Akobo massacre will never fade away
By Lero Odola*
March 16, 2008 — First of all and foremost I would like to express my genuine condolence to the children, grandchildren, relatives, and friends of Akobo massacre victims perpetrated by the Lou Nuer on March 13, 1983. All Akobo people remember this day. Unfriendly people may think that Akobo massacre is forgotten as it is masked by other ongoing conflicts locally, nationally, and globally. But the magnitude and its sour memory is still fresh in the minds and hearts of those who have lost loved ones as a result of such brutality. Also we should remember those who died in between in action or otherwise on the road to freedom.
The worse of it all is to imagine that Akobo massacre was committed by the Lou Nuer settlers who were granted passage to drink water in the dry season in Akobo. Regrettably, killing Anyuak people viciously, was biting the generous hand that had fed them for long time. They simply announced to the world that they dislike coexistence, though they talk of being friendly and marrying. The leftover of Akobo Anyuak people take this action seriously for their survival. Furthermore it is heartbreaking to mention that these human rights abuses have been planned and executed by Lou Nuer elites who have married Anyuak women. Some day they will be held accountable for genocide they inflicted on innocent children, elderly women and men in Akobo town and its surrounding. Is it legitimate in Lou Nuer culture to commit atrocities against host and in-laws? Is it part of the reason why that Lou territory runs with blood all the time? One elderly Nuer man had once said and I quote. “Lou Nuer people are like a fire that when there is no enough wood to burn it would consume itself”.
Those who are not familiar with Lou Nuer behavior may need further explanation of the quotation above. Described summarily: Lou Nuer is lawless, invasive against its neighbors and troublesome within itself. The author can provide more in-depth information. Nonetheless, the nongovernmental organizations that served in the Lou Nuer areas during Southern Sudan war to present, are the best eyewitnesses to this assertion. These are the facts that the Lou Nuer deny to paint good politics.
The Akobo massacre will remain outstanding until something is done. A probe will take place at the appropriate time to find the truth of the slaughter and many other hidden atrocities against the Anyuak people in Akobo County, Southern Sudan. Akobo massacre will never fade away without proper resolution. It was an ethnic cleansing told only by those who escaped what they saw themselves. It was a well-calculated, intended and implemented event using the Arab government machinery; an advantage while law and order was about to break down.
Today all the Anyuak of Akobo look forward to sitting at a table with the Lou Nuer in front of the Southern Sudan Government and third party to regain their land and dignity and then move on the road to development. The Lou Nuer administration in Akobo is nepotism and political burden at this time. Next time it will be the Southern Sudan Government to blame if it will be afraid to tell the Lou Nuer to vacate the Anyuak lands. The Anyuak of Akobo cannot be represented by settlers forever. The author views such action as a sharp socioeconomic, political, and ethnical deliberate assassination. Therefore, peace loving people worldwide must take notice of Akobo human rights abuses executed against the Anyuak people by the Lou Nuer.
*Lero Odola is Southern Sudanese advocate for tranquility and prosperity and he can be reached at: [email protected]