A Biased Flashback on SPLA Operations During the War

By Pal Pech

May 76, 2009 – SPLA, which stands for the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, and the military wing of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), commemorated its historic 26th anniversary in Juba on Tuesday, 26th May 2009. It was supposed to be conducted on 16th May. The author of this article has learnt that the day was postponed from 16th May to 26th May by the SPLM chairman and SPLA Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, to give time for a conference in Bentiu, Unity state, with kings and chiefs from all the ten states of South Sudan. It has been asserted in street gossips or rumors that Salva Kiir simply shifted the 16th May day to his own day of 26th May on which he joined the movement in 1983. It is not my concern here to confirm or deny this assertion or whether or not it is going to be corrected in the next year’s celebration, God willing.

Before I register my disappointment on the bias employed by the SPLA media in its new program to enlighten the public on how the liberation war started and was fought, let me however confirm that 16th May 1983 is the day on which the SPLM/A shot its first bullet after the 1955 – 1972 Anya-nya I war. This is also after another group of mutinied South Sudanese soldiers in Akobo under the command of the then 1st Lieutenant Vincent Kuany Latlor formed Anya-nya II with the objective of total independence for the South. This group mutinied after sensing that the Addis Ababa agreement was going to be dishonored and decided to rebel in 1975 and were the first to establish their base in Bilpam, which also became the SPLM/A headquarters in 1983 after merging with some of Anya-nya II group. This place called Bilpam (meaning ‘rocky hills’) in Nuer is on the Ethiopian side of the border but inhabited by the Ethiopian Nuer from Eastern Jikany section. The Anya-nya II group did not carry out any significant military operations but prioritized their contacts with their colleagues in government garrisons to join them and launch a war for independence.

The colleagues that later on joined those with battalions 105 and 104 formed the SPLM/A but instead wanted to fight for a socialist united New Sudan (see SPLM/A manifesto of 1983). However, the objective was later on changed to secular united democratic New Sudan in 1993. The SPLM/A war which took 21 years from 16th May 1983 to 9th January 2005 was started in Bor town, Jonglei state, by a mutinied South Sudanese soldiers of battalion 105 under the command of the then Major Kerubino Kwanyin Bol.

The cause of the war was initially a resistance by the South Sudanese soldiers stationed in Bor town whom the then central government in Khartoum wanted to suspiciously transfer to the North. They were part of the Anya-nya I soldiers who were integrated into the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) after the Addis Ababa agreement. This mutiny in Bor town was immediately followed by another mutiny of battalion 104 in Ayod by the then Captain William Nyuon Bany. Late Dr. John Garang de Mabior, who later on became the chairman of the movement was a colonel in the SAF military and stationed in Khartoum. Since the mutiny occurred in his home town, the General Headquarters dispatched him to quell the mutiny and convince the disgruntled soldiers in Bor town to remain loyal to the government. However, and for whatever reasons, late Garang later on decided to follow the forces which did not listen to his advice and were moving towards Ethiopia. I will not dwell now on how Garang became the chairman or what became of his relations with the Anya-nya II forces which he found in Bilpam.

The 26th May celebration in Juba was a colorful one. I congratulate the SPLA fighters for their sacrifices during the war and hope that they continue with the sacrifices until the South finally attains its lasting freedom or independence.

Coming to my theme of writing this article, I was however disappointed in the flashback programs displayed on SSTV a few days before and after the celebrations. This flashback programs, which I monitored closely, were conducted by the SPLA Head of Information and Civil-Military Relations, Colonel Malaak Ayuen Ajok. This Ayuen was very bias in his programs. In his few days programs he brought about four senior SPLA officers to enlighten viewers on the battles the SPLA fought during the bush war. All those four generals were from Dinka ethnic group, and particularly from Bor-Dinka clan. Why didn’t he bring at least two of them from other ethnic groups in the South to tell their stories about those battles?

Judging from how he presented the programs as he is also from Dinka ethnic group, you could sense that Ayuen did it deliberately to send some misleading messages. He wanted viewers to believe that the liberation struggle or its military battles were mostly fought by the Dinka soldiers or officers. He also wanted his handpicked clan officers to tell what he wanted the public to hear and to see Dinkas as liberators of others. This is misleading as the handpicked generals failed to tell most of the true stories about the battles and who fought which battle. Instead they just talked of officers who were their kith and kin among the forces that participated in the battles. I could not understand whether or not they just forgot officers from other ethnic groups who commanded forces to those battles and captured towns most of which they were talking about, but unfortunately gave credits to alien officers.

This is typical of the SPLA mentality during the war. Whenever a town is captured by a non-Dinka officer, late Garang would tell the officer who captured the town to either come back to rest or move to attack another town. He would install another officer from Dinka to take charge of the captured town before he visits the town. Then when he visits the town, the new officer in charge would officially be announced on Radio SPLA in Addis Ababa as the one who captured the town and also got promotion. That was immoral and disgusting and should not be repeated by the SPLA media in Juba.

The four Dinka generals, put in pairs on different programs by Ayuen sometimes contradicted themselves in the information they provided. And you could see that they reluctantly mentioned names of officers from other non-Dinka ethnic groups but talked more interestingly about Dinka officers some of whom were not even directly involved in the capture of towns. Ayuen also put mostly Dinka songs in the background of the video clips of the SPLA forces as if they were singing it in Dinka languages. You could see different battalions and even platoons of soldiers looking like Equatorians and Shilluk, singing in different languages, but audio cassettes in Dinka songs were being played in the background to mislead people that the soldiers were Dinka. Only one Nuer song was played in the background while none from other ethnic groups was played.

In such a biased program driven by desire to steal history from others or distort it, how would we avoid such influences of tribalism or build unity if we cannot show a national face or character? The SPLA Information Desk is copying the same racist Jallaba media of propaganda which did not want to talk about achievements by Southerners in Sudan. The SPLA is using the same tribal-based media to deny achievements by other tribes. The public cannot easily be deceived by such cheap propaganda. Instead the public is disappointed in such a national program turned tribal. A friend of mine from Equatoria phoned me and asked me if I was watching that “piece of nonsense” as he put it in his reference to Colonel Ayuen’s program. For how long should we continue to re-write our history, Colonel Malaak Ayuen Ajok?

If your program is about the capture of Nasir, Melut or Akobo from Jallaba forces, why not bring an officer who really participated in those battles from other tribes? If it is about the capture of Kajo-Kaji, Torit or Mundri, why not bring Equatorian officers who participated and so forth? Unity in diversity, remember! Some body like General Thomas Cirilo from Bari tribe or his junior colleagues who fought the battles at Juba airport would tell you how it happened. Since you did your program inside Juba, battles fought in and around Juba would have immediately come to your thoughts. What about the SPLA commander, Brigadier General Wang Chiok from Nuer tribe who directly commanded the forces that defeated the enemy capturing barrack after barrack and came closest to Juba town and assaulted Juba itself and almost captured Juba Bridge in the 90s. He is in Juba with you and would tell you how it actually happened instead of another non-participant burying his whole achievement, etc. You never mentioned any thing at all about the fierce battles fought by General Isaac Obote Mamur. You never even mentioned battles fought by General James Hoth Mai and even rarely mentioned General Oyai Deng Ajak, your Chief of Staff, while you talked a lot about General Bior Ajang (Bior Asuet). You just concentrated on Bor-Dinka officers, sir!

It was good that you brought in Lt. General Chagai Atem from Bor as your guess at the SSTV studio to tell you how Garang came from Khartoum to Bor town during the mutiny and how Kerubino Kwanyin Bol commanded the mutiny, but what about William Nyuon’s mutiny in Ayod? You did not bring in any body that was with William Nyuon to explain to the public how that happened.

Ayuen, you know very well that late Garang did not move to Ethiopia with the mutinied forces, but followed them afterwards. Did you know who took Garang to Ethiopia with his wife, Rebecca Nyandeng and their small son, Mabior? It was Jok Muon from Nuer. Somebody like Jok Muon or his family members that took late Dr. Garang safely up to Itang Refugee camp so that he did not get lost with his family on the way could also be appreciated and featured in your flashbacks on the mutiny. Do you know who fed late Garang’s family in Itang after they arrived? Ask Rebecca Nyandeng she will tell you it was somebody called Gatjiek. History is about telling the truth and nothing but the truth. You don’t need to burry the contributions about others if you want to tell to the public about what happened during your good program. You didn’t need to focus only on your kin and kith as the only history makers! Or are we going to moderate different SPLA TV and Radio history programs or write different history books based on mere pretense and tribal interests? And above all, let us not forget in our public programs to remind the public that the armed liberation war in South Sudan started officially in Torit in August 1955 (Anya-nya I), not recently in Akobo in 1975 (Anya-nya II) or in Bor in 1983 (SPLM/A).

Pal Pech is a concerned South Sudanese living in Juba. He is reachable at [email protected]