On the suspension of Sudan’s WES governor

By Charles B. Kisanga*

June 16, 2006 — People today learned the news from Juba with shock that, Lt. Gen. Salva Kiir, President of GoSS, had issued a decree suspending the WES Governor Col Patrick Zomai pending so called corruption investigation and result of the investigation into the intertribal clashes which occurred in Yambio and other WES towns between November 2005 to January 2006.

Governor Zomai who is currently in Juba has asked for calm and insists he is innocent as can be proven by everybody in Western Equatoria state and any investigation. The spontaneous classes in Yambio and other towns in Western Equatoria was an explosion waiting to happen due to the tension which had been building for sometimes between Dinka Bor Displaced Community and Western Equatoria local residents such as Moru and Azande. Further the Governor has no any corrupt dealing that can implicate him in anything and so he is an innocent man waiting to resume his duties as soon as the investigations are over.

Further for the investigation into the inert-tribal factional fighting in Western Equatoria, many of those sent with a Committee to investigate the clashes were those who had already taken sides against the Azande/Moru because of their hatred of the complains of those communities about their problems and as such their reports were mostly biased against the Community leaders of WES including the governor.

The people of Western Equatoria are calling for an impartial investigation which should cover and date back to the problems the people of Western Equatoria faced over years which led to final tribal clashes with the displaced people. At any rate whose who were just appointed then had no time to prepare and be fit for such incidents and they were targets as well as those who were in office before. The houses of Former commissioner Hon. Mary Biba as well as Hon. Samuel Abujohn were all burned down. Nobody ever compensated these victims and the burned hoses still stand there in their ruins. See below the picture of the burned house of Former Commissioner Hon. Mary Biba as she stands in the ruins of her burnt house.

Also according to a report over BBC network Africa today quoting GoSS representative, Col Patrick Zamoi was suspended as Governor over an allegation of corruption and was put under house arrest. But this is really an excuse to carry out the threat of suspension which had been on the lips of everybody since the report into the inter-factional fighting in Western Equatoria. Everybody knows how many ministers of GoSS who are very corrupt and stacking away millions of dollars yet none have been suspended over anything except the Governor of WES who might not have any access to that much cash any way. So the problem is if the Governor was suspended immediately after the inter-tribal fighting and the report of the investigation then it would cause a backlash in Western Equatoria state and so the authorities had been playing with time waiting to find suitable excuses which may not invoke any backlash.

Hence we in SPLM and GoSS should take time for reconciliation rather than trying to ignite fires and looking for retribution and dealing blows to leaders from tribes we dislike because people had misunderstanding and fights with each other in the past. Currently we need stability and we need to respect decisions of our people who chose a man like Col. Zomai to lead them during these difficulty eras of transferring a country from war to peace and it won’t help any person if we try to undermine the democratic process. Also this can lead to people losing confidence in the system and the party leading to more divisions and tensions.

I hope fair judgement would prevail here and we have to respect the decision of the President of the Government of the Southern Sudan.

* Eng Kisanga is Former Honourable member SPLM National Liberation council (Western Equatoria-Yambio) and currently Consultant Engineer living in exile in the UK. He can be reached at [email protected]