Arm the Aliab or Disarm the Mundari

By Taban Abel Aguek

April 8, 2008 — The Aliab people of Yirol in Lakes State have again fallen victims of the government-ushered disarmament in the hands of their armed neighbors, Mundari. From last week until this Tuesday morning, the Mundari people of Central Equatoria have been launching a series of attacks on unarmed Aliab civilians of Bolok clan; that resulted in loss of lives and property.

The Government of South Sudan had issued a policy of mass disarmament of all the armed civilians but since inception its failures are far more dangerous than it cures.

The first major problem of disarmament and the real cause of current unrest in places like Aliab is the uneven collection of guns across the warring communities. As if the disarmament was confined to the Dinka alone, the tribes like Mundari hid in the armpits of their anti-Dinka leaders leaving them armed and therefore, giving them an upper hand over people, for years, they take as arch enemies. Moreover, the fact that the disarmament did not consider any compensation for arms that the civilians acquired using their own resources made the exercise a very difficult one; and at certain times the army had to use an extreme force, that actually resulted in loss of lives and properties, to have the people disarmed. The people of Aliab, though, stood so peculiar by choosing to surrender their arms voluntarily even when they knew of the impending danger from Mundari and Chieer tribes.

The Aliab are peace loving people but are poised to the crises they unheeded for as a result of power vested on others by possessing arms that in turn give an exclusive rights to its abusers to trample on the innocent.

In all the fights that Aliab people experienced, they have never attacked anyone in their own soil. And in all cases of the fights with Mundari, even before CPA, it is the Mundari that attacks the Aliab. And behind all these attacks are always cliques of Mundari leaders who act in an outright carelessness to prove that Mundari can defeat Dinka just to have it in the language of their choice. Years before the CPA, Gen. Clement Wani, the Governor of Central Equatoria who used to finance the ‘Aringa’ Mundari militias against the Aliab was branded the ”the bully of the Dinka”. It was a wrong statement that was ever uttered by the enemies of peace and those that were fighting against what they called ‘Dinka domination’. It is a paradox how this Dinka domination be fought in Aliab, which is just a little fraction of a large large Dinka.

So, wielding some newly found power and manhood through the absence of guns in the hands of Aliab, Clement Wani’s Mundari and its affiliates can now massacre their unarmed rivals with ease and without moral restraints. The Mundari are free people; free to disarm or not and therefore, why should one argue even when they say in our faces that ‘We the Mundari are now strong and you can not hide your strength’.

So strong that when the Dinka-Bor steal cows or kill a person from them, they don’t cross the river to revenge in Bor but simply turn on their near vulnerable neighbors. Thanks to the collection of guns.

From last year, the Aliab people have been prone to attacks and looting by the Mundari despite all the tentative attempts by Aliab to stay within their borders.

The Government of Lakes State, right from the time of the inter-clashes in Greater Rumbek and Yirol in 2005 succeeded to disarm most of its civilians. Aliab for one handed over their arms voluntarily in a move that was applauded by the Governor of Lakes State. Despite, the mayhem that befallen these innocent people the Government of Central Equatoria, which is studiously silent maintaining its ever complacency in containing disputes leaving it single-handedly in the hands of the Lakes State.

As long as Clement Wani continues to be the Governor of Equatoria and with the security matters getting thornier and thornier, the Aliab people will continue to treat the wounds of unfair justice despite the screams from antipathy to aesthetics.

The authorities of Central Equatoria including their home commissioners, at the time they say the ‘Mundari is now strong’ could only turn a deaf ear and a blind eye in disastrous acts that have an intention of placing the Mundari above others and get themselves enriched with Aliab cattle.

It is lucidly clear that being the people of a Governor of a State that hosts the seat of the Government of Southern Sudan, they similarly remain untouchable and disarming them is almost like surrendering them to the Dinka.

Enough is enough. Let the people of Aliab have the peace that they aspire for. Some cadres in Mundari may have changed to talk in the SPLM tongues but still have the bitter enmity and hatred of the Dinka in their hearts. A leopard does not change its spots.

But just a kind request: if the Central Equatoria State has failed to disarm its citizens then why should Lakes State give Aliab people back their guns so that they are able to defend themselves? I hope that sounds good.

Taban Abel Aguek works and writes from Rumbek Lakes State. He can be reached by [email protected]