South Sudanese lay down arms to end clashes

Aug 21, 2006 (AKOBO) — More than 1,200 rusted Kalashnikovs and machine guns were laid out on a football pitch in Akobo, southeast Sudan on Monday, raising hopes that clashes that killed hundreds of people earlier this year will end.

The peaceful civilian disarmament was the first of its kind in a former flashpoint of tribal violence in south Sudan where a January 2005 peace deal ended more than two decades of civil war.

“We have now brought peace for ourselves,” said Moses Duov, a striking figure covered in blue and white clay and wearing a brown wig.

And civilians have begun to see the benefits of disarming in the new era of peace, with trade routes opening up the remote outpost on the Sudan-Ethiopia border.

“For the first time since the beginning of the civil war, a barge carrying people and goods from Malakal recently arrived at Akobo opening up this route,” a U.N. statement said.

Many of the guns laid out on Akobo’s luscious green, if potholed, football pitch seem not to have been used for years. But during Africa’s longest civil war, people used what they could to defend themselves and their livelihoods — cattle.

“These guns are used and have been used and if you look around these are the type of guns everyone is carrying,” said Nicolas Avril from the PACT non-governmental organisation which specialises in development and will work in Akobo.

The north-south war killed 2 million and forced more than 4 million people to flee their homes. With peace, hundreds of thousands have begun to return.

Walking through Akobo’s fertile ground covered with shrubs it is easy to imagine why this area was so bitterly contested during the war. Sudan is mostly desert.

But returnees found even in peace the rule of the gun still prevailed as tribes took up arms in self defence against raids by neighbouring tribes during the famines endured by the war-torn south.

West of Akobo, near the regional capital Malakal, the former southern rebels who now dominate southern government — the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) — began disarming civilians by force.

That along with militia clashes and tribal fighting killed hundreds of people and 300 SPLA soldiers in April this year. With no U.N. presence in the area it went unnoticed save for the efforts of one small arms expert David Lochhead.

Lochhead realised that local tribes wanted to disarm and embrace peace but were worried that as they laid down their weapons ahead of their neighbours they were vulnerable to attack.

He along with local leaders arranged disarmament and the arrival of around 30 U.N. peacekeepers, which inspired some feeling of safety among the residents.

The deputy head of the U.N. mission in Sudan, Taye Zerihoun, said the peaceful and voluntary nature of the disarmament was unprecedented.

“The example you set needs to be emulated across the region,” he told the people of Akobo. It was unclear what would happen to the arms. They would likely be stockpiled, U.N. officials said.

But while Akobo resident Duov said civilians had no more guns, local officials said there were still hundreds more to be collected.

“We hope this is just the beginning,” said Lochhead.

(Reuters)