Dinka-Bor relocation: Will history forgive and forget?
By Mayom Bul Atem*
Dec 12, 2005 — In the 1950s to 1970s, history has it that Dinka-Bor community was instrumental in the southern cause for freedom during Any Nya One revolution. The most common faces southerners could think of are those of Abel Alier and the late Dr. John Garang. Even so, Dinka Bor still remember the year in the 60s when their prominent chiefs, such as those of Ajang Duot, Jogaak Deng etc, were executed due to their alliance with Anya Nya One movement. To date that year is commemorated by the name it was given, that is, ruon de bany in Dinka or ?the year of the chiefs’ meaning the year in which the chiefs were executed by Khartoum’s regime.
When SPLM/A rebelled in 1983, one of the towns in which the mutiny started was Bor town while the late Kerubino Kuanyin Bol, the then commander of the mutineers passed through the whole Bor area on his way to Ethiopia. About a year later, words came that SPLM/A needed manpower to support its cause. Due to its proximity to SPLA/M base – Ethiopia – Jonglei State in general and Bor area in particular were the first to respond with a number of new recruits who voluntarily chose to go for military training. Upon graduation, the first big battalion named Koryom which was dominated by Jonglei State citizens was born. And for the first time, SPLA was more than determined to accomplish its mission. This was boosted by the reinforcement in which a big inflow of recruits from Bahr el Ghazal region of which the second large battalion, Mour Mour was trained and graduated. At that point, SPLM/A had gained a tremendous momentum!
It has to be recounted that Bor citizens became hosts to the new recruits who were either on their way to Ethiopia or back as an army ready to liberate Southern towns. Bor people continued to provide both material and moral support to Southerners, especially the SPLA forces without conditions attached.
However, the role of Jonglei State, especially Bor area, became history when the then President of Ethiopia, Mengistu Haile Mariam, was overthrown by the current Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, in 1991. In that year, SPLM/A bases were squashed and the morale of the movement was put in total jeopardy. The SPLM/A had to lobby other neighbouring countries such as Kenya and Uganda for access. This made the SPLA move to Equatoria due to its proximity with those two countries. However, the uncertainty of the future of SPLM/A prompted those without patience to defect, hence putting the entire region of South Sudan in a complete disarray. Spearheading the defection were our current vice president of South Sudan, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, together with his former mentor and the current GoS foreign minister, Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin!
The strategy our PhD holders and alleged saviours had employed was to plunder Bor area and wipe it out of human face. This was to debase the late SPLM/A leader, Dr. John Garang, who hailed from Bor and portray him as someone who has no one to support him. Like other missions of Dr. Riek, that mission was partially accomplished as the move emboldened Dr. John Garang. Of course the area was looted of livestock and any other portable properties. Majority of Bor area residents sought refuge in Equatoria region while only a handful of them dodged the hunt by Riek’s boys. The rest, of course, became the victims of 1991 massacre, which was orchestrated by Dr. Riek’s forces. It should be made clear that Bor population is small. Having massively contributed manpower, noticeably during Koryom that was later accompanied by large-scale mobilization of school age boys who later went to Ethiopia in 1987 and became the Red Army; Bor area became barren of strong men to protect it from external aggression. Those that remained were the elderly, children, disabled, women and a handful of soldiers who were on leave. Dr. Riek exploited this vulnerability and as things unfolded, nothing stopped him from overrunning the entire Bor area in 1991. That is how Bor citizens became the IDPs and found themselves in Equatoria which, was relatively calm due to presence of SPLA forces. So for those who did not know, Bor IDPs did not exile themselves in search of better places or intentional occupation, rather, their plight is something the second highest rank in the GoSS is accountable for!
The Equatorians have accommodated their Dinka brothers and sisters for a long time (more than 14 years now). But like in every community, there are always disagreements which, if addressed on time, there is always room to reach a settlement. The host communities especially those in Western Equatoria have a long history of feuds with their Dinka counterparts because the former are farmers while the latter are pastoralists with little farming practices. Most of the time, the host communities would complain about how their crops are destroyed by the IDPs’ cattle. At times, the IDPs complain of how their cattle are hijacked or rustled. Again like any case between brothers and sisters, a solution was always at hand and the two communities would go back to their normal lives. What puzzles majority of people at this juncture is the worthlessness of the 14 years the host communities have endured in accommodating the IDPs only to force them out when the repatriation is about to gain its momentum. It was hoped that Western Equatoria State (I will call it WES from now on) would continue to maintain its clean record of endurance until the IDPs safely get repatriated. Apparently, it appears as if all of that is dashed into oblivion!
THE AZANDE VERSUS DINKA and Moru versus Dinka which can collectively be said to be WES Equatoria people versus Dinka is not just about cattle. Those who hold onto this hollow premise are oblivious of the true scenario of events from the past all the way to the present. It is true that Moru and Zande people are peasants whose livelihood depends entirely on agricultural products. The Dinka on the other hand are pastoralists and farmers. So by virtue of being the host communities, anything that threatens the very epicenter of the Azande’s and Moru’s life deserves to be addressed with utmost urgency to determine whether or not the problem is strong enough to warrant a call for expulsion of the IDPs and Dinka in general. As someone who has lived before in areas held by SPLM/A, I could recall that whenever a problem arises between an IDP and a member of the host community, the SPLA personnel or the judicial system that has been set in place at that time sits down to determine the degree of the issue. If the defendant is found guilty, he is made to compensate the plaintiff and pay fines to the judicial committee. It is my sincere belief that whenever cattle destroy the peasant’s farm, the cattle owner is brought to justice and made to compensate the peasant. So far, I think that is how cases had been settled between IDP’s cattle owners and the host community’s farmers. Apparently, all Dinka IDPs and possibly those assigned there by SPLM/A are leaving WES. And for such a call to happen, I think that all possible avenues of settling the case were not exhausted. But let us look at the problem which is said to be the cattle that graze in the farms of Azande and Moru people.
First of all, there are fundamental questions that people should ask themselves about, if indeed they want to judge the situation fairly. The first question would be do all IDPs own cattle? If no, what approximate fraction of IDP population owns cattle and what percentage does not? The second question would be: if the problem is the cattle and their owners, would it not be justifiable to say that only the cattle along with their owners deserve to be forced out of WES leaving behind those who do not own cattle until the way is safe enough to get repatriated? Is it fair to lump all IDPs together as owners of cattle? Well the answer to the first question is an absolute NO. In fact majority of IDPs do not own cattle. The answer to the second question is that if fairness ruled, residents of WES would have been fair enough if they had made their case against cattle owners and not ALL IDPs including those who do not own cattle. So in my own mind, I am compelled to believe that the problem is not just the cattle. It is not just the cattle and their owners and if things turn out right, it will not be an issue between IDPs and WES. Rather, it is the Dinka people that are not needed in that state. It is understandably hard to spit out this feeling but it is not hard for others to connect the dots.
Even the recent skirmishes between the locals and SPLA soldiers in Yambio is attributed to Dinka IDPs and the blame lumped on Dinka tribe and not GoSS which miserably failed to curb the situation and control its forces. Fairness will never prevail for sure! And to add a little beef to that fairness saga, I have noticed from a number of contributors on both public and private discussion boards and websites complaining of how the IDPs killed the locals. They also denounce the destruction of the Moru-Azande’s farms by cattle. All that is fine and a sound mind would not talk about such feuds without mentioning such setbacks and atrocities. But what bothers me is when our contributors just shamelessly stop there without realizing that the Dinka IDPs are people who encountered a number of human casualties and property losses. A typical example is the recent feud between Moru and IDPs in Mundri of which the IDPs lost 14 lives and 55 others wounded. They also fail to mention the fact that whenever the IDP cattle camps are ready to leave WES, they are waylaid and their cattle taken by force. Need I mention the Yambio conflict? Yet no one mentions them every time they are ready to demonize the IDP community. But all of these fundamental prejudices and biases will judge us through history. Remember the title of this article!
ONE WOULD WONDER why I asked this rhetorical question. But through a critical analysis, one would come to realize that the answer to that simple question is not as simple as we think. Here is why I say so. What is happening in WES is a test of authority on the side of GoSS. GoSS’ response to the call of WES citizens in expelling Dinka IDPs sends a very chilling message to citizens of South Sudan. The fact that GoSS has succumbed to the demands of WES citizens serves as a recipe for other states to make similar calls, as they may demand for an immediate expulsion of those who do not belong there. And as GoSS has done to WES, it will have no grounds to block similar demands. Besides, it was quite disturbing to see GoSS enacting a constitution as the poor IDPs were forcefully relocated. Are the IDPs protected by the international laws and don’t they have constitutional rights to protection and freedom of movement in a country they wholeheartedly call theirs? Really lawyers should be prepared to sue GoSS for having violated the international rights of the IDPs as well as their constitutional rights!
All right, let’s say GoSS and WES citizens do not give a damn about the poor IDPs as is apparent in this particular case. But let’s try to put our human hearts into the issue and look at the situation as concerned citizens. As we speak, the route that these IDPs are scheduled to use is heavily mined, rendering it inaccessible by vehicles. The only option left – of course all choices are equally dangerous – is for these IDPs to drive their cattle on foot through the mined areas. Here, their fate and that of their cattle depend on sheer luck. But, usually God rescues those that are abandoned!
When I looked at pictures of children who are trekking on foot as a result of this forced relocation, I could not stop going as far as imagining how hard things are for the elderly, the widowed and the disabled who are also trekking their way home through the land mines. It is this thought that makes one conclude that people who are heading GoSS and that of WES are people with no human hearts for letting these categories of weak people walk on foot. And such memories will not fail to judge the south as history has it that the sons of the trekking elderly, the fathers of the exhausted children and husbands of the toiling widows shed their blood in the liberation of several towns in which they are being driven away. How disheartening would it be if these martyrs were to resurrect even for a day!
As the result of these events, do the IDPs feel let down? That is too simple to answer. But another issue that begs for answers is the fact that things did not reach such extreme measures during the leadership of Dr. John Garang. Pondering through this issue and many more, one does find it that the way things unfolded does not augur well with Dinka-Bor community, especially the IDPs for it leaves a lot to be desired on the effectiveness of Government of South Sudan. The unfolding of such events can make anyone guess what kind of message that is conveyed to Dinka-Bor as a community. And in my humble opinion, what is left now is for that very community to cordially receive the message or resist it.
All these elaborations lead us back to the question: Who between the GoSS and WES communities has the final say about IDPs relocation? In my view, it is the WES communities as they apparently dictate what is to be done, only to be obeyed by GoSS. Some people would say the move taken by GoSS was a good one because it was the only way of fostering a solution. But I say no because short-term solutions such as that of forced relocation only create more hatred among the communities. Besides, another glaring questions one ought to wonder about is how GoSS would react if Dinka Bor citizens decide to drive away outsiders from Jonglei citing what was done to them in WES. And what if all states choose to follow the footsteps of WES? Will GoSS keep being the commanded instead of being the commander or was the issue of WES accepted because those affected are from Bor? All eyes on GoSS!
ALL PEOPLE OF SOUTH SUDAN have been affected by war and majority of them are either IDPs or refugees. We all understand that repatriating such a massive number is the only long-term solution. But we need to redefine the modalities of repatriation so that we do not lose the sense of the word. First, GoSS and NGOs should be given ample time to prepare for the process. Ironically, it is surprising that countries that are hosting refugees are patiently waiting for security to return to Sudan and for basic services to be put in place before the full-scale repatriation takes place. Yet, our South Sudanese communities that are hosting IDPs can’t wait. Even Northerners appear to be more patient than their WES counterparts. In a nutshell, our nationhood and patriotism as southerners seem to be outdone by northerners and the neighbouring countries that are hosting refugees. Does this difference tell us a glimpse about the spirit of South Sudan nation (when it finally secedes) or will such spirit change for better or worse?
It should also be brought to the attention of none other than our number two man in the hierarchy of GoSS, Dr. Riek Machar, and his former mentor, Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin who masterminded the displacement of Dinka-Bor IDPs to Western Equatoria that the people they displaced are being driven home by force. It is expected that in their capacities, they would do their best to help the IDPs return home as a gesture of mending ties. Failure to do so or lack of such gesture is tantamount to a collective move by Bor citizens to put the duo in their black book forever!
* Mayom Bul Atem is a Sudanese based in Ottawa, Canada.