South Sudan group responsible of Equatoria killing not LRA – Machar
By James Gatdet Dak
March 13, 2008 (JUBA) – The Vice-President of Southern Sudan government said that Ugandan rebels are not responsible for the killing of Sudanese people in Central Equatoria last month. He further said that a group of southerner with no any link to the SPLA soldiers are accountable of the violence.
The Vice President of the Government of Southern Sudan and Chief Mediator of the Ugandan peace talks, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, confirmed that the report of the investigations on last month’s killings of innocent civilians in Kajo-Kaji, Lanya and Yei Counties in Central Equatoria state revealed that the culprits were Southern Sudanese, not the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as previously thought.
Speaking at the joint session of the Governors and Speakers Forum in Juba on Thursday, Machar said a group calling itself “No Unit” from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) carried out the attacks on the civil population.
Machar said the group was contented with the situation because they were not organized into any SPLA unit.
The investigation was carried out by the Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Team (CHMT), led by SPLA Major General Wilson Deng Wek with membership of military officers from the governments of Uganda, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and LRA.
Machar also said that the SPLA commander in Western Equatoria state refuted allegations that the LRA was also responsible for killing of a police man in Nabanga in Western Equatoria state.
“Let us not lump up things which are local on LRA, otherwise this may grow without our knowledge.” “If it is us, let us face it and get a solution to it,” Machar advised.
He informed the Forum that the Ugandan peace talks was about to be concluded with the expected signing of a Final Peace Agreement at the end of the month and that the government needed to resolve the issue of this (No Unit) group or any other group that might want to destabilize the situation.
Earlier, the Governor of Central Equatoria state, Major General Clement Wani Konga, informed the joint Forum of the Governors and Speakers that the captured 14 of the culprits who carried out the attacks in his state’s Counties were identified to be from Southern Sudanese tribes: three Lokoyas, two Dinkas and nine Murles.
Machar also informed the Forum that his office is tasked with the responsibility to evacuate the Ambororo nomads from Southern Sudan states to their places of origin.
Ambororo nomads are pastoralists who are found across international borders in Congo, Niger, Chad and Sudan and in the last two years encroached into Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria regions in thousands.
A number of Governors raised security concern on the presence of the Ambororo nomads in Southern Sudan.
Machar said his office had already evacuated more than two hundred cattle camps of these Ambororos from Central and Western Equatoria states and were now moving towards Chad and Southern Kordufan.
(ST)