Equatorians and Nuer associations say SPLA is an army of land grabbing

Feb, 18, 2007 — The international community needs to be alerted about the imminent security threat in South Sudan. The SPLA army has currently positioned itself as an occupation force in South Sudan which is grabbing lands of Bari tribe in Central Equatoria State (CES) without any regard to the rule of law. The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has not changed the attitudes of jungle laws. The SPLA officers continue to take the laws into their own hands by grabbing lands in Juba town from farmers without approval from authorities. They depend on the barrel of the gun rather than going through bureaucratic procedures of acquiring plots of land.

The decision taken by the government of CES to evict the SPLA soldiers who occupied lands by the use of force unless they adhere to the deadline of Feb, 25th, is lauded by South Sudan public. Government officials have marked out 25 February as the last chance for “land grabbers” along a 25km stretch of the Juba-Yeti road to remove themselves, the Director General of Land Administration and Planning for Central Equatoria State Cornelius Goja said. Mr. Goja stated that “the state authorities took this up, the whole thing has become a security issue, and most of the citizens that were grabbing land were SPLA soldiers”.

The most frightening part of the problem is that the president of South Sudan, Lt. Gen. Salva Kiir, encourages the SPLA officers to grab lands as a form of compensation for their struggle of twenty two years. Most of the officers who grabbed lands as stated by the Director General of Land Administration of Central Equatoria State are from Dinka tribe, particularly from Greater Bahr el Ghazal where Salva Kiir hailed from. When the Minister of Land and Housing of the Government of South Sudan, Dr. Riek Machar, refused to give them permission to grab lands of Bari tribe, the Dinka militants within the SPLM party ordered the officers to ignore him and continue with land grabbing. The CES authorities have no choice but to intervene to protect the lands of their people from being occupied by force.

What the international community needs to know is the possibility of the outbreak of war in South Sudan on Feb, 25th, the last day of the deadline given to SPLA officers by the government of CES. The SPLA army is not composed of only Dinka, other tribes are also part of the force. Any attempt by the armed Dinka of the SPLA to refuse to leave will force the Bari and other Equatorian tribes of the SPLA to fight to defend the ancestral lands of the Bari. The Bari’s chiefs have been intimidated by the armed officers and they appealed to their children in the SPLA to defend them even if it would culminate into a civil war between the Dinkas and the rest of South Sudan tribes.

We call upon the Secretary General of the United Nations, H.E. Ban Ki-moon, to authorize UN forces in South Sudan to protect civilians from the SPLA should war breaks out on Feb, 25th. The situation in Juba is very grave and calls for emergency meeting of the Security Council to preclude any relapse of the South into chaos reminiscent of Somalia in the 1990s. The SPLA officers are determined to defy the deadline of CES government. One Brig. General said that “the SPLA officers have every right to take the land they want because they fought for twenty two years”. Others warned Bari’s chiefs that “not only that they would take any land they want but also any girl they like as compensation from Baris to the SPLA’s liberation of the South”.

All appeals to President Salva Kiir to order the SPLA officers to leave felt on deaf ears. The paramount chief of the Bari tribe, H.E. Dennis Daramolo, told the leadership of the undersigned communities by phone that “most of the grabbers were soldiers, and there are also some big officials from the Government of Southern Sudan”. H.E. Daramolo condemned “robbers from Salva Kiir’s tribe” as the ones behind the scheme of land grabbing. He further stated that “high ranking people have been given first class land without consultation, for example on the top of Jebel Kujur”. He said that the wife of Dr. Garang is also part of land grabbing since the Ministry of Transport headed by Minister Rebecca Garang had also been built without consultation of the community.

The SPLA mistreatment of civil population in South Sudan is extremely worrying and demands attention of the international leaders such as President George Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Putin. Peace in South Sudan is not consolidated firmly and issues like illegal land grabbing may result into undesirable conflicts. The SPLA army has no culture of respect for the rule of law and inalienable rights of civil population. It is an army that was indoctrinated to value the barrel of the gun as “the father, mother, employment, wife and the way to prosperity”. Now that the SPLM is controlling the South, the brutality of the jungle and inhuman doctrines of the past are manifesting themselves in different forms. Nothing will stop brutality since the leadership of the SPLM is even encouraging army officers to grab more lands without regard to interim constitution of the South.

We are deeply concerned that tribal militants of the SPLM have undue influence on President Kiir and pay no regard to international norms of the right to land. The Bari people need immediate help from international community to repossess their ancestral lands. International law obligates the U.S., U.K, the European Union and the UN to intervene so that the rights of indigenous Baris are respected. The SPLA occupation of lands in Juba is a clear and imminent danger to peace in the South as well as the region of the Horn of Africa.

Signed,

Dr. Luka Odiong, Chair of EPE

Mr. Victor Charles Adeba, Spokesman of ESI

Capt. John Gatluak Kam, President of UNCONA

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