Who and what is militia in South Sudan?

By Gatkuoth Deng

September 22, 2009 — In the dictionary I have found three definitions of the word ‘militia.’ Definition one: militia means an army of soldiers who are civilians but take military training and can serve full-time during emergencies. Definition two: militia means a reserve army that is not part of the regular armed forces but can be called up in an emergency. Definition three: militia means an unauthorized group of people who arm themselves and conduct quasi-military training.

The three above are the universal definitions of the word ‘militia’ according the dictionary. But what do the people, politicians and soldiers of South Sudan think about what ‘militia’ means to them? This has recently become an interesting topic to me because the word seems to be overused and abused beyond what it can actually mean. And this makes it more interesting when it is selectively used to mean a particular kind of people or tribe by those who always rush to name-calling and finger-pointing. This is also complicated by examining how militia groups can come into being either through internal or external influence and whether or not such groups can all qualify to be called militias.

This is also to avoid a similar name-calling of separatists and capitalists as ‘nyagat’ when those using the name don’t even know its meaning or origin. To those who speak the Ethiopian language Amharic, the word ‘nyagat’ came from the Amharic word ‘negade’ which translates ‘traders, business people or capitalists’ and therefore bourgeoisie, etc.. During the Marxist socialist Ethiopian regime of former President Mengistu Haile Mariam, capitalists were labeled with such names as bad people in the system he named ‘United New Socialist Ethiopia’. Mengistu was against separation of Eritrea from the rest of Ethiopia at the time. The SPLM/A copied the slogan and described the movement to be for ‘United New Socialist Sudan’ to be easily compatible with the hosting country’s system. You can see the SPLM/A Manifesto of 1983 for the readers who want to verify this. It also labeled its internal separatists as ‘nyagats’, which is capitalist and bourgeoisies.

This name-calling started in 1984. One commentator from the Dinka community who I can describe as somebody that tried his level best to be honest in a dishonest environment we live in said he used the insult against the Nuer but could not know the origin of the word. He said he “contemporarily” thought that it could mean somebody ‘traitor’ in Dinka language. I agree with him as I read people writing it as an insult. It is a pity that some people think they are insulting and others think they are being insulted by a word both sides did not know its meaning in the first place. This reminds me of a local traditional story that a Dinka and a Nuer quarreled over the fate of a wild meat when the Nuer said ‘babul’ and the Dinka said ‘banyop’. Both words mean to ‘roast’ the meat. They thought they differed over what to do with the meat while they were saying the same thing. Who is still against capitalists in the current SPLM/A of 2009?

Coming back to the main topic of the article, we can now examine what we can and cannot call militia in South Sudan in the light of the above three definitions as illustrated in the first paragraph. We should now go by the first definition that says “militia means an army of soldiers who are civilians but take military training and can serve full-time during emergencies.” This part of definition to my understanding explains that the group ‘militia forces’ are civilians that are militarily trained and can only be called up during emergencies. The second definition is similar but has added that militias are a “reserve army” that is detached from the regular army. These first two definitions imply that militias are part of a regular legal force some where. But who makes such a regular force legal somewhere is a different matter because even a rebel army can think of itself as legal body and can also have its own militias. But is a rebel army legal from the point of view of the government it rebelled from?

However, the most complicated definition of militias that seems to have confused a lot of the people of South Sudan and therefore needs a closer and rational look is the definition that says “militia means an unauthorized group of people who arm themselves and conduct quasi-military training.”

The word “unauthorized” is complicating! Who authorizes who in this situation and who should be eligible to be authorized? For instance, when the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) was established in 1983, it comprised of rebellious government forces that defected from both Bor and Ayod garrisons. These forces then joined up with the already rebelled Anya-nya II forces from Akobo and already established their base in Bilpam in 1975 under 1st Lt. Vincent Kwany Latjor. Bilpam later on became the main base or the General Headquarters (GHQs) of the SPLM/A in 1983. Were these forces of SPLA and Anya-nya II authorized, and if yes, by who? And if not authorized, could they fall under the definition number three of militias? Could this be the reason why the Sudan government had been calling the SPLA soldiers as militia forces or mercenaries fighting for external Western interests during the war even though the people of South Sudan see them as freedom fighters?

One could easily understand the political rhetoric of the former enemy, the Sudan government, preferring to call the SPLA as militias or mercenaries fighting for the interests of the West. However and interestingly, the same thing was copied and applied internally during the split of the same group, the SPLA that was in the first place said to be militias or mercenaries. One group rushed to pick the Sudan government’s name-calling and branded the other group as militias. The group went further by breaking down the other group they labeled as militias into ethnic groups and picked one ethnic group among them to be called the militias with the exclusion of their colleagues from other ethnicities.

Like the Sudan government that called the SPLA militias without giving itself an honest time to see the objective for which the SPLA broke away from the government and fought, that other group also rushed to call the other group that broke away to champion self-determination as militias fighting for the interests of Khartoum. A Western writer in 1992 wrote in denial of the name by saying “there is no any militia group attached to the government that can demand the right of self-determination from its government for the people the group represents.” I agree.

But if we go by the [mis]understanding that those of South Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM), under the current Vice President of GOSS, Bahr el Ghazal Group (BGG), under the leadership of late Kerubino Kwanyin Bol, Equatoria Defense Forces (EDF) under the leadership of the current GOSS Presidential Advisor Dr. Theophilus Ochang Lotti and Bor Group (BG) under the leadership of late Arok Thon Arok plus others were militia groups, then we would have equally carried that selected name without sparing certain ethnicities. However, the other SPLM/A group wanted to pick on the Nuer ethnic group alone to qualify for the name militias. That is interesting!

The same bias or discrimination is now repeating itself in the Jonglei madness. It is an open secret in the whole world that inter and intra-community fighting in the South has become widespread in almost every state in the ten South Sudan states. It has been called tribal wars over cattle rustling, competition over grazing lands and water points, retaliatory attacks and revenge killings, etc for all these years. To remind the readers, tribal wars in Jonglei between Nuer, Dinka, Murle and Anyuak, etc has been fought since time immemorial. The differences are in the increased scale and the modern weapons being used such as the Kalashnikovs unlike spears. Unfortunately, when it became the recent attack by Lou-Nuer on Twic East and Duk counties, irresponsible officials in the government did not hesitate to label it as Lou-Nuer militia attacks.

Yes, the Lou-Nuer civilians have since organized themselves into Jiech in Boor (White Army) similar to the youth Dinka civilians who have since organized themselves into Gel-Weng, so what is the difference? Their activities are all the same, attacking neighbors and looting cattle and UN bases every where in the South. The Mundari ethnic group has what they call ‘Commandos’, etc. So what is unique with the Lou-Nuer?

If the suspicion on Lou-Nuer is based on the presence of Dr. Riek Gai Kok in Khartoum, then a similar suspicion in Warrap, Jonglei and Lakes states armed civilian attacks should also be attached to Abel Alier, George Kongor, Professor Moses Machar, Bona Malual, etc who have been pro-NCP for all these years and directly served in collaboration with such a notorious political party. Some served as Vice Presidents under the notorious northern regimes fighting against the South for all those years. Why hypocrisy?

To me, this madness particularly in Jonglei is being facilitated by the tribal policies of Governor Kuol Manyang Juuk which fits tribe against tribe in the state. His recent uncalculated move by mobilizing and perhaps bribing the state MPs to remove the Assembly Speaker who is from Murle community and replacing him with another Dinka when he (Kuol) is also a Dinka has fueled mistrust and conflict between the communities. It is the SPLM’s known policy to promote equal ethnic representation in power distribution before the general elections. It is during the upcoming elections that the MPs can elect whoever they want and do away with the distribution of powers which is now the policy before the elections.

If the former Speaker of Jonglei State Legislative Assembly, Jodi Boyoris Jonglei was to be replaced for good reasons, then Kuol should have made it clear that only other contesters from the Murle community should replace him. If it is seen not to be necessary, he should have opted to give it to the Anyuak community that has no any important post among the current bigger positions in the state. Or he should have as well given it to other major Nuer clans in Jonglei state such as Gaawar, Laak and Thiang who have not benefited from such important positions in the state. For the minority Dinka alone to take both the position of the governor and that of the Assembly speaker in the state amounts to political greed. Until this political greed is eradicated from the ruling minority Dinka, Jonglei will remain mad and may even increase its madness. I hope Kuol Manyang will change his tactics!

Using NCP in the north as a scapegoat will not help the situation. Let us identify these internal devils. But if we prefer to describe these tribal fighting as “militia forces” under NCP’s external influence, then let us adopt it through out as a uniform description in all the states and should apply to all ethnic groups that carry out such violent activities.

This would mean that tribal fighting in Warrap, Lakes, Upper Nile and Jonglei states, etc are by militias. And that is Aguok-Dinka militias fighting against Luach-Dinka militias in Warrap state, Agar-Dinka militias fighting against Jur-beli militias in Lakes state, Lou-Nuer militias fighting against Nyarweng or Ngok-Dinka militias of Duk Padiet, Bor-Dinka militias killing SPLA officers inside Bor town, Aliab-Dinka militias fighting against Mundari militias, Bari militias fighting against Mundari militias in Central Equatoria, Toposa militias fighting against Dindinga militias in Eastern Equatoria, Murle militias fighting against Lou-Nuer militias, Bor-Dinka militias fighting against Lou-Nuer militias in Twic East county, Ngok-Dinka militias fighting against Shilluk militias in Upper Nile, etc. etc.

In Warrap state, according the media reports, heavy artilleries were used in fighting involving two Dinka clans. In Lakes state Agar-Dinka had recently attacked the SPLA convoy destroying a number of their vehicles using Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs). In Juba’s weapons search it is reported that even anti-air craft weapons plus RPGs, PKMs, etc., were found in the hands of civilians. So if the Lou-Nuer attackers used such type of weapons it should not be something new to any body. Some are supplied by certain SPLA officers to their communities. But if we prefer to call them militias sponsored by the NCP, it is fine and should be made a uniform description through out all the fighting communities in the South. My concern is that we may miss the real internal causes of such inter and intra-community fighting and might never resolve them if we choose to always blame them on the NCP in the North.

The author lives in USA and can be reached at: [email protected]