surrender their guns, a gargantuan task in a region totally lacking in basic services.
“When you collect arms you have to give something back in return because they have got into the habit of carrying the guns to take things for themselves,” said Nyout.
“If we drill water holes, build schools and roads, deploy enough police and there are a few health clinics here and there, they will see the government is doing something for them.”
But outside Bor, just a few miles (kilometres) from the government offices, herders amble with a spear in one hand and a gun in the other.
“Guns are not the old way, but we cannot be without them if our enemies have them,” said cattle herder William Deng.
“We don’t need them in the town, but in the countryside, we must protect our cows and our families.”
(AFP)