Majak Agot calls for calm over Juba church attack on Rebecca Nyandeng
December 19, 2015 (JUBA) – A senior leader of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Majak Agot, has called on the people of greater Dinka Bor community in general and his Twic clan in particular to exercise calm over the recent abusive attack on Rebecca Nyandeng, widow of the founder of the SPLM, John Garang de Mabior, in a church in Juba.
Nyandeng was disrespectfully insulted only two days after her return to the national capital, Juba, from Nairobi, Kenya, where she had been in exile for two years following the eruption of the war on 15 December 2015.
Due to her condemnation of the war, blaming it on the South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir, whom she accused of dictatorship and massacre of thousands of members of the Nuer ethnic group in Juba by his presidential guards, she was criticized by those who disapproved of her stance.
A woman, who allegedly hails from Dinka Bor county, uttered insults at Nyandeng while on attendance of a church service at Emmanuel Jieng Parish church in Juba, and reportedly approached her with the intention to slap her before she was restrained by other church leaders and members.
The attack also prompted reactions from members of the Twic East community, where she and her late husband hail, with those mainly in the diaspora publishing condemnation articles in the media, describing it as an attack on Twic East community in general by the Bor community of Bor county.
However, on Saturday, Agot, who was deputy minister for defense and veterans affairs before the country’s crisis, appealed to the people of the three greater Bor community of Bor, Twic East and Duk counties to let go the anger generated by the attack on Nyandeng.
Agot, who was accompanying Nyandeng to the church when the insults were uttered at her, confirmed the incident which he said he witnessed despite attempts by some quarters to bury the truth of what transpired in the church, but added the incident was a normal occurrence in the culture of politics in the country.
“I know there are some people here in this country who do not want the truth to be said but we have to break that circle and try to be honest to our people,” Agot told his community gathering at Kush Resort during Duk County fundraising ceremony on Friday in Juba.
“In politics 10 people may like you whereas other 10 people will not like you and that is politics,” a Juba-based The Nation Mirror quoted him as saying on Friday.
Agot, who is a member of the 10-person group known as the ‘former detainees’ who together returned to Juba with Nyandeng last month however said the incident was bad because it happened inside a church.
The recent appeal by the political leader from the greater Dinka community came as the church incident seemed to have continued to linger in the minds of those who condemned it.
Nyandeng is being blamed by a section of her Bor community for being vocal about the weaknesses of president Salva Kiir’s government and for allowing her eldest son, Mabior Garang, to join the armed opposition faction led by former vice-president, Riek Machar.
(ST)